Kookmin University (President Jeong Seung Ryul) announced that Professor Kim Joo Eun of the Department of Applied Chemistry received the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources Award at the ‘2025 M.AX Alliance Regular General Meeting’ held at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday, December 24.

On the 24th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources held the first regular general meeting of the ‘M.AX Alliance’ and announced five key initiatives for the coming year, including a manufacturing data sharing project. Launched in September under the Ministry's leadership, the M.AX Alliance is a public-private partnership for the AI transformation of manufacturing. M stands for Manufacturing, and AX for AI Transformation. It comprises sectors such as semiconductors, automobiles, shipbuilding, autonomous navigation, home appliances, defense, and bio. This government-led initiative aims to maximize productivity and build an industrial ecosystem by connecting Korean companies with excellent manufacturing data and academia/research institutes developing AI models.

Professor Kim Joo Eun, who received the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources Award at the event, currently serves as Co-Chair and Head of Division 1 of the AI Bio Alliance. As a leader in the field, the Minister's Award was presented to her in recognition of her contributions to guiding the alliance.

Professor Kim Joo Eun is currently an authority in pharmaceutics and industrial pharmacy. As the overall project leader and head of the AI Pharmaceutical Lifecycle Project, she is developing AI-based pharmaceutical bio platform technology* capable of replacing non-clinical animal testing with AI.

Currently serving as a professor in the Department of Applied Chemistry at Kookmin University, she previously worked for 13 years at the Central Research Institute of Yuhan Corporation, Korea's largest pharmaceutical company. She has also served as an expert committee member for the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the Korea Planning & Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology, and as chairperson for The Korean Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology, The Pharmaceutical Society of Korea, and The Society of Medicines Manufacturing Innovation. She has been engaged in diverse R&D activities for approximately 20 years.

Professor Kim Joo Eun stated, “I believe this award is not solely my personal achievement but rather the result of the collective efforts of all members of the AI Bio Alliance,” adding, “Moving forward, I will spare no effort in supporting the creation of core technologies that will lead the future of Korea's bio industry, based on close collaboration with companies and research institutions.”

* This project aims to develop three distinct platforms: 1) a platform that identifies impurities and flexible substances within pharmaceuticals and predicts their associated toxicity, 2) a platform that predicts drug safety and efficacy while enabling optimal design, and 3) an AI-based platform that predicts in vivo pharmacokinetic behavior without animal testing.