FEATURE Genomics and Bioinformatics in Korea

enomics and bioinformatics have been in the central stage of biotechnology G in Korea since 2000 when the draft human genome was released. Annual by Sanghyuk Lee investment from the government amounts to Director, Korean Bioinformation Center around 40 million US dollars. Even though this investment contributed significantly to the initial development of genomics and bioinformatics in Korea, the fundamentals such as experts and national infra-structure are rather weak even at this point since major projects were more or less focused on immediate applications and practical use, not the fundamentals of genomics and bioinformatics. Nevertheless, there are several notable groups and accomplishments. In genomics side, the GMI (genome medicine institute) and Macrogen group led by Prof. J.S. Seo have been among the pioneers in personal genome sequencing. They published the first Korean genome map, the fourth in the world, in Nature 2009 and 18 Korean individuals in Nature Genetics 2011. Currently, Korean is one of the most sequenced nations in the world. The Korean NIH group genotyped a cohort of over 20,000 Korean individuals with whole genome SNP chip in 2009 and identified many genomic loci associated with height, blood pressure, obesity-related factors using GWAS techniques. This result was published in two Nature Genetics papers in 2009 and 2011. Several research groups in university hospitals achieved significant results especially in medical oncology. Researches in bioinformatics side are scattered throughout many universities. KAIST has a strong inter-disciplinary program with many professors in bioinformatics (Prof. D. Kim and Prof. D. Lee), brain

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Figure 1: A sample page capture from the KOBIC website: http://www.kobic.re.kr engineering, and systems biology. The Korean Bioinformation Center Four companies are leading in the Prof. S.Y. Lee at KAIST is one of the world- (KOBIC), the national center for bioinformatics, genomics and bioinformatics services. The leading scientists in metabolic and systems collects the genomic information produced in Macrogen Inc. and DNALink Inc. provide a total biotechnology. Other notable institutes and Korea and conducts diverse bioinformatics service for genomics including sequencing key personnel include the Seoul National and genomics research. Recently, they and microarrays. Their sequencing facilities University (Prof. J.H. Kim), Ewha Womans developed an algorithm for analyzing RNA- (18 in Macrogen, 3 in DNALink currently) University (Prof. S. Lee), Soongsil University Seq data (NEUMA) and a novel platform for are rapidly expanding. The SNP-genetics (Prof. S.S. Kim), Yonsei University (Prof. I. network visualization (MONGKIE). KOBIC is Inc. focuses on SNP genotyping service for Lee and Prof. K.T. No), and the Postech IBIO building the computational infra-structure to genomic epidemiology. The Theragen Inc. is program (Prof. D. Hwang and Prof. H. Nam). efficiently deal with the massive data volume unique in providing bioinformatics service These groups published many databases, of next-generation sequencing. It also aims for next-generation sequencing data. Several analysis tools, and softwares in the leading to be the national hub of bioinformatics and huge IT companies (e.g. Samsung, LG, KT, etc.) journals. genomics research.

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are also initiating bioinformatics-related starting from 2013. Five ministries will a sequencing infra and super-computer programs such as NGS data analysis in participate in this plan in a coordinated facilities for private services. The ministry of CLOUD computing environment or integrating fashion to enhance the efficiency by avoiding food, agriculture, forestry and fisheries will genomics and health records for personalized overlapping investments. Major emphases be the major part for genomics research in healthcare services. are on the medical genomics, agricultural agriculture and food. They will initiate many Two representative societies are the genomics, and bioinformatics infra-structure. projects on animal, plant, and microbial KSBSB (Korean Society for Bioinformatics and The ministry of health and welfare merged genomics research. Finally, the ministry of Systems Biology) and KOGO (Korea Genome genomics-related groups and initiated a land, transport and maritime affairs will be Organization; http://www.kogo.or.kr). Major new program named as the ‘next-generation in charge of marine genomics mainly focusing members of KOGO are experimentalists and genomics agency for personalized medicine’ on the microorganisms in the Antarctic sea. physicians in genomics area, whereas KSBSB in this year. The agency led by Prof. H.R. Korea has good human resources in members are mostly bioinformaticians. KSBSB Kim plan to focus on translational research related fields of medicine, pharmacology, hosted several international conferences of personal genomics. The ministry of and biology. Doctors are well trained and recently such as CBJ-KSBSB joint conference education, science and technology plans to getting more enthusiastic for translational in 2009 and APBC 2011. Particularly, Genome build a solid infra-structure for genomics biomedical researches. Infra-structure of Informatics Workshop (GIW) which is the and bioinformatics mainly by expanding oldest workshop on genome informatics in hospitals (especially the major university the world will be held at Busan on December the KOBIC. It would support many basic and hospitals in Seoul) is among the world bests. 5-7, 2011. Another international activity is fundamental researches in genomics and IT business is strong and mature. Many the effort to establish an Asian bioinformatics bioinformatics as well. Multi-omics studies young talented scientists who participated institute with Japan and China. Meetings to of diseases and host-microbe interaction in the leading international genome projects initiate such institute are in progress among are among the top priorities. The ministry of are coming back to Korea recently. With the the KOBIC in Korea, NIG in Japan, and SCBIT knowledge economy plans to build another human and social resources, efficient and in China. bioinformatics center to support private organized government support, the future of Korean government is planning a new companies in the field of personal genomics genomics and bioinformatics in Korea would eight year program of 1 billion US dollars business. Tentatively, they plan to build be very promising.

About the Author Dr. Sanghyuk Lee is currently the Director of Korean Bioinformation Center (KOBIC) at Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), located at Daejeon, Korea. He serves as the President of the Korean Society for Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (KSBSB) during the year 2011-2012. He is also a Professor at the Department of life sciences and the Director of the Ewha Research Center for Systems Biology (ERCSB) at the Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry from the Cornell University in 1994 and did a postdoctoral research at the Princeton University. He became a Professor of chemistry at the Ewha Womans University in 1995. During the sabbatical leave at NCI in 2000, he switched his research theme into bioinformatics. Main research topics in early years were EST clustering and gene prediction on alternative splicing. He developed many programs and databases on this subject which were published in Genome Research and Nucleic Acids Research. Since 2006, his research area was extended toward microRNA regulation and cancer genomics focusing on integrative analysis of omics data. His team developed web servers and databases for inferring microRNA functions and disease relationships. As the Director of KOBIC since 2010, he is leading the team of systems network research and the deep sequencing project on lung cancer using a multi-omics approach.

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