WittGen, Recognized Even by the U.S. Government— Can AI Technology Drive Innovation in Clinical Trials? 2026-07-02

■ Drawing attention for its proprietary single-cell-based GenAI technology that restores patients' low-resolution cell data into high-resolution data

■ Selected for the U.S. CancerX Accelerator 2026 in the clinical innovation category, proving its innovative technological capabilities and accelerating global expansion

■ OrangePlanet supports WhitGen's global expansion through its global network and legal and business advisory services

Every year, pharmaceutical and biotech companies around the world pour astronomical costs and enormous amounts of time into developing new drugs to treat human diseases. Yet only a tiny fraction of new drugs ever make it to actual patients—because clinical trials fail. According to the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), the failure rate for clinical trials in new drug development reaches as high as 90%. This figure comes from a comprehensive analysis of more than 9,700 global clinical trial pipelines (from Phase 1 through final-stage clinical trials) conducted between 2011 and 2020.

Failed clinical trials lead to financial burdens for patients and lost opportunities for treatment. One startup has stepped up to tackle this problem: WittGen, which possesses technology that restores low-resolution genomic and imaging data from patient tissue into clear, high-resolution data. High-resolution data is the key to clearly identifying the causes of disease and the mechanisms of drug action.

WittGen recently joined Smilegate Orange Planet to gain momentum for establishing itself in the global market. We met with Min-woo Jung, co-founder and CTO leading WittGen's technology development, to hear about his vision for solving humanity's toughest problems with AI and how Orange Planet's support can serve as wings for growth.

Why Did a Computer Science Student Develop AI-Powered Biotech?

CTO Min-woo Jung was originally an engineer who majored in computer science at Purdue University in the United States. He became interested in artificial intelligence during his college years, and as he studied AI in depth, he came to see it as "a tool for solving specific problems." He then concluded that the biomedical industry—where AI could be applied to save lives—was the field where AI could create the greatest value, and began conceiving of AI-powered biotechnology. His vision took concrete shape after he met co-founder Sang-yoon Lee.

CTO Jung met co-founder Sang-yoon Lee while active in the Korean life sciences community (K-BioX) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The two shared a common goal—"using AI to create meaningful value in the bio industry"—and joined forces to start the company.

Co-founder Sang-yoon Lee, who brought extensive business experience, and CTO Min-woo Jung, with his deep understanding of AI, formed their team in June 2022 and subsequently founded WittGen in January 2023.

The company name "WittGen" combines "Wit," meaning intelligence, with "Gene," meaning genetic material. It embodies the vision of solving humanity's toughest problems by combining superintelligent AI with genetic information—the language of the human body. The name was also inspired by the Austrian philosopher Wittgenstein, whose philosophy that the meaning of the world is contained within language resonates with WittGen's own vision of uncovering core meaning within complex data.

WittGen's Proprietary AI Technology—Can It Lower Clinical Trial Failure Rates? 

WittGen is drawing attention as a single-cell-based, ultra-precision GenAI clinical acceleration platform company. Its GenAI clinical acceleration platform dramatically reduces the time and cost of clinical trials through WittGen's proprietary generative AI technology, powered by the company's core technology, "LEIBER-X."

Until now, most patient-related data accumulated by the bio and pharmaceutical industries has been low-resolution data that could not distinguish between individual cells and only provided average values. This is because clinical trials were conducted using "bulk sequencing," a method that analyzes a patient's entire tissue mass as a whole, extracting an "average value" across cells. As a result, there were limits to identifying the specific cells responsible for causing disease. Moreover, "single-cell sequencing"—a high-resolution, single-cell data analysis method used to capture patient-to-patient heterogeneity—could cost as much as tens of millions of won, making its use limited. 

WittGen's LEIBER-X is a technology that uses AI to convert patients' low-resolution cell data into high-resolution data. CTO Min-woo Jung explained, "Much like restoring an old black-and-white photo to sharpness with the latest technology, we can reproduce existing data at single-cell-level resolution, which lowers the clinical trial failure rate." In other words, the technology converts a pharmaceutical company's existing bulk genetic data into single-cell-level data, predicting individual patients' drug responses and supporting more efficient decision-making in clinical trials. It can be expected to function as a "clinical trial acceleration engine" that optimizes patient selection and treatment strategy. This makes it possible to clearly identify the specific disease-causing factors embedded within cells, shortening the time and reducing the cost required to develop new drugs for disease treatment.

Thanks to these technological achievements, WittGen was recently selected as a finalist for "CancerX Accelerator 2026," a cancer-conquering project led by the White House. Among hundreds of applicant companies worldwide, WittGen was one of only 12 selected overall—and one of just two in the clinical trial innovation category—validating the innovative potential of its technology for cancer clinical trials. WittGen is currently in discussions with global pharmaceutical companies and research institutions, including Moffitt Cancer Center and Gilead, about clinical trial collaborations using LEIBER-X.

Orange Planet, a Strong Pillar of Support for WittGen's Global Journey 

Smilegate Orange Planet aims to be a growth platform for startups that will contribute to a better future. It actively participates in solving social problems by supporting next-generation entrepreneurs, and pursues social value by building a sustainable startup ecosystem in collaboration with various partners. CTO Jung resonated with Orange Planet's philosophy of support and reached out to Orange Planet just as the company was ramping up its business on the global stage. He explained his motivation for joining, saying, "For a company like ours, which simultaneously runs headquarters in Berkeley, USA, and a research lab in Korea, we urgently needed a strategy for scaling up our business and expanding globally. We expected Orange Planet's global network and professional mentoring to be a huge help."

Orange Planet offers customized support programs tailored to a startup's growth stage. WittGen is currently participating in "Orange Farm," Orange Planet's program for early-stage startups. Orange Farm provides an immersive office environment and helps startups grow to a self-sustaining level through infrastructure and investment connections, mentoring, and more. Orange Planet is supporting WittGen's stable business operations in the global market from multiple angles, including legal advisory services, assistance with conference participation, and local networking.

He said, "The nature of the bio industry involves complex stakeholder relationships and many legal matters that need to be reviewed. Thanks to Orange Planet's systematic and professional support, we've been able to significantly reduce trial and error in the process of commercialization."

CTO Min-woo Jung expressed his determination not to simply remain a beneficiary of Orange Planet, but to become an active contributor as well. He emphasized, "I want to contribute to building a startup ecosystem where we grow together, by sharing know-how on entering the U.S. market and strategies for winning government projects with fellow Orange Planet alumni startups, as well as sharing our experience in deep tech and AI."

WittGen's AI technology—which enhances the resolution of cellular and genetic data to improve clinical trial success rates—is offering a new alternative to the global bio industry. With the backing of Orange Planet, we look forward to seeing what tangible achievements WittGen will make in the global market, building on its proven technological capabilities.