APAC Microbiome Leadership FORUM

Advancing Human Microbiome Science & Collaboration in APAC

20 November 2025

Andaz Seoul Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea

CONNECT

Share national and regional initiatives to establish standardized microbiome data platforms.

LEARN

Showcase recent scientific advances and clinical applications in human microbiome research.

GLOBAL INSIGHTS

Discuss regulatory considerations and opportunities for innovation in microbiome-based therapeutics and diagnostics.

Microbiome Leadership Forum

The Microbiome Leadership Forum is an international forum dedicated to advancing human microbiome science and fostering collaboration across the Asia-Pacific region. Our goal is to advance Human Microbiome Science & Collaboration in APAC.

Also join us in Seoul as we shape the future of microbiome science in Asia and beyond. The event will bring together leaders from government, academia, and industry to accelerate the adoption of human microbiome research for public health and precision medicine.

Thank you to the host, Microbiome Drug Industry Association for organizing this forum and to the sponsor, and Korea National Institute of Health for their generous support.

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SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Andaz Seoul Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea


DATE

Thursday, 20 November 2025, 8:30 AM – 5:30 PM

Agenda

8:30 - 9:00 AM - Registration
9:00 - 9:15 AM

Opening Remarks/The Current Landscape of Korea’s Microbiome Industry


Dr. GwangPyo Ko
Chief Executive Officer / Professor
KoBiolabs, Inc. Seoul National University, Graduate School of Public Health
9:15 - 9:25 AM

Welcome Remarks


Jay Biggs
Counselor for Commercial Affairs
U.S. Embassy Seoul, Korea

Session I: Enabling Technologies

9:25 - 9:45 AM

Introduction to PacBio and innovations in Microbiome HiFi Sequencing


David Miller
Vice President, Global Marketing
PacBio
9:45 - 10:15 AM

Clinical-Based Human Microbiome Project in Korea


Dr. Jung Wook Kim
Senior Staff Scientist
Korea National Institute of Health

10:15 – 10:30 AM - Q & A

10:30 – 11:00 AM - Coffee Break

Session II: Translational Research & Clinical Applications


11:00 - 11:30 AM

Bridging Clinical and Translational Microbiome Research through PacBio HiFi Full-Length 16S Sequencing


Dr. Lai Zi-Lun
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
China Medical University Hospital

11:30 - 12:00 PM

HiFi Long-Read Metagenomic Sequencing Advances FMT Research for Ulcerative Colitis


Dr. Hikaru Watanabe
Senior Bioinformatician
Metagen Therapeutics

12:00 – 1:00 PM - Private Lunch & Networking

1:00 - 1:30 PM

Functional study of gut microbiome association with colorectal adenoma


Dr. Thoranin Intarajak
Researcher/Bioinformatics for genome analysis laboratory
Chulabhorn Royal Academy

1:30 -2:00 PM

Oral Microbiome Dynamics with Periodontal Disease Progression


Dr. Mina Rho
Professor
Hanyang University

2:00 – 2:10 PM - Q & A

Session III: Microbial Surveillance and Environmental Metagenomics


2:10 - 2:40 PM

Novel insights into the ecological and evolutionary microbial dynamics of CPE colonized subjects using high-quality long reads


Dr. Jean-Sébastien Gounot
Research Fellow
Genome Institute of Singapore (A*STAR)

2:40 - 3:10 PM

Complete genomes from complex soils: Long-Read PacBio metagenomics for high-resolution microbial ecology


Dr. Luis E. Valentin-Alvarado
Group Leader | HFSP Research Fellow
Monash University

3:10 – 3:20 AM - Q & A

3:20 – 3:40 AM - Coffee Break

Session IV: Applied Microbiome Research & Industry Collaboration


3:40 - 4:00 AM

Advancing Human Microbiome Research with Comprehensive Bioinformatics and Analysis Tools


