• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.211-217
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• 2013

Many biobanks were established as biorepositories for biomedical research, and a number of biobanks were founded in the 1990s. The main aim of the biobank is to store and to maintain biomaterials for studying chronic disease, identifying risk factors of specific diseases, and applying personalized drug therapies. This report provides a review of biobanks, including Korean biobanks and an analysis of sample volumes, regulations, policies, and ethical issues of the biobank. Until now, the top 6 countries according to the number of large-scale biobanks are the United Kingdom, United States, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, and Italy, and there is one major National Biobank of Korea (NBK) and 17 regional biobanks in Korea. Many countries have regulations and guidelines for the biobanks, and the importance of good management of biobanks is increasing. Meanwhile, according to a first survey of 456 biobank managers in the United States, biobankers are concerned with the underuse of the samples in their repositories, which need to be advertised for researchers. Korea Biobank Network (KBN) project phase II (2013-2015) was also planned for the promotion to use biospecimens in the KBN. The KBN is continuously introducing for researchers to use biospecimens in the biobank. An accreditation process can also be introduced for biobanks to harmonize collections and encourage use of biospecimens in the biobanks. KBN is preparing an on-line application system for the distribution of biospecimens and a biobank accreditation program and is trying to harmonize the biobanks.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.17
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• pp.7001-7010
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• 2014

Isoflavones are phytoestrogens and natural plant compounds which are similar to 17-${\beta}$-estradiol in chemical structure. It is known that they can act as estrogen agonists or antagonists, depending on endocrine estrogenic levels, but actions of isoflavones are rather complex due to large number of variables such as chemical structures and mechanisms. Some hypotheses on biological mechanisms have not satisfactorily been confirmed to date and human epidemiological and experimental studies have been relatively limited. Nevertheless, isoflavones and isoflavone rich foods have become a focus onf interest due to positive health benefits on many diseases, especially prevention of hormone-related cancers, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and adverse postmenopausal symptoms, and improvement of physiological condition such as maintaining cognitive function. This review provides an overview of chemistry, analytical techniques (focused on human biospecimens), functions including biological mechanisms, and effects of isoflavones, on the basis of the available meta-analysis and review articles and some original articles, on health and cancer.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.61-68
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• 2018

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to test the association between APOA5 3'-UTR variants (rs662799) and cardiometabolic traits in Koreans. SUBJECTS/METHODS: For this study, epidemiological data, Apolipoprotein A5 (APOA5) genotype information, and lymphoblastoid cell line (LCL) biospecimens from a subset of the Ansung-Ansan cohort within the Korean Genome and Epidemiology study (KoGES-ASAS; n = 7,704) as well as epidemiological data along with genomic DNA biospecimens of participants from a subset of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES 2011-12; n = 2,235) were obtained. APOA5 mRNA expression was also measured. RESULTS: APOA5 rs662799 genotype distributions in both the KoGES-ASAS and KNHANES groups were 50.6% for TT, 41.3% for TC, and 8.1% for CC, which are similar to those in previous reports. In both groups, minor C allele carriers, particularly subjects with CC homozygosity, had lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and higher triglyceride levels than TT homozygotes. Linear regression analysis showed that the minor C allele significantly contributed to reduction of circulating HDL cholesterol levels [${\beta}=-2.048$, P < 0.001; ${\beta}=-2.199$, P < 0.001] as well as elevation of circulating triglyceride levels [${\beta}=0.053$, P < 0.001; ${\beta}=0.066$, P < 0.001] in both the KoGES-ASAS and KNHANES groups. In addition, higher expression levels of APOA5 in LCLs of 64 healthy individuals were negatively associated with body mass index (r = -0.277, P = 0.027) and circulating triglyceride level (r = -0.340, P = 0.006) but not significantly correlated with circulating HDL cholesterol level. On the other hand, we observed no significant difference in the mRNA level of APOA5 according to APOA5 rs662799 polymorphisms. CONCLUSIONS: The C allele of APOA5 rs662799 was found to be significantly associated with cardiometabolic traits in a large Korean population from the KoGES-ASAS and KNHANES. The effect of this genotype may be associated with post-transcriptional regulation, which deserves further experimental confirmation.

• BMB Reports
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• v.55 no.9
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• pp.465-471
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• 2022

Understanding and monitoring virus-mediated infections has gained importance since the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Studies of high-throughput omics-based immune profiling of COVID-19 patients can help manage the current pandemic and future virus-mediated pandemics. Although COVID-19 is being studied since past 2 years, detailed mechanisms of the initial induction of dynamic immune responses or the molecular mechanisms that characterize disease progression remains unclear. This study involved comprehensively collected biospecimens and longitudinal multi-omics data of 300 COVID-19 patients and 120 healthy controls, including whole genome sequencing (WGS), single-cell RNA sequencing combined with T cell receptor (TCR) and B cell receptor (BCR) sequencing (scRNA(+scTCR/BCR)-seq), bulk BCR and TCR sequencing (bulk TCR/BCR-seq), and cytokine profiling. Clinical data were also collected from hospitalized COVID-19 patients, and HLA typing, laboratory characteristics, and COVID-19 viral genome sequencing were performed during the initial diagnosis. The entire set of biospecimens and multi-omics data generated in this project can be accessed by researchers from the National Biobank of Korea with prior approval. This distribution of large-scale multi-omics data of COVID-19 patients can facilitate the understanding of biological crosstalk involved in COVID-19 infection and contribute to the development of potential methodologies for its diagnosis and treatment.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.2433-2438
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• 2014

