Prof. Howard Lee has attended the 40th EMBC (Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference), Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, on July 17-22. The theme of the meeting was “Learning from the Past, Looking to the Future”, inspired by the 40th anniversary of the world’s largest international biomedical engineering meeting.

In the Conference, Prof. Lee co-chaired a minisymposia with Prof. Kyung-Soo Park, Yonsei University, entitled 'Pharmacometrics Approaches & Novel Drug Delivery Systems in Pharmaceutical Engineering'. Prof. Lee also spoke about the ACTRiS project at the minisymposia, particularly with a strong emphasis on the importance of precision feasibility for clinical trials. The one-page abstract for Prof. Lee's presentation that he co-authored with one of his students, Yoomin Jeon, can be downloaded below. 

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. 

Prof. Howard Lee has been recently awarded a government grant from the Korea Clinical Trials Global Initiative or KCGI to develop a clinical trial resource integration system, and a grant kick-off meeting was held on March 15, 2018. The total research funding was $560,000, which is equivalent to 500 million Korean Won. The title of Prof. Lee's proposed research plan was the AI-based Clinical Trial Resource Information System or ACTRiS, which is pronounced 'Act Ris'. All of the CCADD members have contributed a lot to planning and completing the research plan for ACTRiS, and they will also actively participate in the grant one way or another. In ACTRiS, Prof. Jang Hee Hong, Choongnam University College of Medicine and Choongnam University Hospital, will be leading a subset project to develop an integrated web-based system for review activities by the Institutional Review Board, particularly for multisite clinical trials. Additionally, Prof. Jin Wook Choi, Seoul National University Hospital, and Prof. Hyun Joong Kong, Choongnam University Hospital, have joined to lead the IT development projects. Furthermore, codings and programming works will be outsourced to Mebixon, a leading life science solution development company in Korea.    

What makes ACTRiS unique is its active employment of state-of-the-art user experience technologies, which will be led by Prof. Joongseek Lee, along with his UX lab at the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University. Not only that, several aspects and system components of ACTRiS will be fortified by applying AI technologies. For example, the accuracy and completeness of the contents in ACTRiS will be automatically checked and corrected by AI. 

"It means a lot to CCADD that we finally secured this start-up grant for the smart clinical trials initiative in Korea, which is expected to officially start next year", Prof. Lee said. "This signifies the vision that CCADD set out was right. Smart clinical trial is the future." 

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.