Artificial intelligence (AI) drug discovery company J-INTS Bio has been selected for a technology development support program by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. The company plans to advance its technology to identify potential therapeutic substances that could become new drugs more quickly and accurately using AI.

J-INTS Bio announced on the 3rd that its project titled “Advancement and Commercialization Demonstration of an AI-Based Drug Candidate Discovery Engine Linking Patient Multi-omics Data” has been selected as a “Scale-up TIPS Specialized Project” by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. Scale-up TIPS is a program that supports technology companies with high growth potential by linking private investment with government research and development support. The company will receive a total of KRW 3 billion over the next three years.

According to J-INTS Bio, the core of this project is to analyze multiple biological data obtained from patients with AI and use it in new drug development. The human body contains a variety of disease-related information, such as genes, proteins, and cellular responses. Traditionally, only some of this information has often been analyzed separately. Multi-omics data is data that aggregates and analyzes this diverse information at once. Instead of looking only at genetic information, it also examines how proteins in the body change and how cells respond. By viewing this information together, it becomes possible to understand more comprehensively why a disease occurs and through what processes it progresses.

J-INTS Bio plans to link such patient data with its proprietary AI drug discovery platform to streamline the drug development process. AI will comprehensively analyze diverse patient data to identify targets that are highly correlated with diseases and propose candidate substances tailored to those targets. This can reduce the time required for humans to manually compare data and determine experimental directions. In addition, by first identifying highly promising substances, the company can accelerate both the target identification stage and the candidate compound derivation stage.

In this project, J-INTS Bio is participating as the lead institution, with Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) and Yonsei University as joint research institutions. The three institutions plan to establish an AI-based drug discovery framework by linking patient data analysis, validation of disease-related targets, and candidate substance discovery. A J-INTS Bio representative said, “This selection is a meaningful achievement that recognizes our AI-based drug development capabilities and future commercialization potential,” adding, “Through joint research with DGIST and Yonsei University, we will further refine a patient data-based framework for discovering new drug candidates.”

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