Hyun A Lee and Dr. Kyeong-Ryoon Lee were invited to speak at a seminar on February 6, 2018, held in a laboratory at the College of Pharmacy, Kyungpook National University (PI: Prof. Kwang-Hee Shin). Hyun A and Dr. Lee shared their real world drug development experience in physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling and simulation using the Simcyp Simulator (Certara USA, Inc.). They both had considerable hands-on experience in PBPK modeling and simulation since they worked as researchers at Daewoong Pharmaceuticals, Korea.  

PBPK modeling and simulation can play a significant role in drug development decision-making. Particularly, Cetara's Simcyp Simulator, used by most of the top 50 global pharmaceutical companies along with other key regulatory agencies such as FDA, EMA, and Japan's PMDA, is the most sophisticated solution and has become the standard in the pharmaceutical industry. The Simcyp Simulator can assists determination of a maximum recommended safe starting dose (MRSD) in the first-in-human clinical study, design of optimal clinical trials, evaluation of  new drug formulations, and prediction of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) and pharmacokinetic outcomes in clinical populations. 

For more details about Hyun A and Dr. Lee's presentations, please contact them by clicking one of the following links: Hyun A Lee or Dr. Kyeong-Ryoon Lee. 

The Center for Convergence Approaches in Drug Development (CCADD) is delighted to welcome Dr. Kyeong-Ryoon Lee as its newest member. Starting February 2018, Dr. Lee has started his new position as a visiting professor in CCADD at the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University. Dr. Lee received his PhD degree in Pharmaceutical Science at College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University in 2011 and completed his two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), followed by another at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA. Dr. Lee also spent four years getting hands-on real-world drug development experience at Daewoong Pharmaceuticals, Korea, during which Dr. Lee spent a year at RIKEN, Japan's largest and most prestigious research institutes. Currently, Dr. Lee is a research scientist at Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB). 

Joining CCADD, Dr. Lee emphasized the importance of an evidence-based decision-making to meet the challenges of today's new drug development. Dr. Lee said, "I would like to carry out a joint research with CCADD on AI-based modeling approach to accelerate drug discovery in both clinical and non-clinical studies." Prof. Howard Lee welcomed Dr. Lee by praising his broad research experience in drug development. "CCADD is very pleased to announce this research collaboration with Dr. Lee, which will foster a greater understanding of drug development in more insightful ways", Prof. Lee added. 

More details about Dr. Lee's previous experience and research interests can be found here.

Two undergraduate students (Left: Min Ji Kim, Right: Ara Cho) will spend the next eight weeks (January - February, 2018) at CCADD, working as a team through the winter internship program at the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University. Min Ji will graduate in February 2018 with a bachelor's degree in Bioscience and Biotechnology at Hankuk Univeristy of Foreign Studies. Ara is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the School of Biotechnology and Environmental Engineering, Catholic University of Korea with a major in Life Science.

This intensive research internship program aims to provide student interns with hands-on research experience in drug development and regulatory sciences, helping them further build their academic achievements. Min Ji and Ara will delve deeply into various aspects of new drug development. Please join us to welcome Min Ji and Ara! 

Many of you have never seen a Korean briquette or Yeontan before, which was used for cooking and heating 30 years ago by almost 80% of households in South Korea. Its usage, however, has dramatically decreased since then, and now only ~0.85% of Korean households is still using Yeontan, mostly by low-income families. On December 21, 2017, the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology at Seoul National University presented a charity event to distribute Yeontan to 10 low-income households (4,000 Yeontans in total), all of which consisted of one or two senior citizens, in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, Korea. Three of CCADD members joined this event to share their love for the poor elderly.

CSCST has published a new calendar for 2018, which contained a brief introduction of all the laboratories and centers in the school. The next year's theme is a parody of a movie. CCADD took a Korean movie entitled "My Little Brother", which is a story about a boy who was unknown and appeared suddenly to a family an unemployed biggest brother, a penniless second sister, and pretty but talent-less younger sister. The boy called himself as a new youngest brother, and he actually was. The movie ended happily with everyone recognizing the endless value of family. The school graciously assigned the first month to CCADD! 

Dr. Soohyun Kim was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University. She received her PhD in statistics at Arizona State Univeristy in the United States. Previously, Dr. Kim studied communications at Iowa State University for one year. She also worked as an editor of Hankyoreh21, a printed news magazine, and an account executive at advertising agencies in South Korea. Dr. Kim earned her BS degree in engineering (major: architecture) at Seoul National University. Dr. Kim is now a Postdoctoral Researcher at Spatial Computing for Sustainable Infrastructure laboratory (SCSI lab), Yonsei University.

Dr. Yuchae Jung introduced the concept of P-MATCH or Precision Machine Learning AssisTed Clinical Trial Eligibility Assessment using Hospital Records at the 5^th Joint Conference on Medical Device between Seoul National University Colleges of Medicine and Engineering and Seoul National University Hospital on November 3, 2017. The title of her talk was 'Application of Artificial Intelligence Technology for Efficient Clinical Trials'. Dr. Jung underlined why artificial intelligence, mainly deep machine learning, can and should be adopted to bring more efficiency to clinical trials, particularly for precise patient enrollment, which allows for patients who are likely to respond to a treatment under testing to have a bigger chance of enrollment. This will also make clinical trials more productive and error-free, Dr. Jung added, because all of the eligibility assessment procedures are algorithm-based using the electronic medical record (EMR). 

Dr. Jung's talk was well received, and there were a couple of questions as to what could make P-MATCH different from other approaches such as the IBM Watson for Oncology. Dr. Jung replied that the biggest difference is P-MATCH's natural language processing capability of more than one language (i.e., Korean and English), which often are used in EMR in a haphazard and inconsistent manner. 

For anyone who wants to learn more about Dr. Jung's presentation, please contact her.