Scene from the Kakao workshop at the Korea Society for Bioinformatics Annual Conference | Photo by Kakao Enterprise
Kakao Enterprise (CEO Kyung-Jin Lee) conducted a genomics big data analysis workshop on October 29, based on Kakao Cloud, at the Korea Society for Bioinformatics (KSBI) annual conference, BIOINFO 2024.
As Korea’s premier organization for bioinformatics and systems biology, KSBI hosted BIOINFO 2024 from October 22 to 25 at the Gyeongju Hwabaek International Convention Center, featuring a range of lectures and workshops. Around 30 participants, including hospital representatives, researchers, and university students, joined the Kakao workshop, introducing Kakao Cloud, setting up the GATK (Genome Analysis Tool Kit) pipeline, and hands-on big data analysis.
Genomic data, a key asset in medical big data, involves complex calculations for tasks like sequence analysis and mutation identification. For instance, human genomic data requires approximately 120GB for a whole genome and 10GB for transcriptome data. Processing such large datasets necessitates cloud-based tools for efficiency.
During the workshop, participants used the GIAB Consortium’s Gold Standard Genome (NA12878) to conduct practical analyses on topics like “genomic variant frequency in populations,” “relationships between variants and diseases,” and “predicting the impact of genomic variants on protein and gene function.” This practical training builds on a collaboration with Korea University College of Medicine, utilizing the GATK pipeline optimized on Kakao Cloud’s distributed computing framework, Hadoop Eco.
Kwangmook Choi, head of Kakao Enterprise’s Business Development Task Force, highlighted, “This workshop successfully demonstrated varied data analysis processes for genomic variants, clinical information, and toxicity prediction within the Kakao Cloud environment. Kakao continues to support seamless cloud use in the medical and bio industries, fostering technical exchanges and partnerships with industry experts.”
Pangyo Techno Valley is a global integrated R&D hub focused on IT, BT, CT, and NT, integrating Research (R), People (P), Information (I), and Trade (T). As Gyeonggi-do’s representative innovation cluster, Pangyo Techno Valley was established to secure national new growth drivers such as technological innovation, human resource development, job creation, and enhancing international business competitiveness. As of 2023, 1,666 companies employ 78,751 people, and it has positioned itself as the most innovative hub in South Korea, with sales amounting to 167.7 trillion KRW (125.5 billion USD).
Furthermore, the Techno Valley Innovation Division of the Gyeonggi-do Business & Science Accelerator (GBSA) holds monthly events such as the Pangyo Evening Meet-Up, Pan-Pan Day, and the Pangyo Startup Investment Exchange “In-Best Pangyo” to maximize the value of Pangyo Techno Valley. They also support the Pangyo Overseas Promotion Program to publicize information about Pangyo’s companies, products, and services to domestic and foreign investors and the media, thereby facilitating foreign investment.
