▲Students participating in the Convergent Medical Scientist Advanced Undergraduate Program pose for a commemorative photo.

Gachon University College of Medicine (Dean: Jung Wookjin) participated in the “Second Half 2025 Convergent Medical Scientist Undergraduate Program Support Project” hosted by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), and operated a curriculum aimed at training physician-scientists specializing in the convergence of medical science and artificial intelligence. The program ran for four months, from November of last year through February, with 22 medical students completing both the introductory and advanced tracks, alongside Wet Lab and Dry Lab training.

The introductory track provided foundational knowledge for developing into medical science–AI convergent physician-scientists, while leaders from various fields shared their research experiences and career pathways. The advanced track, conducted as a two-day, one-night boot camp from the 17th to the 18th of last month, featured team project presentations and an AI hackathon competition.

In the team project session, the grand prize was awarded to Park Suan and Ham Yewon (first-year pre-med students) for their proposal titled “Evaluation and Optimization Strategies for a CycleGAN Model Enabling Bidirectional Transformation Between Gastroscopy and Virtual Pathology Based on Quantitative TME Indicators.”

The AI hackathon, held under the theme “Development of an AI Classification Model for Patients with Musculoskeletal Disorders Using Multicenter Clinical Data,” saw the team of Cho Junyoung (first-year medical student) and Yoo Geonwoo (first-year pre-med student) achieve the highest score, earning the grand prize.

Additionally, Kang Seoyeon (fourth-year medical student), who presented “Drug Repositioning Research in Breast Cancer Using the Connectivity Map,” received the Convergent Medical Scientist Gachon Talent Award. Kang Seoyeon, who is preparing to enter graduate studies in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences, also shared her aspirations as a future physician-scientist.

Dean Jung Wookjin stated, “Through this boot camp, we hope to foster the next generation of medical scientists and advance world-class convergent research in the field of translational medicine. Gachon University College of Medicine will continue to actively support the cultivation of convergent medical scientists, with the goal of nurturing young talents in Korea who can aspire to the Nobel Prize.”

Gachon University College of Medicine has been building a sustained foundation for convergent education and research through the Gachon Nobel Project, an initiative supported by a fund established from President Lee Gilya’s accumulated salary over many years. Through this effort, the university aims to develop an ecosystem for training physician-scientists, systematically cultivate long-term biohealth talent, and ultimately produce future Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine.