Announcement

Congratulations on the formation of the new first APBioNET Student Council.

We are pleased to announce the founding members and office bearers of the first-ever APBioNET Student Council. They will serve for the 2025–2027 term:

Office Bearers:
President: Somenath Dutta, Pusan National University, South Korea
Vice President: Masturina Md Mansor, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
Secretary: Thomas Masding, Soka University, Japan
Assistant Secretary: Somil Sharma, University of Delhi South Campus, India
Treasurer: Loveleen Kaur, Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya, Jalandhar, India

General Members:
Ridhima Garg, Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya, Jalandhar, India
Jatin Joshi, University of Delhi South Campus, India
Siddhant Bhardwaj, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
Priyanka Sharma, Bennett University, Greater Noida

This marks a significant milestone for APBioNET as we formally establish a platform for student engagement, leadership, and collaboration across the Asia-Pacific region.

Congratulations to all the elected members! We wish you a successful term and look forward to seeing the Student Council grow into an empowering force for students in bioinformatics and related fields.

Congratulations to Prof. Kenta Nakai, winner of APBioNET Research Innovation Award 2024

We are delighted to announce that Professor Kenta Nakai has been honored with the APBioNET Research Innovation Award (RIA), recognizing his outstanding contributions to the fields of bioinformatics and computational biology.

Professor Nakai, affiliated with The University of Tokyo’s Institute of Medical Science, has significantly advanced our understanding of protein localization, gene regulation, and spatial transcriptomics. His pioneering work includes the development of the PSORT program, a tool for predicting protein sorting signals and subcellular localization, which has become a cornerstone in bioinformatics research. (Link)

In his recent research, Professor Nakai introduced the Spatial Transcriptomics Analysis via Image-Aided Graph Contrastive Learning (STAIG) framework. This innovative deep-learning approach integrates gene expression data with histological images, enabling precise identification of spatial domains within tissues. STAIG has demonstrated superior performance in delineating tumor boundaries and understanding complex tissue architectures, offering valuable insights into cancer research and developmental biology.

The APBioNET RIA celebrates Professor Nakai’s dedication to advancing bioinformatics, highlighting his role in developing computational tools that bridge the gap between biological data and practical applications. His work exemplifies the spirit of innovation that the RIA aims to recognize within the Asia-Pacific bioinformatics community.

Mark Your Calendar: InCoB 2025

We are excited to share that the 24th International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB 2025) is scheduled to be held at the Bose Institute in Kolkata, India. Keep an eye out for further information at https://incob.apbionet.org/incob2025

Congratulations on the formation of the new ExCo members for the term 2024-2026.

Dear All,

We had our first round of voting for the office bearer positions. We then discussed the results in the last ExCo meeting. This was followed by a second round of voting for VP Outreach and Secretary positions. The final results are in and thank you for your votes.

Below is the finalized list of APBioNET ExCo members with their office bearer roles for the term 2024-26:

Office Bearers:
President: Dr. Harpreet Singh
VP Outreach: Dr. Kiyoko F. Aoki Kinoshita
VP Operations: Dr. Mohammad Asif Khan
Secretary: Dr. Latha Narayanan
Treasurer: Dr. Sarinder Kaur Singh
General members: Dr. Yun Zheng, Dr. Ragothaman Yennamalli, Dr. Shuhaila Mat Sharani, and Esra Busra Isik

Congratulations to all elected candidates and we wish you a successful term 2024 – 2026.