Our Story
Cipherome’s journey began in the innovative heart of Silicon Valley in 2015, when it was founded by Professor Juhan Kim of Seoul National University’s Biomedical Informatics Department. Envisioning a future where precision medicine was not just a possibility but a reality, Professor Kim aimed for Cipherome to lead the frontier of pharmacogenomics. This field merges the intricacies of human genomics with advanced algorithms to enhance drug safety and efficacy, unraveling the complex blueprints encoded within human DNA.
In 2019, Cipherome took a significant step forward by launching several clinical studies with esteemed institutions such as Stanford, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, and Leiden University Medical Center. These studies focused on validating our proprietary algorithm, the Drug Safety Score (DSS). The DSS, which incorporates advanced artificial intelligence models, was meticulously designed to predict adverse drug reactions and treatment failures. By integrating genomic data with patient demographics, lab results, and medical histories, the DSS offers a novel approach that enhances the safety and efficacy of medical treatments, positioning Cipherome at the cutting edge of pharmacogenomic research.
The task of harnessing genomic and clinical data from extensive biobanks such as the UK Biobank proved more challenging than anticipated. The intensive process of extracting, cleaning, and organizing data highlighted the need for innovation in our data analysis pipelines. This realization sparked a deeper investment in data science, leading to the development of what we now proudly refer to as COMPASS—our advanced data analysis platform.
Despite the global upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Cipherome remained steadfast in its commitment to advancing precision medicine. In 2021, recognizing the potential of our internal tool previously known as PGxAI, we decided it was too valuable to keep to ourselves. We launched the first public version of COMPASS, opening up our platform to aid the global healthcare research community. Since then, we have continuously enhanced COMPASS to support ever-evolving research needs.
Recent years have seen Cipherome broaden its scope beyond pharmacogenomics. We have presented our research conducted on the COMPASS platform at various international forums, advocating for our zero-code environment that allows researchers to focus more on interpreting results and less on mastering coding languages like Python or R. Furthermore, Cipherome has been actively involved in educating both educators and students about the challenges and opportunities in healthcare data science, helping to shape the future of life sciences education.
Today, Cipherome stands at the forefront of healthcare data science innovation. With COMPASS, our mission is clear: to empower researchers with the tools they need to accelerate their work, helping achieve breakthroughs that make our world healthier, sooner. At Cipherome, we are proud to contribute to the broader fields of healthcare and life sciences.
