Global AI Drug Discovery Center Signed an Agreement for Academic Exchanges with Peking University in China
- Date2023.07.11
- 6200
Industry-Academia Joint Research for Global AI-based Drug Discovery and Cooperation for Nurturing Interdisciplinary Talents
The Global AI Drug Discovery Center (Director: Sun Choi) signed an agreement for academic exchanges with the School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology in Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School (PKU Shenzhen) and QianYan Pharmatech Ltd. for industry-academia joint research for global AI-based drug discovery and cooperation for nurturing interdisciplinary talents.
The agreement signing ceremony took place at the Pharmaceutical Science Building on June 29th (Thu). The agreement was signed by Professor Sun Choi at the Division of Pharmacy, the director of Global AI Drug Discovery Center, and Professor Tao Ye, a principal investigator at the School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology in PKU Shenzhen and CEO of QianYan Pharmatech.
Professor Tao Ye and Professor Sun Choi
PKU Shenzhen is the second branch campus of internationally prestigious Peking University in the city leading China’s “Reform and Opening-up” policies, which focuses on graduate school programs, such as School of Chemical Biology & Biotechnology, School of Electronic and Computer Engineering, School of Environment & Energy and HSBC Business School, and is committed to research and cooperation for more innovations and pushing the limits of science under the slogan of “New Frontiers, Interdisciplinary Studies, Applied Research and International Standards.”
QianYan Pharmatech Ltd. is a company specializing in drug discovery founded in 2015. The company is based in Shenzhen, the cradle of the Chinese Industrial Revolution that was designated as China’s first special economic zone that leads high-tech industries. The city’s Science and Technology Innovation Commission strongly supports QianYan Pharmatech, enabling the company to have cutting-edge equipment and one of the best synthetic drug discovery infrastructures.
The Global AI Drug Discovery Center has discovered new drug candidates and unraveled their working mechanism through clinical tests and a drug-discovery platform using big data and AI, in addition to actively participating in an AI-based Innovative Drug Discovery project that is supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea, in cooperation with academics, researchers, and industry experts. The Center has also successfully conducted deep learning research on AI-based drug discovery that was supported by the international industry-university collaborative research project of Beijing-based Microsoft Research Asia, as well as operating the Global Core Talent Nurturing Program that aims to nurture interdisciplinary talents with global-level capacity for AI-based innovative drug discovery research. The Center’s director, Professor Choi, is the president of the pharmaceutical analysis division in the Pharmaceutical Society of Korea. She led sessions in AIMECS 2023, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Drug Discovery, when she hosted the symposium of the Asia Federation of Medicinal Chemistry (AFMC) – one of the world’s top three medical chemistry federations – in the capital of South Korea. The event successfully served as a venue for global academic and industrial exchanges, with around 900 participants from the U.S., Europe, and Asia, including global pharmaceutical companies like Roche and Merck Group.