Since we started having many ads, we moved to github pages.
https://tatsu1207.github.io/mblcbnu/index.html
New Lab Homepage
Visiting Duy Tan University 24.11.06
CBNU has signed an MOU with Duy Tan University in Da Nang, Vietnam. I was selected for the collaboration project, and my partner, Dr. Cuong Xuan Nguyen, is a data analyst who uses AI to predict environmental pollution, particularly in relation to wastewater treatment plants. For this project, we agreed to focus on pollution in the Han River (Vietnam), specifically related to microplastics and heavy metals. Our lab will conduct microbial source tracking to determine the origins of microplastics, while the Duy Tan team will develop a model to assess pollution levels caused by microplastics and heavy metals based on physicochemical parameters. Dr. Nguyen Huy Thuan also agreed to help us for extracting DNA from river samples. Hoping for successful outcomes!
Prof. Sadowksy’s visit
Prof. Michael J. Sadowsky was invited to give a plenary lecture at the MSK 2024 meeting held in Jeju on October 30. Not only did I do my postdoc in his lab, but he was also my co-supervisor for my Ph.D. thesis. Mike and I have published more than ten papers together over the years, and he has been very helpful in developing my career. He has many students in Korea; in fact, his first Ph.D. student was my thesis advisor, Prof. Hur, which makes Mike my academic “grandfather”—although he is the same age as my biological father. I hope to see him again before too long. Thanks for coming to Korea, Mike!
MSK 2024 at Jeju ICC 2024.10.30-11.01
I gave a talk at the MSK meeting on investigating the dissemination of antibiotic-resistant bacteria through whole genome sequencing. I was the final speaker before the award lecture, but thankfully, some participants stayed until the end of the meeting. This talk was originally prepared in Korean, but an hour before my presentation, Prof. Sadowsky mentioned he would attend only if I presented in English. So, although I wasn’t fully prepared, I presented in English……
Microbiology Symposium @ KAIST 2024.10.29
A symposium titled “Microbial Biotechnology for Sustainability in the Human-Environment Continuum” was held on October 29, 2024, at KAIST, organized by Prof. Sukhwan Yoon. I attended as a session chair for talks by Prof. Michael J. Sadowsky and Prof. Sukhwan Yoon. Both talks were very interesting, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I wish I could have stayed for the rest of the presentations, but I had to leave for another meeting in Jeju. This symposium is held annually, and I hope to attend with my students next year.
Dr. Hokyung Song started her new Lab in Chosun University
Dr. Hokyung Song, who has been working with us since March 2023, is now an assistant professor at Chosun University. She has started her lab, the Environmental Ecology and Microbiology Lab (EEML), which you can visit at https://songeeml.wordpress.com/. Congratulations to her on the new position!
International Symposium on Plasmid Biology (ISPB) held in Shizuoka, Japan (2024.09.02)
From September 2 to September 6, 2024, I attended an ISPB meeting held in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan. This was actually my second visit to the same venue; I had been there in 2023 for the ASME conference. The meeting featured many interesting talks related to plasmids, such as bioinformatics for plasmid classification, bacterial evolution analysis through plasmid biology, and applications of plasmids in bacterial genetic engineering, and so on. One afternoon, I visited Lake Hamana, rented a bike, and enjoyed the beautiful lake view. The conference included nearly 10 lectures each day, which made it quite intense. While I enjoyed the lectures, I was exhausted every night. I would like to attend the ISPB meeting again, though.
한국미생물생명공학회 포스터발표 장려상 (2024.06.21)
Dr. Song attended 한국미생물 생명공학회 on June 21st to present her poster in which Miho River Antibiotic Resistome analysis results are presented. The unique point in the study is the use of long-read sequencer, ONT MinION. Usually short-read sequencer Illumina is used for antibiotic resistome study but we applied ONT MinION to reduce read-assembly bias and increase accuracy in analyzing genomic context. Most importantly, we are interested in plasmids that carry antibiotic resistance genes, so that long-read sequencing results may offer a chance to identify key-plasmids that contribute to antibiotic resistance dissemination in the environment.
APCMM2024 in Taiwan (2024.06.24-27)
I was invited to give a talk at APCMM 2024 in Taiwan. It was held in Tainan, the southern part of Taiwan. It was 27 degree C in the early morning and soon reached to 34 degree C. It was very hot and humid but people in Taiwan said it was a mild weather and it will be hotter in August…
I was asked to give a talk about antibiotic resistance gene source tracking. I have presented how microbial source tracking works and metagenomic-based antibiotic resistome analysis works. In addition, I presented the results from the Lab, which includes the data obtained from WWTP and Jeju coastal area antibiotic resistome.
It was very hot, but people are very friendly and I cannot forget nice professors in National Chen Kung University (NCKU) touring us around. My special thanks to Prof. Hashimoto from NCKU.
기창 과학상 수상 2024.07.01
At Applied Biological Chemistry Conference (응용생명화학회), I have received 기창과학상. It was a great honor and I am so thankful to my students here as well as in Jeju National University. For the award, 5 years of my publication record was evaluated. Just to be fair, there were…. total IF 136 (26 papers, 주저자). It was probably a biggest award I have received in my life. I promise MBL will continuously contribute to the filed of environmental microbiology.
