On February 26th, Professor Howard and the CCADD members gathered to honor the graduation of Tae Kyu Chung and the successful completion of the winter internship program by Seorin Choi and Yunha Noh.

Tae Kyu, who studied the realm of biology-neurobiology as an undergrad, joined CCADD in February 2018 as an intern. Under the guidance of Professor Howard Lee thenceforth, he navigated through the rigors of an integrated master's and PhD program. His persistent dedication to PKPD modeling culminated in a doctoral thesis entitled “Comparison of Machine Learning and Population Pharmacokinetic Models for Predicting Antiepileptic Drug Concentrations Based on Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Records”, earning him a Doctor of Medicine degree. On the graduation day, his relentless pursuit was duly awarded.

Simultaneously, a ceremony to mark the completion of Seorin and Yunha's internship was conducted at the main campus of Seoul National University. Throughout their internship, they immersed themselves in a series of educational endeavors, presentations, and assignments. On that day, their efforts, all contained within a comprehensive poster presentation, were met with a deep appreciation. Members of CCADD also attended the ceremony to celebrate the completion of their internships.

As we congratulate their accomplishments, we also look forward with anticipation to their future as independent researchers.

On December 27th, 2023, CCADD held the year-end workshop at Front1, a startup hub at the heart of Seoul, where PMACH is based. This year, Prof. Howard Lee and the members of CCADD were joined by PMATCH and Dr. Siun Kim. The workshop went on in a dynamic atmosphere, welcoming both Prof. Howard’s part-time student and the interns for the upcoming internship program.

After a brief ice-breaking time, the main session started with a recap of the accomplishments of 2023, reflecting on the overall trajectory. Prof. Howard commended CCADD’s continuous growth in both research and publications. As preparation for 2024, the following session outlined a roadmap, encompassing detailed research ideas and plans for conference to attend in 2024.

The spotlight then turned to CCADD interns. Three passionate interns—Tang Chao, Seorin Choi, and Yunha Noh—who will join the 2024 winter internship program introduced themselves through "Who am I" presentations. Following this, Yujin expressed her aspirations for the path ahead as a new CCADD graduate research student. The workshop proceeded with a lecture on the challenges faced by postdoctoral researchers and strategies for maintaining a healthy mindset among graduate students.

Dr. Siun Kim took a special session to share insights into his post-doctoral journey following graduation. Delivering a lecture on the trending topic of "LLMs in medicine and drug development", he provided valuable perspectives and briefly introduced his ongoing research projects. He candidly shared reflections on the first-year post doc., emphasizing the professional commitment required in the field of research.

Finally, PMATCH summarized their achievements in 2023 and anticipated the upcoming year's developments. With the successful launch of the 'BATTERY' app and a triumphant debut at CES^® 2023, PMATCH envisions a promising future with new team members. Yoomin Jeon, the Chief Technology Officer of PMATCH, expressed her commitment to meeting user’s needs as a must-have app.

The workshop concluded with a keynote address by Prof. Howard. Introducing new trends in 2024, he emphasized the significance of adjusting our research focus and domain knowledge to take another leap forward. Prof. Howard’s central message highlighted 2024 as a pivotal year for CCADD's rebound and PMATCH's inaugural year of growth. 

On February 24^th, CCADD celebrated the graduation of two of its members, Siun Kim and David Seung U Lee. Siun, an applied bioengineering major, started his joint Masters and PhD program in 2018 and studied under Prof. Howard Lee’s guidance. He received his PhD in Medicine for his thesis on applying natural language processing technology to drug safety monitoring. David, a molecular medicine and biopharmaceutical sciences (MMBS) major, joined CCADD in 2021 and has since studied under Prof. Howard Lee. He received his MSc in Medicine for his study on clinical characteristics associated with dulaglutide treatment adherence.

Siun, for all his contribution to CCADD, embarked on a new career as a postdoctoral researcher at Seoul National University Hospital Biomedical Research Institute. There, he will focus on developing AI models for the prediction of hypoglycemia during dialysis and the analysis of nursing notes of kidney surgery recipients. David will continue to study under Prof. Howard as a PhD student starting 2023.

We congratulate on their accomplishment and convey our best wishes at their new start.

CCADD had a year-end workshop on December 21st, 2022. This year, Prof. Howard Lee and the members of CCADD were joined by PMATCH (the tech start-up led by Prof. Howard) and Dr. Hyun-Ah Lee (our respected alumnus). The workshop was also delightful because some of Prof. Howard’s part-time students and Yujin (our student intern) were there too.

The first session gave a look back on 2022. Accomplishments—academic and otherwise—were shared and celebrated. Prof. Howard cheered the members for their effort and delivered a message of hope for the coming year. The following sessions laid out some concrete plans and goals for 2023, such as attending conferences domestic and abroad and streamlining journal club and book reading programs.

In the afternoon, PMATCH took us down memory lane about all the footsteps leading up to the development of its app, Battery, and its upcoming global debut at CES^® 2023, one of the world’s biggest tech event. Yoomin Jeon, the Chief Technology Officer of PMATCH, stitched all the key moments into a single narrative, which had been so far shared with CCADD in parts.

Perhaps, one of the most anticipated sessions was Dr. Hyun-Ah Lee’s talk about her career after graduation. She traced back her memory from the time when she was studying under Prof. Howard to where she is today. She admitted her life as a PhD student trying to be on par with the rigor and the expectation of Prof. Howard was never easy but definitely worth pursuing. More importantly, she urged us to hang in there as it will all pay off one day, and her sincerity resonated with all of us.

The day’s workshop closed with a special lecture by Prof. Howard. He proposed a vision for CCADD in 2023, exhorting us to recognize the need for honing the necessary skillsets and realigning our research area. Most importantly, Prof. Howard’s closing remark that CCADD should make a bigger leap forward in 2023 taking risks and facing challenges inspired us like nothing else.

Join us in congratulating Hyun A Lee for her successful graduation with a PhD degree in medical science in August 2019! Dr. Hyun A Lee came to CCADD in 2017, 2 years after she started pursuing a PhD degree under Prof. Howard Lee's supervision in association with the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University. Dr. Lee is the first PhD student who has ever graduated from CCADD. The title of her thesis was "Mechanistic Physiologically based Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic Models to Evaluate the Mutual Relationship between an Acid Pump Antagonist and Intragastric pH in Humans (Using YH4808, a novel K⁺-competitive acid blocker, as an example)".

Dr. Lee will stay with CCADD at least an additional year as a BK21 Plus postdoctoral researcher. She will be performing research in the areas of physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling, pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) modeling and simulation, and artificial intelligence-based PK/PD modeling and simulation in clinical drug development.