‘Korea Human Resources Bank Project Symposium’… Ajou University Medical Center Professor Eun Jeong-woo and other ministerial commendations

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kwon Ji-hyun = The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency held the '2023 Korea Human Resources Bank Project Symposium' at the President Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 22nd to share the results of utilizing human resources and held an awards ceremony for related meritorious contributions.

Human resources are a concept that includes all human materials such as tissue and blood collected from individuals, related clinical and epidemiological information, and genetic information produced by analyzing human materials.

A human resource bank (biobank) is an organization that collects and preserves these human resources for research, etc. and uses them directly or provides them to others.

The National Institute of Health, the Agency for Disease Control and Prevention, operates the ‘National Central Human Resources Bank’. We have also formed the ‘Korea Biobank Network (KBN)’ with private banks and are distributing them to domestic researchers.

Symposium attendees shared cases of creating academic and industrial results using KBN human resources and explored ways to cooperate between the human resources bank and the biohealth industry.

Professor Jeong-Woo Eun of the Department of Gastroenterology at Ajou University Medical Center, who presented excellent cases, introduced the case of discovering 'early liver cancer biomarkers' by utilizing human resources in the treatment of liver cancer, which has a lower survival rate by stage than other cancers.

Biomarkers are indicators that can detect changes within the body.

Professor Eun took advantage of the blood-based test, which facilitates early diagnosis, and secured high-quality plasma samples and clinical information for normal liver, chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer stages at KBN.

Using the blood resources secured in this way, through serum extraction, etc., we were able to develop a marker for early diagnosis of liver cancer using 'liver non-coding RNA' whose expression level varies in certain diseases such as cancer.

At the symposium on this day, awards were also given to those who contributed to the operation of the human body resource bank and researchers who excelled in resource utilization.

In addition to Professor Eun, Professor Song Sang-hoon of Seoul National University Hospital and Professor Hong Seung-mo of Asan Medical Center were selected as recipients of the Minister of Health and Welfare's commendation.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency Director's Commendation was awarded to 10 people, including Humintech Executive Director Kim Eun-seong and Theragen Bio Director Hong Gyeong-won.