Saltlux Establishes Bio Venture for Anti-Cancer Target Substance Research with Clinomics

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] Big data specialist Saltlux and next-generation genome analysis specialist Clinomics announced on the 29th that they held a signing ceremony on the 28th at Clinomics headquarters to establish the bio venture company ‘Geromics’.

They plan to mutually cooperate in major business areas such as ▲anticancer target substance discovery ▲drug repositioning ▲BIO-AI platform services. In the traditional pharmaceutical industry, new drug development is called a ‘lottery.’ This is because it requires enormous costs and time from candidate substance discovery to new drug development, and the success rate is very low, making it difficult to recover development costs. However, recently, movements to solve these problems by introducing AI technology have appeared worldwide.

Saltlux is a leading domestic AI company that has been preparing for the convergence of biotechnology and AI technology since 2019. In February, it officially entered the bio-health field by participating in Ulsan City’s genome service industry regulatory free zone project. Recently, Clinomics, which successfully completed the ‘Ten Thousand Genomes Project’ together with Ulsan Metropolitan City and UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) and established a Korean standard genome map, is cooperating to create synergy in research on anticancer new drug candidate substances.

The BIO-AI platform A.I.C.E (Artificial Intelligence Cell Engine, hereinafter ‘A.I.C.E’) is an integrated version of a data platform that can automatically collect, process, and search bio big data, and an ensemble AI platform combining knowledge graphs and deep learning. Saltlux is primarily responsible for this. Geromics plans to apply the big data and AI analysis platform A.I.C.E, developed to a commercial level, to shorten the discovery period of anticancer target substances and maximize efficiency by minimizing risks in developing customized immuno-oncology drugs. Additionally, by adding public data such as academic paper information related to bio, medical, and pharmaceutical fields and information sharing through collaboration within the bio-health industry, it plans to grow into an open and collaborative platform.

Lee Kyung-il, CEO of Saltlux, said, “The use of AI in new drug development will become the new normal in the post-COVID-19 era because it can drastically reduce the necessary costs and time.” He added, “Through presenting a new paradigm of AI-based new drug development, we will contribute not only to the development of the domestic pharmaceutical industry but also take the lead in realizing a global new drug development ecosystem.”