Wilson Cheng
Staff Scientist, Field Applications Support
PacBio

4:00 - 4:20 PM

Long-Read Metagenomic Analysis (MAG)


Sun-mi Yoon
Research Manager
Macrogen

4:20 - 4:40 AM

Influence of the gut microbiota on immunotherapy response


Hansoo Park
CTO
Genome & Company

4:40 - 5:00 PM

A Molecule-First Approach to Next-Generation Microbiome Therapeutics


Dr. Sang Sun Yoon
CEO / Professor
BioMe Inc. / Professor, Yonsei University College of Medicine

5:00 - 5:05 PM

Closing Remarks


Jonggon Kim
Country Manager
PacBio Korea

Plenary talks

Scalable PacBio HiFi library prep for high-quality genome assemblies

Authors: Jacob Brandenburg, Aaron Wenger, Christine Lambert, Heather Ferrao

Jacob Brandenburg, Senior Specialist, Segment Marketing, PacBio

Long-read whole genome sequencing (WGS) for plants and animals has allowed scientists to tackle the assembly of genomes ranging in size, ploidy, and repeat content. HiFi WGS enables complete, accurate, and contiguous assemblies of even the most complex genomes. As a result, HiFi WGS has been adopted by many biodiversity genomics consortia and agriculture researchers to assemble thousands of genomes.

While HiFi WGS simplifies the bioinformatics of genome assembly, library preparation remains a common challenge, especially for scientists sequencing organisms which yield low quantities of DNA or have very large genomes that require multiple libraries for a single de novo assembly.

We describe a new workgow using the PacBio SMRTbell prep kit 3.0 that is amenable to automation while significantly reducing the time (by 50%), cost, and DNA quantity (by 40%) necessary to prepare a sequencing library. We applied the workflow to rice and fly samples and demonstrate that the assembly quality matches that of the previous, more time-consuming library prep workgows. This new workflow offers a more efficient solution for all WGS applications, regardless of organism size or complexity.

bioinformatics tools for HiFi plant pangenomes

Authors: Greg Concepcion, Michelle Vierra

Greg Concepcion, Staff Engineer, Bioinformatics, PacBio

With the increasing prevalence of high-quality assembled genomes, access to the pangenomes of species is now an achievable possibility for researchers with all research budgets. However, the tools to visualize, analyze, and extract actionable information from these pangenome datasets are still in their infancy. Using a large plant pangenome dataset, we evaluated the pangenome graph builder pipeline for building a pangenome graph of the species and use these evaluations to provide basic recommendations for how to best manipulate and visualize these pangenomic datasets with other downstream tools including the vg toolkit.

bioinformatics tools for HiFi plant pangenomes

Authors: Greg Concepcion, Michelle Vierra

Greg Concepcion, Staff Engineer, Bioinformatics, PacBio

With the increasing prevalence of high-quality assembled genomes, access to the pangenomes of species is now an achievable possibility for researchers with all research budgets. However, the tools to visualize, analyze, and extract actionable information from these pangenome datasets are still in their infancy. Using a large plant pangenome dataset, we evaluated the pangenome graph builder pipeline for building a pangenome graph of the species and use these evaluations to provide basic recommendations for how to best manipulate and visualize these pangenomic datasets with other downstream tools including the vg toolkit.

bioinformatics tools for HiFi plant pangenomes

Authors: Greg Concepcion, Michelle Vierra

Greg Concepcion, Staff Engineer, Bioinformatics, PacBio

With the increasing prevalence of high-quality assembled genomes, access to the pangenomes of species is now an achievable possibility for researchers with all research budgets. However, the tools to visualize, analyze, and extract actionable information from these pangenome datasets are still in their infancy. Using a large plant pangenome dataset, we evaluated the pangenome graph builder pipeline for building a pangenome graph of the species and use these evaluations to provide basic recommendations for how to best manipulate and visualize these pangenomic datasets with other downstream tools including the vg toolkit.

