Khon Kaen University Phenome Centre hosted the 1st International Reinventing University Roadmap for Phenomics Symposium (IRURP Symposium) and Short Course in Clinical and Natural Product Metabolomics in Phenomics for Precision Medicine (CliNaP–M) #5 between February 6th and 10th, 2023 at KKU Northeastern Science Park. The events were co-arranged with the KKU Cholangiocarcinoma Research Institute (CARI), the office of KKU Research and Graduate Studies (RGS), the Division of Research and International Relations Affairs, Faculty of Medicine, and the following national and international academic networks; the Center of Multidisciplinary Technology for Advanced Medicine (CMUTEAM), Chiang Mai University, the Siriraj Long-Read Lab (Si-LoL), Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Program Management Unit for Human Resources & Institutional Development, Research and Innovation (PMU-B), Australian National Phenome Centre, Murdoch University, Australia, and Imperial College London, UK.
On February 6, 2023, Assoc.Prof.Charnchai Panthongviriyakul, MD, President of Khon Kaen University, presided over the opening ceremony and delivered a welcome speech. “Phenomics-research integration is a way to cover every dimension of study including problem analysis to receive high medical precision. It particularly provides high effectiveness to overcome Cholangiocarcinoma, and it will be improved to solve other public health problems of Thailand in the future,” he said. “Phenomics can be beneficial to expression analysis of genes from responses to stimuli, such as food, drug and drink consumption, stress, and disease through chemical reaction analysis such as RNA using advanced analytical technology in order to gain an insight into the relationships between phenomena happening in our body and health conditions. This basic data can be not only used for medical decision-making by medical practitioners but also applied to quality assurance, agricultural material selection, food processing, and pharmaceutical industry because it enables us to analyze many types of substances at once with high precision, low error rate, and low cost,” he added.
The IRURP Symposium took place under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Khon Kaen University and Murdoch University, Australia. KKU was honored to welcome two Global Top 1% researchers in health sciences as keynote speakers: 1) Prof. Dr. Jeremy Nicholson, Director of Australian National Phenome Centre, Murdoch University and Imperial College London, and 2) Prof. Dr. Elaine Holmes, Deputy Director of the Australian National Phenome Centre, Murdoch University.
Further invited speakers came from both Thailand and abroad including Dr. Sze How Bong, Manager, Australian National Phenome Centre, Murdoch University, Dr. Jia Li, Reader in Biological Chemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dumnoensun Pruksakorn, Director of Center of Multidisciplinary Technology for Advanced Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Dr. Thidathip Wongsurawat, Head, Division of Medical Bioinformatics, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Prof. Dr. Chatchai Muanprasat, Coordinator of BCG Frontier Research Cluster, PMU-B, and Asst. Prof. Dr. Jutarop Phetcharaburanin, Chairperson of KKU Phenome Centre. All of them spoke on the importance of phenomics research in diverse areas: medical sciences, food, agriculture and technology to raise awareness on phenomics research and future implementation in Thailand. Over 200 national and international researchers heard the presentations at the first seminar.
In the opening day KKU administrators and speakers visited the KKU Phenome Centre. The centre provides researchers with services for testing metabolites, Flash Column Chromatography, and Metabolomics short course training.
There were additional opportunities for poster presentations and 3-minute thesis pitching competitions.
In addition to the symposium, KKU also provided a Short Course in Clinical and Natural Product Metabolomics in Phenomics for Precision Medicine (CliNaP-M) #5. The course’ objectives were: 1) to expand researchers’ knowledge of systems biology and investigation of metabolic profiles, 2) to provide an opportunity for researchers to share knowledge and build research collaboration, and 3) to train researchers to gain more knowledge and skills in conducting and publishing their research.
Prof. Nicholson, Prof. Holmes, and Dr. Bong also participated in the Reinventing University Roadmap. They met KKU president and visited researchers in KKU’s Faculties of Medicine, Agriculture, Technology, Dentistry, Associated Medical Sciences, Science, and Pharmaceutical Sciences to discuss the development of phenomics-interdisciplinary research integration and collaboration between our faculties and the Australian National Phenome Centre, Murdoch University.
The Phenomics Symposium was a highly successful event for fostering phenomics at KKU and developing international research partnerships for translational research in health and applied science technology. In particular KKU students and researchers have opportunities to work closely with Murdoch University and research advancement and collaborative proposals to international funding agencies. KKU has made an important start to improving its world ranking through ideas and material exchange and strengthened collaboration with Murdoch University, and most importantly creating a management plan for gaining international funding for phenomics research.
Click the links below to watch honorary talks.
Reporting by Sathaphorn Onlamun
Editing by Prof. John F Smith
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