To provide students with valuable insights into career opportunities in Bioinformatics and introduce the daily operations of the Bioinformatics Branch at the Hong Kong Genome Institute (HKGI), the Master of Science Programme in Genomics and Bioinformatics of the School of Biomedical Sciences arranged a visit to HKGI on 26 January 2024, with approximately 40 participants. Hong Kong Genome Institute is an organisation which integrates genomics into medicine, advance research, nurture talents and enhance public genomic literacy.

The visit commenced with a warm welcome and introduction by Mr. Kevin Ho, the Manager of Human Resources and Talent Development. He introduced the background and mission of HKGI, the significance of the Bioinformatics Branch within the organization, as well as the summer internship programme in HKGI.

Following the introduction, several presentations were held by different members in the Bioinformatics Branch. Dr. Mullin Yu, the Head of Operations (Bioinformatics) provided valuable insights into the operations of HKGI’s Bioinformatics Branch and the platform they have developed to support the diagnosis journey for clinicians and patients. Dr. Sau Dan Lee, the Bioinformatics Pipeline Solution Specialist, demonstrated various in-house tools that assist in identifying pathogenic variants from millions of variants from the human genome. Furthermore, Mr. Anslem Au, a participant in last year’s summer internship programme, presented his research findings from the internship. Finally, we were honored to have Professor Ken Sung, the Chief Bioinformatics Officer, summarized all the presentations by highlighting how new knowledge was created to solve problems and benefit patients.

During the visit, all students had the valuable opportunity to interact with different teams in the Bioinformatics Branch and learn from experts at HKGI about their work experience during the sharing sessions. This visit provided a platform for students to get insight into their future career paths and further their professional development in clinical care and scientific research.

There were around 40 students participated the visit to HKGI.

Photo taken with all presenters and researchers who joined the sharing groups.