SK C&C and Gachon University Gil Hospital in Incheon will jointly develop an artificial intelligence service that will help medical professionals discover what causes a metabolic disease, SK C&C said Tuesday.

This AI service deals in the very first step of the winding process of novel drug discovery.

It attempts to search for, and identify, the genetic idiosyncrasy or protein anomaly that triggers illness.

After a cause is pinpointed, scientists can proceed to discover novel drug candidates that tackle it.

SK C&C and Gil Hospital will develop this AI program using the Software as a Service model and aim to launch it before year-end.

They will selectively start developing the software focusing on metabolic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, fatty liver and dyslipidemia.

SK C&C is responsible for software programs for SK Group affiliates. In 2018, SK C&C also jointly developed a novel drug candidate selection software with SK Biopharmaceuticals.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)