Six undergraduate students (Sung Jong Kim, Hwe Won Kim, Jinyeong Yang, Song Yeon Oh, Chae Jeong Lee, and Yura Hwang) joined CCADD for the 2020 Winter Smart Internship, and they will spend the next 8 weeks in exploring the research environment at CCADD while having opportunities to participate in the ongoing research projects.

Sung Jong Kim is a fourth-year undergraduate student at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, double majoring in Molecular Biotechnology and English-Korean Interpretation and Translation Studies. Studying biology and biotechnologies, Sung Jong has developed a broad interest in pharmacology and computer science. He is looking forward to learning NONMEM, an analysis program for pharmacokinetic pharmacodynamic (PKPD) modeling, during his internship program.

Song Yeon Oh is also a senior student at HanKuk University of Foreign Studies, and has studied Environmental Science. Song Yeon's research interests include applying artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into the pharmaceutical area to make drug development processes more efficient. During the internship program, she wants to learn methods to analyze medical data using computer language, such as Python and R, by participating in the CCADD's current projects.

Chae Jeong Lee is a second-year student at HanKuk University of Foreign Studies, majoring in Biomedical Engineering and Computer and Electronic Systems Engineering. Being familiar with C and Python, Chae Jeong wants to participate in CCADD's current AI projects such as those awarded by National Institute of Food Drug Safety Evaluation (NIFDS) and South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE). Through this winter internship program, she is looking forward to learning R to improve her coding skills.

Hwe Won Kim is a fourth-year undergraduate student at Konkuk University. She studies Converged Material Engineering and Environmental Engineering. Prior to the internship program at CCADD, Hwe Won worked as an intern researcher in the Department of Stem cell and Regenerative Biotechnology laboratory and has become interested in pharmacology and AI technologies. Through the internship program, she is looking forward to learning the basics of clinical pharmacology and AI algorithms applicable to pharmaceutical area.

Jinyeong Yang is a second-year student at College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University. Jinyeong was involved in research project project to develop a liquid bandage for patients with atopy to prevent potential secondary infections. Through her past experience, Jinyeong has become more interested in PK, PD, and development process of a drug. She is looking forward to learning the pharmacology and drug development process, as well as experiencing the research environment in graduate school. 

Yura Hwang is a senior student at Pusan University with a major in Molecular Biology and a minor in Chemistry. Previously, Yura worked in PRG S&T, a pharmaceutical start-up, where she has developed an interest in theoretical and computational methods to describe variability in PK. She is looking forward to learning NONMEM during her internship program.

This 2020 winter internship program will provide participants with opportunities to learn clinical pharmacology, machine learning algorithms, and computer languages for data analysis as shown below. CCADD wholeheartedly welcomes the 6 intern students, and hopes them to enjoy, learn, and experience as much as they want and can during the rest of their internship programs.

This year's American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) PharmSci 360 was held in San Antonio, Texas, on November 3 - 6, 2019. AAPS PharmSci 360 is a conference that provides a dynamic forum for the exchange of knowledge among pharmaceutical scientists. Around 6,500 attendees gathered from all over the world to attend this year's conference, where ~1,500 abstracts were presented and >100 individual sessions were provided. Tae Kyu Chung and Siun Kim, two students at CCADD, also joined the conference as a poster author and presenter.

Tae Kyu's poster contained the result of a population pharmacokinetic (PK) modeling exercise of GC1118, a fully human IgG1 monoclonal antibody that is currently under clinical development for the treatment of solid tumor, entitled 'A Target-Mediated Drug Disposition Population Pharmacokinetic Modeling of GC1118, a Novel Anti-Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Antibody, in Patients with Refractory Solid Tumors.'  He proposed a two-compartment target mediated drug disposition model, which adequately characterized the PK characteristics of GC1118. On the other hand, Siun proposed a population pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) model that adequately described the concentration-time-kPCD (1000 * % ¹³Carbon dose excreted per minute) profiles of orally administered YH12852, a 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 4 agonist currently under clinical development for the treatment of gastrointestinal motility disorders. Based on the final PK-PD model, Siun found that YH12852 improves one's gastrointestinal motility, resulting in an accelerated gastric emptying and early rise in kPCD values. The poster presentation by Tae Kyu and Siun were well received: many poster-goers, including professors, Ph.D. students, pharmacists, pharmacometricians from Pfizer and Merck, came along and questioned the nitty-gritty details about the models summarized in the posters.

By participating in the conference, Tae Kyu and Siun were able to better understand the recent trend in drug development, state-of-art technologies adopted and implemented in new drug development, and regulatory perspectives on clinical pharmacology strategies. Joining the conference was a great opportunity for learning, networking, and developing their professional careers. 

Prof. Howard Lee was invited to the 2019 annual congress of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics or EACPT2019, held on June 29 - July 2, in Stockholm, Sweden. Prof. Lee gave an overview of the current polypharmacy status in Korea. Polypharmacy, commonly defined as prescribing 6 or more drugs concomitantly on a single prescription, can make patients vulnerable to adverse drug reactions caused by drug interactions. Furthermore, polypharmacy can undermine the financial wellness of the health insurance system. 

