Chosun University Dementia Treatment New Drug Development Research Gains Momentum

Korea Investment Partners Signs Agreement to Support Dementia Research

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Research on new drug development for dementia treatment at Chosun University is expected to gain further momentum.

On the 7th, according to Chosun University, the Gwangju Dementia Cohort Research Group (Director Lee Geonho) and Korea Investment Partners Co., Ltd., the largest venture capital management company in Korea, signed a business agreement to support dementia research.

This agreement was promoted with the purpose of accelerating the overcoming of dementia and contributing to improving the quality of life for the public by supporting the prevention, diagnosis, and new drug development and commercialization for dementia by both institutions.

Korea Investment Partners is currently the largest venture capital in Korea with assets under management of 2.9 trillion KRW and is about to launch the largest domestic global bio-healthcare fund worth approximately 300 billion KRW.

In this regard, Korea Investment Partners plans to provide research funding for the development of new drugs to overcome dementia conducted by the Gwangju Dementia Cohort Research Group.

Through this agreement, both institutions agreed to mutually cooperate in ▲ evaluation and commercialization support of new medical technologies for dementia prevention, diagnosis, and treatment ▲ fostering promising companies developing new medical technologies related to overcoming dementia ▲ priority investment review rights for biofund commercialization of discovered promising dementia-related technologies ▲ training and exchange cooperation of experts for global commercialization of dementia diagnostic and therapeutic agents ▲ and other business areas agreed upon by both institutions.

The Chosun University National Dementia Research Group, which gained attention for developing innovative medical technology that predicts dementia risk through a simple oral cell collection test, has changed its name to the "Gwangju Dementia Cohort Research Group" (Director Lee Geonho) and has begun developing dementia overcoming technologies including new drug development beyond dementia prediction technology development.

Over the past eight years, the Gwangju Dementia Cohort Research Group has secured world-class multidimensional biomedical big data including ultra-precise MRI brain images, PET scans (positron emission tomography), cerebrospinal fluid test results, and clinical diagnosis results through free dementia screening and detailed examinations of more than 13,000 local residents.

In November last year, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), recognizing the high value of the research group's dementia big data, unusually signed an agreement to directly support research funding of about 14 billion KRW over five years, becoming a topic in the medical community.

Baek Yuhyeon, CEO of Korea Investment Partners, said, "Through this agreement, we plan to actively support and cooperate in the commercialization of dementia overcoming technologies, which have emerged as a national issue, and the discovery of promising companies."

Lee Geonho, director of the Gwangju Dementia Cohort Research Group, stated, "By applying the original technology for early dementia prediction independently developed by the research group so far, we expect not only early diagnosis technology for dementia but also prevention and therapeutic drug development to accelerate further," adding, "We will strive to bring new hope to dementia patients and their families, who are a national social issue."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.