Pharmaceutical Bio Association Opens AI New Drug Development Expert Training Platform 'LAIDD 2.0'

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] The Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Drug Development Support Center announced on the 31st that it will launch the ‘AI Drug Development Online Education Platform LAIDD 2.0 (Lectures on AI-driven Drug Discovery V2.0)’ service starting from the 1st of next month.

LAIDD 2.0 was established as part of the ‘AI Utilization Drug Development Education and Promotion Project,’ implemented since 2019 by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Health Industry Development Institute to cultivate field-oriented experts in the pharmaceutical and bio industries. It is a complete overhaul of the AI drug development education platform ‘LAIDD 1.0,’ which the AI Drug Development Support Center launched in September last year targeting current professionals in AI-based drug development, including research personnel from pharmaceutical and bio companies and developers from AI specialized firms, improving content, design, and functionality.

LAIDD 2.0 offers a total of 94 courses with approximately 350 hours of educational content by adding new lectures to the existing ones. Specifically, it consists of about 90 hours in the AI sector, about 90 hours in the bio sector, about 140 hours in the chemistry sector, and about 50 hours in drug development and clinical sectors. The education targets a diverse audience including drug development researchers, AI developers, job seekers, and university students, allowing learners to select tracks according to their background knowledge level and learning objectives.

In particular, the center added lectures focusing on the organic connection and diversity of content by aiming to provide an educational platform covering all fields of AI drug development through ▲establishing basic subjects ▲introducing prerequisite subjects for existing courses ▲introducing practical field subjects (drug development and clinical).

The lectures involve over 40 instructors who are field experts with expertise in AI drug development from universities, research institutes, pharmaceutical and bio companies, and AI firms. In academia, lectures were produced by Professor Kim Sun of Seoul National University, recognized as an AI authority, Professor Kim Dong-seop of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in the bio field, Professor Lee Ju-yong of Kangwon National University in the chemistry field, and Professor Lim Hyun-ja of the University of Saskatchewan in Canada in the drug development field. In industry, experts from major domestic AI drug development institutions such as CEO Kim I-rang of Oncocross, Director Park Jun-seok of Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s New Drug Center, Research Director Kwon Jin-seon of AIMS Bioscience, the Safety Evaluation Research Institute, Kakao Brain, HITS, Standigm, PharmCAD, and Seoul Asan Medical Center participated.

Additionally, LAIDD 2.0 provides customized educational tracks that reorganize educational content according to the background knowledge and target job roles of learners, offering guidelines for course selection. The customized educational tracks consist of six basic tracks (Python Machine Learning, Python Deep Learning, Bioinformatics, Medicinal Chemistry, Chemoinformatics, Drug Development Process) and five job tracks (Bio-network Analysis, Omics Analysis, Protein Structure-based Drug Discovery, Ligand-based Drug Discovery), verified through an expert advisory committee.

Compared to the previous LAIDD 1.0, LAIDD 2.0 has significantly improved usability through ▲enhanced video playback functionality and compatibility ▲UI/UX improvements ▲introduction of a content curation system ▲implementation of a learning management system (LMS). The integrated certificate issuance using the LMS system allows education participants to systematically manage their course completion.

An official from the AI Drug Development Support Center expressed, “LAIDD 2.0 can be utilized for pre-education of university students, preparation for master's and doctoral studies in related fields, employment in related companies, and acquisition of practical knowledge for current workers, serving as a foundation to become field-oriented AI drug development professionals.”

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