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News & Events
Dr. Youngmee Jee, CEO of Institut Pasteur Korea, spoke as a global expert at the NEXT SUMMIT Singapore 2021 `Biomedicine and Health` session
2021-10-06
Dr. Youngmee Jee, CEO of Institut Pasteur Korea,
spoke as a global expert at the NEXT SUMMIT Singapore 2021 'Biomedicine and Health' session
spoke as a global expert at the NEXT SUMMIT Singapore 2021 'Biomedicine and Health' session
Dr. Youngmee Jee, CEO of Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK), attended the NEXT SUMMIT Singapore 2021 held online on the 29th and shared her expert opinion.
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NEXT SUMMIT is a summit conference that was initiated in 2017 based on the collaboration between China and New Zealand where leaders and renowned experts in politics, economy, social science, and science gather to discuss various strategies with the goal of “promoting global innovation, cooperation, and sustainability.” During the 2021 Summit, held under the theme of “Promoting total factor cooperation,” expert discussions were carried out on seven major topics, including singularity and information technology revolution; agricultural science and food security; biomedicine and health; and energy conservation, environmental protection, and sustainable development.
As a global expert of the 'Biomedicine and Health' session, Dr. Jee emphasized the need to accelerate bio-innovation and expand the next-generation core infrastructures such as biofoundry by establishing and operating a close regional and global collaboration system initiated from the Asia-Pacific region.
Introducing the OECD Innovation Strategy 2010*, Dr. Jee said health innovation has been progressing at a rapid pace thanks to advances in technology convergence, digitalized data, interoperable data sources, knowledge/evidence-driven innovation, and platform technology. As highlighted by the 2020 McKinsey Report**, humanity has responded more effectively to COVID-19 compared to previous outbreaks of SARS, MERS, or swine flu with the aid of Bio-Revolution. In particular, the full genome of the virus was sequenced in just weeks after SARS-CoV-2 identification, COVID-19 diagnostic testing kits were developed for use, and above all, COVID-19 vaccine became available within less than one year after the pandemic began. Dr. Jee pointed out the COVID-19 vaccine as a historical achievement of mankind tirelessly advancing bio-innovation.
Dr. Jee argued that to continue such bio-revolution it is necessary to accelerate the construction of a biofoundry that provides automation and analysis infrastructure to support the engineering of biological systems, mentioning the COVID-19 vaccine development through cooperation between Moderna, Gingko Bioworks, and the U.S. NIH as exemplary. She said that biofoundry can be widely applied not only in biomedicine and health fields, but also to environment, food industry, agriculture, materials, and energy.
Emphasizing that "public-private partnership and regional/global collaboration and harmonization are essential for the 'promotion of total factor cooperation'” Dr. Jee proposed the establishment of a global action platform to carry out discussions for multilateral operation and overcoming technological issues. “Establishment of a biofoundry for close collaboration amongst countries around the world, that is centered in the Asia-Pacific region rich in various natural resources, will contribute to the sustainable growth of the global bioeconomy," she asserted.
Furthermore, Dr. Jee mentioned that, while utilizing the bio-innovation as a driving force for human development, we need to discuss its risks such as unintended outcomes, misuse, privacy and consent issues, and unequal access leading to socioeconomic disparity. In particular, she urged for rapid resolution of the COVID-19 vaccine inequity.
* OECD Innovation Strategy 2010
** The Bio Revolution: Innovations transforming economies, societies, and our lives
NEXT SUMMIT is a summit conference that was initiated in 2017 based on the collaboration between China and New Zealand where leaders and renowned experts in politics, economy, social science, and science gather to discuss various strategies with the goal of “promoting global innovation, cooperation, and sustainability.” During the 2021 Summit, held under the theme of “Promoting total factor cooperation,” expert discussions were carried out on seven major topics, including singularity and information technology revolution; agricultural science and food security; biomedicine and health; and energy conservation, environmental protection, and sustainable development. As a global expert of the 'Biomedicine and Health' session, Dr. Jee emphasized the need to accelerate bio-innovation and expand the next-generation core infrastructures such as biofoundry by establishing and operating a close regional and global collaboration system initiated from the Asia-Pacific region.
Introducing the OECD Innovation Strategy 2010*, Dr. Jee said health innovation has been progressing at a rapid pace thanks to advances in technology convergence, digitalized data, interoperable data sources, knowledge/evidence-driven innovation, and platform technology. As highlighted by the 2020 McKinsey Report**, humanity has responded more effectively to COVID-19 compared to previous outbreaks of SARS, MERS, or swine flu with the aid of Bio-Revolution. In particular, the full genome of the virus was sequenced in just weeks after SARS-CoV-2 identification, COVID-19 diagnostic testing kits were developed for use, and above all, COVID-19 vaccine became available within less than one year after the pandemic began. Dr. Jee pointed out the COVID-19 vaccine as a historical achievement of mankind tirelessly advancing bio-innovation.
Dr. Jee argued that to continue such bio-revolution it is necessary to accelerate the construction of a biofoundry that provides automation and analysis infrastructure to support the engineering of biological systems, mentioning the COVID-19 vaccine development through cooperation between Moderna, Gingko Bioworks, and the U.S. NIH as exemplary. She said that biofoundry can be widely applied not only in biomedicine and health fields, but also to environment, food industry, agriculture, materials, and energy.
Emphasizing that "public-private partnership and regional/global collaboration and harmonization are essential for the 'promotion of total factor cooperation'” Dr. Jee proposed the establishment of a global action platform to carry out discussions for multilateral operation and overcoming technological issues. “Establishment of a biofoundry for close collaboration amongst countries around the world, that is centered in the Asia-Pacific region rich in various natural resources, will contribute to the sustainable growth of the global bioeconomy," she asserted.
Furthermore, Dr. Jee mentioned that, while utilizing the bio-innovation as a driving force for human development, we need to discuss its risks such as unintended outcomes, misuse, privacy and consent issues, and unequal access leading to socioeconomic disparity. In particular, she urged for rapid resolution of the COVID-19 vaccine inequity.
* OECD Innovation Strategy 2010
** The Bio Revolution: Innovations transforming economies, societies, and our lives