The book The Age of Biopharmaceuticals, written by Prof. Howard Lee and Siun Kim, Ph.D. a student of CCADD, was selected in the liberal arts section of the Sejong Cultural Book Program this year. The Sejong Cultural Book Program is organized by the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea. This program aims to promote domestic publishing activities and to build a knowledge-based society by selecting outstanding books among those published throughout the year. The book worth 8 million Korean-won will be distributed to public libraries across the country. In 2020, 550 books were selected from a total of 7,184 candidates. The book The Age of Biopharmaceuticals is Coming was selected as an excellent book in the field of technology science. 

Besides, thanks to the interest of many readers, the book went into the second printing. An article reporting the publication appeared in the June issue of Newsletter, GSCST SNU.

Prof. Howard Lee has officially expressed strong disapproval of the reimbursement for 'cheobyak' or the mixture of herbal (or natural products-derived) drugs. In a roundtable provoked by the impending reimbursement decision of cheobyak by the Korea National Health Insurance Service against the objections by medical and scientific societies altogether, Prof. Lee raised intense disagreement with the government policy to support reimbursement of cheobyak. Prof. Lee argued that cheobyak has never been shown to be efficacious and safe through scientific assessments by the regulatory agency such as the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in Korea, not to mention its uncertain quality as a medicine. He continued, discussing "The cost-effectiveness of any cheobyak has never been validly studied and confirmed, which is the minimal requirement for any drug approved and listed for health insurance reimbursement in Korea." 

A summary of Prof. Lee's presentation at the roundtable can be found in many newspaper articles, one example of which is here. Additionally, his full presentation has been uploaded to YouTube as seen below:        

In the afternoon of 22nd May, the members of CCADD went on a picnic to the Gwanggyo Lake Park. After completing a regular schedule in the morning such as lab meeting and book reading, all members left the lab with excitement.

To ensure social distancing in apprehension of the COVID-19 pandemic, CCADD opted for an outdoor picnic as team building rather than indoor activities such as bowling or movie-watching, and it turned much more fun! Upon arrival, they instantaneously regretted not to have more opportunities for the past 4 years or so to come to such a beautiful place just nearby with eye candy scenery and great decks for walking. The weather was also perfect, not too cool, not too warm.

After enjoying a chat while having To-Pi-Chi (Toppoki, Pizza and Chicken), a favorite food combination for all the CCADD members, they played a couple of fun games from Korean TV shows – which are ‘Shouting in the Silence’ and ‘Sketch Quiz’. They laughed a lot seeing funny moments during the games; it was truly a time for healing, refreshing, and team building!

Wrapping up the picnic in time just before it rained, they decided to come to the Gwanggyo Lake Park again soon and often.

CCADD has successfully assembled an interdisciplinary research team at SNU, interested in the application of AI to the development and optimal use of drugs. Recently, the team has received a small, but important, intramural grant to coordinate a series of forums to stimulate, develop, and nurture new, innovative research ideas in the field, entitled “Artificial intelligence for drug development and its optimal use (PI: Prof. Howard Lee)”. Prof. Young Kee Shin, Prof. Eugene C. Yi, Prof. Park Young Joo (from MMBS), Prof. Bongki Moon (from the Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering), Prof. Jung Mi Oh (from the College of Pharmacy), Prof. Jinwook Choi (from the Interdisciplinary Program in Bioengineering), and graduate students in the research teams will meet regularly starting early June 2020 through mid August.

The intramural grant of 3 million Korean won or $2,500 was awarded by the SNU AI Committee. Through the forum, recent progresses in applying AI and machine learning techniques to drug development and its optimal use will be reviewed. Furthermore, the forum will actively seek novel research topics in the fields, which CCADD hopes to end up leading to new grant applications.

In the upheaval caused by COVID-19 or the coronavirus, Dr. Lee stressed the importance of drug repositioning technology to develop a new treatment. In an interview with a KBS news program, Dr. Lee introduced the listener to the core concept of drug repositioning and explained why it could be life-saving in the midst of the chaotic COVID-19 pandemic. "Instead of finding new molecules or compounds from scratch, drug repositioning looks for test articles under active development or those fully developed for other indications, or even for those abandoned due to various reasons", Dr. Lee commented. 

So far, no treatment has been shown to be effective in treating patients with COVID-19. But, several compounds have been suggested as a potential treatment such as remdesivir by Gilead Sciences, for which ~80 drug repositioning clinical trials have already been commenced worldwide. The full video clip of Dr. Lee's interview can be found down below.