image: Tae Hyun Hwang, PhD, professor of Surgery, founding director of the Molecular AI Initiative and director of AI Research for the Section of Surgical Sciences at VUMC
Credit: Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Section of Surgical Sciences has been selected by global technology conglomerate LG as a collaborator — a direct result of the revolutionary work within VUMC’s Molecular AI Initiative.
After a global search, LG AI Research chose VUMC for its leadership in creating sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) that solves real-world medical challenges. The collaboration will center on the Molecular AI Initiative’s pioneering platform, which uses AI-driven 3D spatial multimodal research to build predictive, high-fidelity models of a patient’s disease at the molecular level.
This revolutionary AI platform goes beyond static imaging to achieve four critical goals: identifying the fundamental mechanisms of a disease's action, discovering novel biomarkers for early detection and diagnosis, developing novel therapeutic strategies tailored to a patient's unique molecular profile, and accurately predicting patient outcomes. By decoding the complex cellular conversations within tissue, the AI platform will reveal the most effective therapeutic pathways, paving the way for truly personalized medicine. This collaboration will begin with cancer but may expand to other complex medical challenges, including transplant rejection, immunology and diabetes.
"This collaboration is an international validation of the world-class AI we are building at Vanderbilt," said Tae Hyun Hwang, PhD, professor of Surgery, founding director of the Molecular AI Initiative and director of AI Research for the Section of Surgical Sciences at VUMC, who also has a key leadership role at the Center for Computational Systems Biology at Vanderbilt University. "We are not just analyzing data; we are creating the very intelligence that will guide the future of patient care. Our initiative has already attracted several industry collaborators to help bring innovative technologies to patients. Having LG AI Research join us provides a unique opportunity to not just develop this groundbreaking AI, but to implement, optimize and deliver these solutions for our patients' care. LG recognized that the future of medicine will be profoundly shaped by code and algorithms, and they sought out the team that is pioneering that future right here."
VUMC's Section of Surgical Sciences, under the leadership of Seth Karp, MD, has promoted an environment where the most pressing clinical problems fuel the creation of new technology.
"To solve our patients' most complex diseases, we need more than new therapies — we need new intelligence. This collaboration is about reaching for that goal," said Karp, the H. William Scott Jr. Professor of Surgery and surgeon-in-chief at VUMC. "This moment is a testament to our entire team's commitment to inventing the future. We are ensuring our patients benefit not only from the best care today, but from the revolutionary AI tools of tomorrow, which are being built at Vanderbilt."
LG AI Research, the central innovation AI hub for LG Group, has independently developed its multimodal foundation AI for pathology called EXAONE Path. EXAONE Path 2.0 is being released on July 9. This model incorporates a new technology that enables training from patch-level images all the way up to whole-slide images.