K-Medi Hub (Daegu-Gyeongbuk Medical Innovation Foundation) announced Thursday that it has been selected for a research and development project led by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and has begun developing next-generation anticancer drugs using artificial intelligence (AI).
The foundation will receive 2.2 billion won in funding over three years to develop next-generation blood cancer treatments, leveraging the technology of Arontier, a specialized firm with AI platform capabilities that will serve as the lead research institution.
In addition to K-Medi Hub's New Drug Development Center, the HLB Life Science Research Institute will also participate as a joint research institution.
Arontier plans to advance its structure-based AI drug development platform (AD3) by developing new algorithms for drug combination effect prediction and structure-based molecular optimization. Using this platform, the company will work to discover next-generation anticancer drug candidates targeting cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and FLT3 mutants.
K-Medi Hub will be responsible for optimizing anticancer active compounds and deriving candidate substances, while HLB Life Science will handle efficacy and toxicity evaluations using animal models.
"We will utilize the foundation's excellent full-cycle support system for new drug development to contribute to advancing the nation's AI technology and discovering innovative new drugs," K-Medi Hub Chairman Park Gu-sun said.
