{"slug": "kaist-unveils-homegrown-ai-model-for-predicting-protein-structures-drug-binding", "title": "KAIST unveils homegrown AI model for predicting protein structures, drug binding", "summary": "KAIST researchers unveiled K-Fold, a biomolecular AI model that predicts protein structures and drug binding, aiming to accelerate drug development with homegrown technology. The model, developed by Team KAIST under a project by Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT, also predicts interactions with other proteins, DNA, and RNA. KAIST President Bae Chung-sik emphasized the importance of 'sovereign AI' for national competitiveness.", "body_md": "Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) said Friday they have developed a biomolecular artificial intelligence (AI) model, called K-Fold, that predicts protein structures and how drug candidates bind to them, with the aim of speeding up new drug development using homegrown technology. The model was built by a KAIST-led group called Team KAIST as part of a project run by Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT to develop AI foundation models specialized by field. KAIST President Bae Chung-sik said the project reflects the importance of \"sovereign AI\" — a country's ability to develop and control its own core technology — for national competitiveness in the AI era. K-Fold is designed to predict not only the 3D shape of a single protein, but also how it interacts with other proteins, drug candidates, or genetic material such as DNA and RNA, and where and how a candidate compound binds. That combination of structure prediction and binding prediction is central to early-stage drug discovery, in which researchers must identify a disease-related protein's s", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kaist-unveils-homegrown-ai-model-for-predicting-protein-structures-drug-binding", "canonical_source": "https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/20260828/kaist-unveils-homegrown-ai-model-for-predicting-protein-structures-drug-binding?utm_source=rss", "published_at": "2026-08-28 04:47:02+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-28 04:49:07.621090+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-research", "ai-products"], "entities": ["KAIST", "K-Fold", "Team KAIST", "Ministry of Science and ICT", "Bae Chung-sik"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kaist-unveils-homegrown-ai-model-for-predicting-protein-structures-drug-binding", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kaist-unveils-homegrown-ai-model-for-predicting-protein-structures-drug-binding.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kaist-unveils-homegrown-ai-model-for-predicting-protein-structures-drug-binding.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kaist-unveils-homegrown-ai-model-for-predicting-protein-structures-drug-binding.jsonld"}}