LG, Jackson Lab to develop AI for Alzheimer’s diagnosis and cure

LG AI Research and the U.S. researcher Jackson Laboratory will design an AI model to diagnose and treat Alzheimer's and cancer.

LG AI Research President Bae Kyung-hoon, third from left, and Jackson Laboratory CEO Lon Cardon, fourth from left, pose for a photo after signing a contract on the co-development of an AI algorithm for Alzheimer's disease and cancer. [LG CORP]

LG AI Research and the Jackson Laboratory will together work on an AI algorithm that can trace the cause of Alzheimer's disease and cancer and estimate treatment efficacy.

The AI research arm of LG Corp. said Monday that it forged a partnership with the American genomic research center to codevelop an AI model that can analyze the cause of various cancers as well as Alzheimer's disease and design a course of action. The model is expected to estimate the effect of a treatment, which could lead to personalized regimens per patient.

"Today, we acknowledge and appreciate the vast opportunities in AI," said Lon Cardon, CEO of the Jackson Laboratory.

"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."

LG is one of few Korean companies that has shown a significant commitment to developing its own generative AI model.

Exaone 2.0, its second generation model trained on 45 million theses, patents and works of literature as well as 350 million images that was unveiled last year, claims to serve the "top 1 percent" in professional areas.

The AI model under the latest partnership will be trained on Jackson Lab's 95 years of research data on genetic diseases to raise the efficiency of the diagnosis process and efficacy of treatment.

LG AI research said the model will contribute to diagnosing cancer based just on pathology images without having to go through expensive tests. The generative multimodal AI model will not only help with a diagnosis but also estimate the efficacy of certain treatment regimens.

The latest partnership will also lead the two companies to develop a communicative generative AI model that will make suggestions on treatment options to doctors.

The algorithm will shorten the development time of new drugs including their preclinical and clinical test procedures while raising their success rate, the two companies expect.

"LG AI Research is proceeding with research that is applicable in various industry use cases," said Bae Kyung-hoon, president of the research lab.

"[The lab] will actively engage in R&D in the bio segment, which LG considers as a future growth engine, so that meaningful achievements can be made with AI technology."

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]