Jung-Hyun Won is a graduate student at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University. Jung-Hyun received BS degree in Animal Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering at Chung-Ang University (2016-2020). Jung-Hyun joined CCADD through the 2020 Summer Internship program. Before she joined CCADD, she worked as an intern at GSK Korea, where she developed a broad interest in pharmacology and drug development.

Prof. Howard Lee was invited to a seminar sponsored by the Samsung Science & Technology Foundation in association with the Future Technology Study Forum, held on August 28 at the SNU Hoam Faculty House, where he summarized the current status and future prospects of treatment and vaccine developments against the COVID-19 pandemic. Prof. Lee further discussed how the pandemic could change the way new drugs are developed in the post-pandemic era, characterized by social distancing and stay-at-home orders, often termed as "Untact".

Prof. Lee forecast the new drug development paradigm will be characterized as remote and virtual, particularly for clinical drug development in that many research activities should be performed off-clinic. "These changes will eventually facilitate and fasten the adoption of new information and communication technologies, for example, remote data entry and life-log data", Prof. Lee emphasized. According to Prof. Lee, urgency cased by the public unprepared-ness such as the COVID-19 pandemic will also encourage researchers to welcome more innovative technologies, one of which is the application of artificial intelligence algorithms to reposition new therapies, which could save tons of R&D time and expenses. 

Jung-Hyun Won, a summer intern at CCADD, has significantly contributed to the final presentation slide deck. Jung-Hyun and Prof. Lee will be writing one or two reviews/commentaries, which could be published in peer-reviewed journals.   

Three months ago, CCADD was awarded an intramural grant to present an AI forum to develop new research ideas, hopefully leading to an extramural grant application, for the efficient use of AI technologies for new drug development. Concluding this interdisciplinary endeavor, Prof. Howard Lee talked at the X+AI Workshop 2020 on August 24, along with 10 other PI's. The AI  forum Prof. Lee has led consisted of an interdisciplinary team of seven professors at SNU, and they have met weekly or biweekly a total of 8 times, all virtual due to the Corona pandemic, which is utterly unheard of. 

At the Workshop, Prof. Lee summarized what objectives the team has accomplished in various research areas in drug development where AI technologies can be adopted. Furthermore, Prof. Lee emphasized what hurdles needed to be overcome if more AI technologies could be employed to make the current drug developments practices faster, less costly, and more efficient. Prof. Lee's talk was well received, and he was approached by several PIs in other fields after the Workshop, who would like to extend their research network. 

CCADD is currently working on an extramural grant application based on the insights gained at the forum. In addition, Prof. Lee's presentation can be watched at YouTube below. 

Kim SH, Kim SU, Lee H. A critical review of the United States regulatory pathways for determining the equivalence of efficacy between CT-P13 and original infliximab (Remicade ®). Drug Des Devel Ther. 2020. doi: 10.2147/DDDT.S254776 

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.