The Jackson Laboratory and LG AI Research partner to pioneer biomedical advancements

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Mar 11, 2024, 12:56 ET

Two world-leading organizations are partnering to further expand AI capabilities in biomedical science and catalyze medical progress.

BAR HARBOR, Maine, March 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- What can happen when prominent institutions in technology and research form a partnership to accelerate the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance biomedical research and clinical care? A recent agreement in the field carries with it lofty aspirations.

The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) and LG AI Research signed a partnership agreement creating an alliance between JAX's longstanding expertise in biomedical research and data analysis and LG's AI research and product development prowess. The ultimate goal for the partnership is nothing less than to have a profound effect on human health.

"For 95 years The Jackson Laboratory has been a leader in genetics and uncovering the genetic underpinnings of disease. Today, we acknowledge and appreciate the vast opportunities in AI," said JAX President and CEO Lon Cardon, Ph.D., FMedSci. "LG AI Research shares our vision to maximize the value of AI and the potential to transform human health. Together, we can leverage our unique strengths to realize a future where AI and genetics revolutionize healthcare."

Alzheimer's disease and cancer

In the past two years, LG AI Research has developed multiple AI products for biomedical applications, including EXAONE Discovery, a generative AI platform for developing new drugs and new medical materials. Through the partnership, LG AI Research will be able to train EXAONE using JAX's extensive research data resources, with an initial focus on two disease areas, Alzheimer's disease and cancer.

"JAX possesses a unique combination of mouse genetics, human genomics and data science methodologies," said Chief Data Science Officer Paul Flicek, D.Sc. "The partnership with LG AI Research provides a fantastic opportunity to make critical insights into human disease."

Through its research programs, genetic engineering capabilities, and clinical partnerships, JAX has developed an array of mouse models that carry human genetic variants and gene mutations associated with a high risk for Alzheimer's disease. The mice allow researchers to precisely map disease initiation, progression and biochemical characteristics, as well as to identify the effects of background genetics and investigate the possible impacts of different sub-types of Alzheimer's disease. The data obtained include possible pre-symptomatic biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets, and the application of EXAONE seeks to identify more effective preventative or treatment strategies for humans.

The cancer project will focus on the joint development of AI models for cancer diagnosis and treatment, employing multimodal generative AI models that can reliably diagnose cancers and predict treatment effectiveness from pathology images. In addition, LG AI Research and JAX will endeavor to create new interactive AI models that oncologists can use to select the best personalized cancer treatment options based on an individual's genomic data. AI also has the potential to speed new cancer vaccines and therapeutics to patients through improvements to clinical trials and increased success rates.

"LG AI Research has been conducting research and development to apply AI to various industries and will continue to actively pursue research and development to achieve meaningful results with AI technology, especially in the biofield, which is the future growth engine of the LG Group," said Kyunghoon Bae, Ph.D., president of LG AI Research.

The promise of personalized medicine

The partnership with LG AI Research positions JAX to lead the effort to maximize the relevance and value of biomedical research for human disease insights and clinical translation. It provides a powerful new way to integrate JAX's extraordinary depth of data, resources and expertise in the use of mouse models for human disease with human patient and cell model data, accelerating discovery and medical progress.

"I am not convinced that the scientific community can fully realize the promise of personalized medicine with human data alone," said the director and professor of The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine and The Robert Alvine Family Endowed Chair, Charles Lee, Ph.D., FACMG. "We are thrilled to collaborate with LG AI Research to unleash the immense potential of AI in creating a data science bridge between humans and mouse models, which will advance our ability to predict human diseases and help in the development of new drugs and treatments."

About The Jackson Laboratory

The Jackson Laboratory is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution with a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center and more than 3,000 employees in locations across the United States, Japan and China. Its mission is to discover precise genomic solutions for disease and to empower the global biomedical community in the shared quest to improve human health.

SOURCE The Jackson Laboratory