Ewha Starts to Co-develop AI Platform for Cardiotoxicity Evaluation of New Drug Candidates with Fraunhofer IBMT, Germany
- 작성처
- Date2025.07.31
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Ewha Starts to Co-develop AI Platform for Cardiotoxicity Evaluation of New Drug Candidates with Fraunhofer IBMT, Germany
Ewha has been selected for the “2025 Korea-Germany Industry-Academia Joint Research (2+2 Projects),” overseen by the Ministry of Science and ICT, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBMT), a world-renowned applied science research institute in Germany. Based on its selection for this large-scale global research project, which is jointly supported by the governments of both nations, Ewha plans to further strengthen scientific and technological cooperation between Korea and Germany.
To this end, Jang-Hwan Choi, professor at the Department of Artificial Intelligence at Ewha, and Heiko Zimmermann, director of Fraunhofer IBMT, Germany, have secured a total of KRW 1.87 billion in research funding to jointly develop a next-generation drug cardiotoxicity evaluation platform that combines 3D myocardial organoids and AI over a period of three years starting this October.
The contractile dynamics of iPSC-based 3D myocardial organoids are measured with Fraunhofer IBMT’s non-contact optical metrology technology in real time and analyzed with unsupervised AI models from the Medical AI & Computer Vision Lab at Ewha to automatically generate drug dose-response curves. This is expected to enable the high-speed and high-precision prediction of cardiotoxicity risk for new drug candidates at the preclinical stage.
To this end, the two organizations signed an MOU in April and established the Ewha–Fraunhofer RegMed AI Hub in Seoul. The Korean Fund for Regenerative Medicine (KFRM) stated that the collaboration will serve as an opportunity to enter the drug development market and establish a global standard platform. The research participants include Ewha Womans University (general management and AI development), Biosolvix Co., Ltd. (organoid production and standardization), Korea University College of Medicine (histopathology and clinical consulting), Dt & CRO (preclinical verification), Fraunhofer IBMT (optical metrology and stem cell platform), and Innovitro GmbH (3D culture process). In particular, Biosolvix will promote the commercialization of research outcomes while carrying out projects of the KFRM.
This collaboration was enabled through researcher exchange support projects by the KFRM, including the hosting of an international workshop in 2026, plans for the AI-Organoid Cardiotoxicity Challenge in 2027, completion of preclinical validation, and technology transfer for domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies and CROs by 2028. Through such efforts, Korea and Germany are expected to strengthen cooperation in the fields of advanced regenerative medicine and AI-digital healthcare convergence, and lead global innovation in cardiotoxicity evaluation.