Jeonbuk National University spin-off to accelerate drug development through AI transformation

Jeonbuk National University’s campus in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province / Courtesy of Jeonbuk National University

Hops BioSciences, a startup spun off from Jeonbuk National University, has been selected for the Daonda Program, a global corporate collaboration initiative.

The university said that through the program, the company will pursue an artificial intelligence (AI) transformation strategy aimed at integrating AI throughout the drug development process.

The program is jointly operated by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development and Dassault Systèmes, a global French software company.

The initiative supports promising Korean startups in enhancing their technological competitiveness by leveraging Dassault Systèmes’ technologies, expertise and global network.

“With this selection, we aim to transform into an AX (AI transformation) company by integrating AI technologies throughout the drug development process and dramatically reducing development time and costs,” said Lee Jeong-hwan, CEO of Hops BioSciences and a professor in the university’s Department of Biological Sciences.

He added, “We plan to accelerate our growth by expanding global licensing deals and pursuing a KOSDAQ listing, while also actively seeking to attract pre-Series A investment.”

Hops BioSciences, a company specializing in natural product-based drug development, has developed plant varieties, including hemp and lettuce, using a gene-editing technology that does not introduce foreign DNA.

During the development of a new hemp variety, the company reduced tetrahydrocannabinol content by 85 percent and increased cannabidiol content by 200 to 400 percent compared with a control group.

The results were verified through a test report accredited by the Korea Laboratory Accreditation Scheme. The company has also secured intellectual property, including related patents and trademarks.

Through the Daonda Program, the company plans to establish a computer-based drug design system using three-dimensional molecular modeling and multitarget docking simulations based on the BIOVIA Discovery Studio drug discovery software platform.

The company also plans to strengthen its AI and machine learning capabilities for drug design to accelerate the development of a natural product-based drug pipeline targeting sleep disorders, obesity and neurological diseases.

AI-based drug design technology is considered an effective approach to improving research and development efficiency by reducing the time and costs required to identify drug candidates, predict their efficacy and assess their development potential.

Hops BioSciences is pursuing commercialization through three key business areas: global licensing deals, business-to-business exports of raw materials to the Japanese and U.S. markets, and the supply of health functional food ingredients in Korea.