Daegu advances medical AI through drug discovery and robotic diagnostics

Daegu has been selected as South Korea's first pilot hub for AI-driven synthetic drug development. Led by Kyungpook National University, the initiative aims to establish a research ecosystem involving Kyungpook National University Hospital and the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Medical Innovation Foundation. The project utilizes a ‘Lab-in-the-Loop’ system, where AI proposes drug candidates and experimental conditions, which are then verified by automated laboratories, creating a continuous feedback loop to reduce development time and costs.

In a separate technological advancement in the region, DGIST, Medical Park, and Yonsei University have launched a project to develop an intelligent breast ultrasound scanning solution using ‘Agentic AI’. This 10.34 billion won project aims to create the ‘US-AXBOT’, a 3D autonomous ultrasound robot capable of performing standardized examinations. By applying closed-loop control, the robot will adjust its movements in real-time based on AI image analysis, aiming to reduce diagnostic errors caused by human skill variations and improve early detection rates for breast cancer.