Seoul National University professor Baek Min-kyung, right, shakes hands with LG AI Research head Bae Kyung-hoon during an agreement signing ceremony at an LG office in Gangseo District, Seoul, Wednesday. Courtesy of LG Corp.
By Nam Hyun-woo
LG AI Research will collaborate with a Seoul National University (SNU) professor team to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) system for next-generation protein structure prediction, a critical technology for new drug development and bioengineering.
The collaboration follows LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo’s New Year address, in which he emphasized the company’s commitment to innovation, saying, “We will take on the challenge of a future where we can spend more time with our loved ones through innovative new drugs that treat incurable diseases.”
LG Corp. said Thursday that it signed a research agreement the previous day with professor Baek Min-kyung from SNU’s School of Biological Sciences to develop an AI system that is capable of predicting the structure of multistate proteins this year.
Protein structure prediction is one of the most important goals in computational biology, as it helps create a digital cell map that can be used throughout the entire process of identifying the causes of diseases and developing new treatments.
Global big-tech companies, such as Google, are developing AI-driven protein prediction technologies. However, their current focus remains on predicting and designing single protein structures, while the prediction of multistate protein structures — which exist in various forms depending on environmental and chemical changes within the human body — remains unresolved.
Baek is one of the world’s leading researchers in protein structure prediction, renowned for his contributions to the development of RoseTTAFold, a deep learning-based software for predicting protein structures, at Baker Lab, led by Nobel Prize laureate David Baker.
“AI is an important tool in protein structure prediction, but there has been a limit in understanding its functioning principles,” Baek said. “Through joint research, we will take on a new phase of protein structure prediction that leads to validation and experimentation.”
LG Group said it expects the joint research will further accelerate its ongoing efforts with the Jackson Laboratory of the United States in identifying Alzheimer’s-related factors and developing new treatments.
Since last year, LG AI Research has been collaborating with the world-renowned genomics research institute to develop AI technologies for diagnosing and treating diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer.
“The secrets of incurable diseases such as Alzheimer’s are within protein structures, and knowing the complex structures is a challenging task,” an LG official said. “By developing AI for multistate protein structure prediction, we expect to make groundbreaking progress in understanding disease mechanisms.”
LG Group believes the joint research will serve as a model case for the convergence of AI and biotechnology, the two main pillars of the group's future growth.
English (United States)