Medical artificial intelligence (AI) company Lunit (CEO Seo Beom-seok) announced on the 31st that it has been selected as the lead institution in the medical science field for the 'Artificial Intelligence Specialized Foundation Model Project', a national strategic project promoted by the Ministry of Science and ICT.
This project, part of the government's large-scale AI ecosystem development initiative, is led by Lunit and titled "Development of a Multiscale Biomedical Science-Specific Foundation Model for Full-Cycle Biomedical Innovation from Molecules to Populations." The project aims to develop a foundation model by integrating diverse biomedical data, including molecules, proteins, omics, pharmaceuticals, biomedical science papers and guidelines, and clinical knowledge, and to build six application systems based on this foundation model. Through this, the goal is to increase clinical success rates across the entire medical cycle, including clinical decision-making, clinical research, and new drug development.
The consortium, led by Lunit, includes seven companies: Trillion Labs, Igen Science, SK Biopharmaceuticals, Kakao Healthcare, Standigm, Rebellion, and Dcircle; six research teams led by professors from KAIST and Seoul National University; and nine medical institutions, including the National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, Yongin Severance Hospital, and Kyung Hee Medical Center. A total of 23 institutions have participated, establishing a collaborative system that encompasses industry, academia, research, and hospitals.
The total project size is 18.21 billion won, of which approximately 17.4 billion won will be provided by the government as GPU infrastructure resources. The Runit Consortium plans to conduct Phase 2 of R&D until September 2026, and based on large-scale GPU support, it aims to achieve a level of technology that is commercializable by the end of the project.
Existing medical research has struggled to translate into clinical applications due to fragmented data and knowledge systems at each stage and difficulties connecting individual AI models. Through this project, Lunit plans to overcome these limitations and develop a specialized medical science foundation model with 32 billion parameters. This model, which integrates data from the molecular to clinical cycle, will be released as open source for commercial use.
Furthermore, based on this model, Lunit plans to develop, validate, and commercialize six application services: a clinical decision support system (CDSS), an AI partner for biomedical research, and a public health management chatbot. Following validation at 13 domestic institutions (11 hospitals and 2 pharmaceutical companies), the goal is to expand the system to tertiary general hospitals and pharmaceutical companies nationwide.
Seo Beom-seok, CEO of Lunit, said, “As the lead organization for this project, Lunit has been leading the formation of the consortium and the direction of technology development from the beginning of the project.” He added, “Based on our accumulated full-cycle AI technology and global network, we will accelerate medical innovation and strengthen the global competitiveness of Korean medical AI.”
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