O Date: March 27, 2024

O Start Time: 4:00 PM

O Venue: YBS Bldg. #207

O Speaker: Insuk Lee

O Position & Affiliation: Professor

                                         Dept. Biotechnology, Yonsei University

O Title: Decoding Our Second Genome for Microbiome Medicine

O Abstract: 

About 20 years ago, the first public release of the human genome sequence provided a foundational technology for researching how an individual's genetic characteristics can affect the onset and prognosis of diseases. This led us into the era of 'Genome Medicine', applying this knowledge to disease treatment. Recently, it has been discovered that the microbes living in symbiosis with our bodies also influence diseases, and various efforts are underway to predict and treat diseases using these symbiotic microbes. However, studying the impact of the microbiome on diseases without the genomic information of these symbiotic microbes would be as inefficient and inaccurate as trying to find the genes responsible for diseases in the era before the human genome sequence map was available. Therefore, to study microbiome-disease interactions at the current level of genome medicine technology, it is essential to first decode the genomes of these symbiotic microbes. This will be the key to unlocking the era of 'Microbiome Medicine', which could be the second genomic sequencing technology-based medical revolution. In this lecture, I want to introduce the Genome-resolved metagenomics technology for decoding the genomes of symbiotic microbes and present examples of how the decoded microbiome genomic information can be applied to the development of disease treatment technologies.