AlphaGo will lead the development of new drugs

Hwa Jong Kim, the director of the Center for AI-based New Drug Development Facilitation

The director, Hwa Jong Kim

"The future vision of the Center for AI-based New Drug Development Facilitation is the development of a global first in class drug that combines artificial intelligence and medical data." For Hwa Jong Kim (62 years old, director), the direction of organizational management of the Center for AI-based New Drug Development Facilitation is to present a new technological innovation paradigm and create a success model in the pharmaceutical bio industry, the country's new future.

 

New drug development is an area of cutting-edge convergence technology that requires harmonious fusion of biology, chemistry, medicine, pharmacy, computer science, and business administration.

 

The director Kim was in charge of establishing the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) at Kangwon National University Hospital from 2007 to 2011, and is a leading figure who led the successful Ubiquitous business of the Gangwon Provincial Government during a similar period.

 

He is currently a professor of computer science at Kangwon National University and an adjunct professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

 

He is a top leader in the domestic convergence big data field.

 

The Center for AI-based New Drug Development Facilitation, launched in March of last year, has eight employees, including six developers and two administrative office workers.

 

In the near future, it is expected that it will finish the work of the foundation and successfully attract large-scale investments, including government and pharmaceutical bio companies.

 

He said, “The key to the future project is to explore first in class drug candidates based on government and institutional and open health care databases with the center as the focal point.

 

Although it is still difficult to disclose, the MOHW, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance are also showing great interest in the development of new AI drugs, and are expected to successfully attract national research funds.” The reason why the government is showing interest in new drug development projects using artificial intelligence is to achieve tangible and effective results.

 

Launched in March 2019, the Center for AI-based New Drug Development Facilitation provided practical training that combines deep learning and new drug development, and trainees experienced the substance discovery process with a personal laptop by accessing the Google Colab cloud services.

 

Recently, 29 public databases have been downloaded to successfully organize similarity metrics for genes, drugs, and diseases.

 

Most notably, the Center conducted convergence research among AI program developers, pharmaceutical companies, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, Social Security Information Service, the HIRA, the NHIS, Daegu Gyeongbuk Medical Innovation Foundation, Osong Medical Innovation Foundation, and research-oriented hospital.

 

Currently, the Center for AI-based New Drug Development Facilitation has formed a 'Artificial Intelligence New Drug Development Experts Association' with 25 pharmaceutical bio companies such as Hanmi, Daewoong, and SK Biopharm, and is conducting various brainstorming.

 

It is also noteworthy that some companies are showing rapid results that are entering the final stage of candidate selection.

 

The era in which artificial intelligence predicted by IT experts goes beyond human intelligence and recognizes and learns for itself is about the next 30 years.

 

Therefore, as A.I new drug development enters the stage of this transformation, the government, industry, and academia should prepare for future strategies.

 

In particular, in the United States, fast track is being applied to new drugs for artificial intelligence development for rare diseases, so Korea is also in need of actively responding to these system improvements.

 

He said, "We plan to do our best to develop organic and systematic AI drugs through network and communication by forming an industry-university alliance.

 

In addition, we are sharing various innovations with leading global companies and artificial intelligence conferences as well as open innovation research and cases.

 

We will do our best to provide the latest knowledge." Meanwhile, he has been consulting with the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and the Korea Communications Commission, and has published books on the introduction of data science and big data business.

 

Recently, LG Electronics, Korea Electric Power Corporation, LS Group, Doosan, and KB Financial are leading the cultivation of 'data scientists' necessary for corporate AI introduction and digital transformation of existing businesses.