(image description: Signing Ceremony at Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital.)

Text: On August 22nd, the global Decentralized Science (DeSci) project ‘Hippocrat’ (HPO) announced the signing of a multilateral memorandum of understanding with four organizations: Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, Biosolvix (a company specialized in stem cell-based platforms), Predictiv (a preventive medical solution developer), and the Korea Association of Musculoskeletal Medicine. The MOU aims to address degenerative diseases and rare incurable conditions in preparation for an increasingly aging society.

The signing ceremony took place at Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital. Attendees included Kwon Soon-yong, chairman of the Korean Association of Musculoskeletal Medicine; Kim Myung-shin, director of Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital’s Genetic Diagnostic Test Center; and Father Kim Pyong-man, head of the Catholic Central Medical Center’s spiritual implementation office. All participants acknowledged the necessity of tackling degenerative and rare incurable diseases as society ages.

Under this MOU, the five organizations will collaborate to safely manage data obtained from producing organoids using human-derived materials from patients with degenerative and rare intractable diseases. They will employ AI technology to predict optimal drug treatments for patients.

Choi Hyunsub, chairman of the Hippocrat Foundation, stated, “This MOU marks a significant starting point for utilizing Hippocrat’s data security technology in collaboration with various medical stakeholders, including tertiary hospitals, platform and solution companies, and medical societies. We aim to become a leading example of blockchain technology application in domestic and international scientific research.”

Hippocrat’s decentralized identifier (DID) technology has already been implemented in VitaPort, a health examination and prognosis management solution serving 1.4 million examinees annually. The organization is currently expanding partnerships with various medical institutions both domestically and internationally. As a prominent player in the global DeSci movement, Hippocrat is set to host DeSci Seoul, Asia’s largest DeSci conference, during Korea Blockchain Week (KBW).