Cancer is the leading cause of the death, accounts for about 13% of all annual deaths worldwide. Many different fields of science are collaborating together studying cancer to improve our knowledge of this lethal disease, and find better solutions for diagnosis and treatment. Proteomics is one of the most recent and rapidly growing areas in molecular biology that helps understanding cancer from an omics data analysis point of view. The human proteome project was officially initiated in 2008. Proteomics enables the scientists to interrogate a variety of biospecimens for their protein contents and measure the concentrations of these proteins. Current necessary equipment and technologies for cancer proteomics are mass spectrometry, protein microarrays, nanotechnology and bioinformatics. In this paper, we provide a brief review on proteomics and its application in cancer research. After a brief introduction including its definition, we summarize the history of major previous work conducted by researchers, followed by an overview on the role of proteomics in cancer studies. We also provide a list of different utilities in cancer proteomics and investigate their advantages and shortcomings from theoretical and practical angles. Finally, we explore some of the main challenges and conclude the paper with future directions in this field.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.336-346
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• 2023

Purpose: The Korea Oral Biobank Network (KOBN) was established in 2021 as a branch of the Korea Biobank Network under the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide infrastructure for the collection, management, storage, and utilization of human bioresources from the oral cavity and associated clinical data for basic research and clinical studies. Methods: To address the need for the unification of the biobanking process, the KOBN organized the concept review for all the processes. Results: The KOBN established standard operating procedures for the collection, processing, and storage of oral samples. Conclusions: The importance of collecting high-quality bioresources to generate accurate and reproducible research results has always been emphasized. A standardized procedure is a basic prerequisite for implementing comprehensive quality management of biological resources and accurate data production.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.498-508
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• 2019

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Lower circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels are associated with a higher risk of hypertension (HTN); however, it remains unclear whether the relationship is causal. We aimed to evaluate the causal effects of circulating 25(OH)D levels on the prevalence of HTN in the Korean population using the Mendelian randomization (MR) approach. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Epidemiological data, serum 25(OH)D data, and genomic DNA biospecimens were obtained from 2,591 participants, a subset of the study population in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey 2011-2012. Five 25(OH)D-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; DHCR7 rs12785878, CYP2R1 rs10741657, CYP2R1 rs12794714, CYP24A1 rs6013897, and GC rs2282679), identified a priori from genome-wide association studies, were used as instrument variables (IVs) for serum 25(OH)D levels. In the MR analysis, we performed IV analyses using the two-stage least squares method. RESULTS: In the observational analysis, circulating 25(OH)D levels were found to be inversely associated with the HTN prevalence in ordinary least squares models (odds ratio: 0.97, 95% confidence interval: 0.96, 0.99) after adjusting for the potential confounders. There were differences in the circulating 25(OH)D levels across genotypes of individual SNPs. In the MR analysis, using individual SNPs as IVs, 25(OH)D levels were not associated with the HTN prevalence. CONCLUSIONS: We found no association between genetically determined circulating 25(OH)D levels and HTN in Korean adults. Our results are listed owing to the relatively small sample size and possible weak instrument bias; therefore, further studies are needed to confirm these results.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.114-126
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• 2014

Objectives: We aimed to develop a measurement method of five metabolites of trichloroethylene (TCE) in a concurrent biological sample, e.g., trichloroacetic acid (TCA), dichloroacetic acid (DCA), S-(1,2-dichlorovinyl) glutathione (DCVG), S-(1,2-dichlorovinyl)-L-cysteine (DCVC), and N-Acetyl-S-(1,2-dichlorovinyl)-L-cysteine (NAcDCVC) and to validate the method before application to pharmacokinetic study. Methods: TCE metabolites were simultaneously analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS) with as little as 50 ${\mu}L$ of serum and urine. DCA, TCA and NAcDCVC were extracted with diethyl ether, while DCVC and DCVG were extracted by solid phase extraction. This method was validated according to the guidelines for bioanalytical method validation of the Korean National Institute of Toxicological Research. Then, we determined the five metabolites in five strains of mice at 24 hr after exposure to 1 g TCE /kg body weight. Results: The limits of detection for the five metabolites in biological samples ranged from 0.001 to 0.076 nmol/mL, which is comparable to or better than those previously reported. Most calibration curves showed good linearity ($R^2=0.99$), and between-batch variation was less than 20% expressing acceptable robustness and reproducibility. Using this method, we found TCA and DCA were detected in all test mice at 24 hr after the oral administration while NAcDCVC and DCVC were detected in some strains, which showed strain-dependent metabolism of TCE. Conclusions: The present method could provide robust and accurate measurements of major key metabolites of TCE in biological media, which allowed concurrent analysis of TCE metabolism for limited amounts of biospecimens.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.111-140
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• 2019

The Bioethics and Safety Act provides a set of rules to regulate biobanks and research activities using human biological material, but the law seems to be defective in several folds. The law requires that, prior to collection or use of human biological materials, researchers should obtain the informed consent of the donors, but the law does not obligate biobanks to do so. Even in cases where the law requires informed consent, the ordinance of the Ministry of Health and Welfare allows open (or blanket) consent. In addition, a new article in the Act, Article 42-2 which will take effect from October 24, 2019, allows medical institutions to provide biobanks with remaining biospecimens collected in the course of diagnosis and treatment, unless the donors express their intent to opt-out, without obtaining specific consent from them. Given the need to protect the autonomy of donors and the unique characteristics of biobanks and research activities that use human biological materials, this paper concludes that such open consent-based law may not be suitable to protect the autonomy of the donors and that the broad consent requirement may be a desirable policy option. The paper acknowledges that the international community has long questioned whether broad consent (as well as open consent) is an effective choice to regulate the use of human biological materials. The paper stresses that the baseline requirement in designing the law is that the secondary use of human biological materials should be based on informed consent of the donors; the core value of the law should be a governance structure that promotes transparency and protects donor participation.