New blog post: Advancing Precision Biomarker Discovery through Open Science by Lee Jia Wei

content/posts/2026-08-06-Jia-Wei-BOSC.md

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+---
+author: Jia Wei Lee
+date: 2026-08-06
+
+category:
+ - community
+ - event-fellowship
+ - travel-fellowship
+
+tag:
+ - community
+ - event-fellowship
+ - travel-fellowship
+
+title: "Advancing Precision Biomarker Discovery through Open Science"
+url: /2026/08/06/2026-08-06-Jia-Wei-BOSC/
+---
+
+**_The_** [**_Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF) Event Fellowship program_**](/travel-awards) **_aims to promote diverse participation at events promoting open-source bioinformatics software development and open science practices in the biological research community. [Lee Jia Wei],_** _**a [PhD candidate] at**_ _**[the National University of Singapore]**_, **_was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend_** _**the**_ **_[Bioinformatics Open Source Conference](https://www.open-bio.org/events/bosc-2026/)_**.
+![Interactive, publicly accessible catalogue of childhood AD biomarkers](/img/2026/2026-08-06-JWLee-1.jpg)
+
+Thanks to the generous support of the Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF), I had the privilege of attending and presenting a poster at this year’s Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC 2026), part of the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference. It was truly an eye-opening experience for me, particularly because it was my first international bioinformatics conference, and my first foray into the open bioinformatics community.
+
+## Poster Presentation
+At BOSC, I was thrilled to present my research poster, titled “An AI-Enabled Review Workflow and Interactive Resource for Biomarker Discovery”. My project involved the development of an AI-enabled systematic review workflow and an interactive biomarker resource. By leveraging active learning and large language models, I established an efficient and scalable framework for AI-augmented biomedical evidence synthesis. Using pediatric atopic dermatitis (AD) as a case study, I developed an interactive, publicly accessible catalogue of childhood AD biomarkers to facilitate efficient biomarker exploration and enhance scientific usability.
+
+* [GitHub Repository](https://github.com/LCFGChipmunt/ad_review)
+* [Biomarker Catalogue](https://jiaweilee.shinyapps.io/eczema_review/)
+
+## BOSC Keynote Speech
+My most memorable part of BOSC was attending the keynote lecture by Dr. Eric Green, Chief Medical Officer at Illumina, who delivered a passionate and engaging talk on the past, present, and future of genomic medicine. It was inspiring to step back and reflect on how far the field has come—from the completion of the Human Genome Project to today's vibrant landscape, where genomics plays a central role in both basic and translational research. Looking to the future, it is exciting to see how genomic medicine is poised to become increasingly integrated into clinical practice and public health. As advances in genomics continue to drive precision medicine, they have the potential to transform healthcare by enabling more personalized care for patients.
+
+## ISMB Tutorial
+I have also gained invaluable bioinformatics skills through the ISMB Virtual Tutorial 4: Multimodal Integration and Multimodal Causal Inference, taught by Dr. Himel Mallick. The tutorial provided a fascinating overview of the emerging computational approaches for multi-omics data integration, complemented by a guided hands-on session where we learned how to implement these methods using R. With these newfound insights, I am excited to apply these approaches to my current research on biomarker discovery for childhood atopic dermatitis.
+
+* [GitHub Repository](https://github.com/himelmallick/ISMB2026MultimodalShortCourse)
+
+![ISMB Virtual Tutorial](/img/2026/2026-08-06-JWLee-2.jpg)
+
+## Conclusion
+As researchers, it is easy to become absorbed in the daily grind of reading papers, analyzing data and writing manuscripts. Amidst this, attending the conference gave me the opportunity to step back and be inspired by the exciting advances taking place across the field. Learning about the incredible pace of innovation in bioinformatics has reminded me that there is still so much to learn and discover. More importantly, this experience has left me with a renewed sense of purpose. While our individual research contributions may seem small, we are all part of a larger scientific community united by a shared goal of driving innovation, advancing science, and improving lives.
+
+## Acknowledgements
+I would like to express my gratitude to the Open Bioinformatics Foundation for awarding me this fellowship, which made it possible for me to attend BOSC. I am also deeply grateful to my advisors and collaborators—A/Prof Caroline Lee, A/Prof Evelyn Loo, A/Prof Kenneth Ban, and A/Prof Samuel Chong—for their guidance, mentorship, and support throughout this project.
+
+---