K-MEDI Hub (Daegu-Gyeongbuk Medical Innovation Foundation, Chairman Yang Jin-young) and Daewoong Pharmaceutical (CEOs Jeon Seung-ho and Lee Chang-jae) began joint research on the development of next-generation synthetic lethality anticancer drugs on the 28th.
This research is led by Han Min-woo, head of the Molecular Design Team at K-MEDI Hub’s New Drug Development Support Center, aiming for the successful development of synthetic lethality anticancer drugs by actively utilizing the new drug center’s infrastructure from the discovery of active substances to optimization.
K-MEDI Hub conducts various anticancer drug development studies and has experience in technology transfer of more than 12 anticancer substances until 2022.
Synthetic lethality anticancer drugs have recently attracted attention from global pharmaceutical companies.
Synthetic lethality refers to a phenomenon where the alteration, suppression, or expression of two or more genes induces cell death, whereas alteration of only one gene does not cause cell death.
Recently, it has been recognized as a technology for developing anticancer drugs that selectively kill cells with tumor gene mutations, drawing focused interest from global big pharma such as Gilead, GSK, and BMS.
The Molecular Design Team at K-MEDI Hub’s New Drug Development Support Center consists of experts conducting research on artificial intelligence model development and computer-aided drug discovery (CADD).
In this study, through in silico screening, the team plans to explore a big data compound library containing millions of compounds to find new drug scaffolds that can regulate the activity of target proteins and utilize various molecular modeling methods for optimization.
The Molecular Design Team has experience in new drug development research through collaborations with numerous universities, hospitals, and companies, with one representative achievement being the support of molecular design research in the early stages of developing the non-small cell lung cancer treatment “Lazertinib.”
Yang Jin-young, chairman of K-MEDI Hub, stated, “K-MEDI Hub is continuously striving to develop new drug development platforms using AI and to create visible new drug developments by utilizing them. Through future joint research, we will not only solidify our position as a leader in synthetic lethality anticancer drug development but also provide maximum support with K-MEDI Hub’s technological capabilities to ensure successful commercialization.”
K-MEDI Hub is a public institution under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, established in 2010 to foster the medical industry as a national next-generation growth engine industry.
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