In Korea, the proportion of polypharmacy has decreased from 65.8% in early 2000 to 43.7% in 2013. However, polypharmacy is still a big health issue in Korea, particularly in younger children (1-9 years) and the elderly. Likewise, low income is strongly associated with polypharmacy in the elderly in Korea. Currently, there is no national guideline or measure implemented to curb polypharmacy in Korea. Therefore, policies and nationwide efforts, along with educational campaigns for not only patients, but physicians, led by clinical pharmacology professionals, are to be put into practice to keep patients from unwanted health problems caused by polypharmacy and to promote optimal drug therapy. Prof. Lee's talk was well received, followed by an interesting session of discussion at the meeting. A physician in the audience asked why polypharmacy is most common in early childhood in Korea, and Prof. Lee replied, "Prescribing antibiotics and other common cold medications is the major culprit."

The reception for EACPT2019 took place at the Golden Hall, Stockholm City Center. This hall is the place for the ball after the annual Nobel Banquet in the Blue Hall at the City Center. Below are a couple of photos taken at the reception with other Korean participants. 

On December 20, 2018, CCADD had a day-long workshop at the Yeongeon Campus. The workshop was attended not only by the existing CCADD members, but also by a new CCADD intern and a graduate student in the Interdisciplinary Program of Clinical Pharmacology at Seoul National University. The workshop included 12 presentations, the theme of which covered the history and milestones of CCADD, educational and research activities, talent acquiring strategy, homepage management, student internship experiences, communication, and teambuilding exercise. Furthermore, Professor Kyung-Sang Yu from the SNU College of Medicine and SNU Hospital (Department of Clinical Pharmacology) was invited to a special lecture session. Prof. Yu talked about the importance of e-mail as a means of business communication. He also stressed the appropriate e-mail manners in various business communication contexts.

After the workshop, CCADD members and their family members or invited friends went on a year-end dinner party, which was extended to a sleepover program. All brought a so-called 'useless' gift to the party, which as real fun. The winner of the most useless gift was Tae Chung, who received a used book named 'Sleep 2', written by Bernard Werber, but without having its first book, i.e., 'Sleep1'.

Okay, let's now look at the pictures below and you will easily notice how crazy the party was!

Dr. Jeong-An Gim has been awarded a government grant from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea on September 1, 2018 to study epigenetic/epigenomic changes after drug treatment. The grant will cover a year and the total research funding is $40,000 or ~40 million Korean Won. The title of Dr. Gim's research was "An Association Study Between the Pharmacoepigenomic Patterns of Drug-metabolizing Enzymes and the Pharmacokinetics of Tacrolimus", which aimed to identify several sensitive genetic regions associated with the pharmacokinetics of tacrolimus, an immunosuppressive agent frequently used in transplant patients. Blood samples for this proposed study have been already collected from two previous studies ( Choi et al., Kim et al., 2017 ), and the samples will be outsourced to Theragen Etex for the next generation sequencing (NGS) analysis. 

The proposed study is the first of its kind applying the state-of-the-art technologies to investigating the epigenetic/epigenomic effect on the exposure to tacrolimus in humans. Dr. Gim has been interested in finding an optimal epigenetic state to maximize the efficacy of a drug while minimizing potential adverse events, and tacrolimus will be his first bet. 

Prof. Lee congratulated Dr. Gim, saying "Converging the principles of clinical pharmacology, genomics, and eipgenetics/epigenomics, we will have a much better understanding how humans handle the administered drug." Prof. Lee added, "Dr. Gim's approach is innovative, and his research exemplifies how convergent approaches can be adopted to solve problems in drug development." 

Prof. Howard Lee attended the 2018 Gordon Research Conference in Drug Metabolism, held at the Holderness School, NH, USA, July 8-13, 2018. The GRC in drug metabolism is presented every year for 48 years, which means the 50th Anniversary will come soon in two years. According to the GRC website, the conference focuses "on cutting edge research in drug ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination), encompassing a wide range of research from the cellular level to the patient." Truly, the conference addressed a variety of topics in drug ADME, some of which, particularly for those which were presented on the first two days, were very basic. However, the remaining topics were of clinical or at least translational, so the mix was good. What was unique about the conference was its informal atmosphere. ~170 attendees had an ample opportunity of networking, not only in the conference room, but also in the dining room and bar after 9:30 PM. Additionally, there was a social activity such as hiking, soccer, soft ball and kayaking during 1:30-4:00 PM every day, which was fun! 

Prof. Lee met with old friends of his at the conference including Dr. Yuichi Sugiyama, the Sugiyama Laboratory, RIKEN, Japan and Prof. Sukyung Woo, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center, USA. The GRC in Drug Metabolism is a great refreshing opportunity for any involved in drug development, particularly for those who work in discovery, medicinal chemistry, preclinical DMPK, and lastly, but not the least, clinical pharmacology.