Presentations

Monday, June 12, 2022 14:15–15:45 PST

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Elizabeth Tseng, PhD

Title, credentials, PacBio

Elizabeth Tseng, PhD

Title, credentials, PacBio

Elizabeth Tseng, PhD

Title, credentials, PacBio

Elizabeth Tseng, PhD

Title, credentials, PacBio

Presentations + posters

  • Poster presentations

    # Title First Author Date/Time
    2314 Increased Diagnostic Yield With Long Read Sequencing In Patients With Undiagnosed Neurodevelopmental Disorder S. Jamuar October 26, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    2322 Long-read HiFi genome sequencing reveals a 2.7 kilobase intronic insertion in NR5A1as a cause of 46,XY disorder of sexual development G. Del Gobbo October 26, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    2354 Ultra-low DNA input with long-read sequencing identified complex chromosomal rearrangements involving NIPBL in a Cornelia de Lange syndrome patient N. Jiang October 26, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    2723 Accurate CYP2D6 star (*) allele diplotyping for long-read PacBio HiFi sequencing J. Harting October 26, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    3096 PacBio HiFi sequencing provides highly accurate CpG methylation calls without bisulfite treatment C. Saunders October 26, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    3133 Sequencing By Binding (SBB) enables a lower limit of detection for Tuberculosis resistance genes gyrA and katG C. Wike October 26, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    2269 Clinical long-read genome sequencing: Analytical performance of germline small variant detection using HiFi genome sequencing N. Hammond October 27, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    2954 De novo variant detection with HiFi reads J. Lake October 27, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    3012 High throughput workflow for human whole genome sequencing using PacBio HiFi J. Rocha October 27, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    3132 Sequencing By Binding (SBB) demonstrates superior performance in low-pass whole-human-sequencing applications KY. Chen October 27, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    2938 Closing the gap: Solving complex medically relevant regions of the human genome F. Sedlazeck October 27, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT

  • In-booth presentations

    # Title First Author Date/Time
    2314 Increased Diagnostic Yield With Long Read Sequencing In Patients With Undiagnosed Neurodevelopmental Disorder S. Jamuar October 26, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    2322 Long-read HiFi genome sequencing reveals a 2.7 kilobase intronic insertion in NR5A1as a cause of 46,XY disorder of sexual development G. Del Gobbo October 26, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    2354 Ultra-low DNA input with long-read sequencing identified complex chromosomal rearrangements involving NIPBL in a Cornelia de Lange syndrome patient N. Jiang October 26, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    2723 Accurate CYP2D6 star (*) allele diplotyping for long-read PacBio HiFi sequencing J. Harting October 26, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    3096 PacBio HiFi sequencing provides highly accurate CpG methylation calls without bisulfite treatment C. Saunders October 26, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    3133 Sequencing By Binding (SBB) enables a lower limit of detection for Tuberculosis resistance genes gyrA and katG C. Wike October 26, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    2269 Clinical long-read genome sequencing: Analytical performance of germline small variant detection using HiFi genome sequencing N. Hammond October 27, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    2954 De novo variant detection with HiFi reads J. Lake October 27, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    3012 High throughput workflow for human whole genome sequencing using PacBio HiFi J. Rocha October 27, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    3132 Sequencing By Binding (SBB) demonstrates superior performance in low-pass whole-human-sequencing applications KY. Chen October 27, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT
    2938 Closing the gap: Solving complex medically relevant regions of the human genome F. Sedlazeck October 27, 3:00 - 4:45 pm PDT

Visit us at booth X5-364

Stop by our booth to chat with PacBio staff and have your questions answered. We are excited to learn about your sequencing goals and learn more about your research.

PacBio service providers

Interested in getting a sequencing project started? Stop by our service providers to talk about project design and next steps.

Booth 211

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Booth 213

Booth 214

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Get In Touch

Speak to a sequencing specialist
Contact us
Talk about a collaboration
Collaborate with us

Get In Touch

Get in touch with us about a thing
Have at it