□ DGIST (President Kunwoo Lee) announced that it will hold the international forum “Meet the Pioneers: Liquid Biopsy 2026” at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 9, in the B1 Auditorium at Korea Bio Park in Pangyo. The forum will discuss the latest trends in liquid biopsy (a technology for diagnosing cancer through bodily fluids), a field that is transforming the paradigm of cancer diagnosis and treatment.
□ Hosted by DGIST and jointly organized by CTCELLS and the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization, the forum has been organized to invite world-renowned scholars representing the field of liquid biopsy to share their research achievements. In particular, the forum will convene oncology clinicians and members of the bioindustry in Korea to explore future directions for next-generation liquid biopsy research combining artificial intelligence (AI) with robotic self-driving laboratory technologies.
□ The event will feature Professor Klaus Pantel and Professor Catherine Alix-Panabières, two of the world’s leading authorities on circulating tumor cells (CTCs, rare tumor cells that circulate in the blood and contribute to cancer metastasis), as speakers. Professor Pantel, Director of the Institute of Tumor Biology at University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) in Germany, and Professor Alix-Panabières, Director of the Rare Human Circulating Cells Laboratory (LCCRH) at Montpellier University Hospital in France, are key figures who have expanded the clinical applications of liquid biopsy through their longstanding research collaboration.
□ Prior to the keynote lectures by the international scholars, DGIST Professor Minseok S. Kim will present the research and development directions and potential of the “AI-native self-driving lab,” which is attracting attention as a new breakthrough in liquid biopsy. A self-driving laboratory is an advanced research system in which AI designs data-based experiments, a robotic automation system carries them out, and thereafter, AI analyzes the results and uses them to guide subsequent experiments.
□ With support from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), DGIST is currently leading a joint industry-academia-research-hospital research initiative with the National Cancer Center, the Hanyang University Industry-University Cooperation Foundation, CTCELLS, and ROBOS. Through this collaboration, DGIST is integrating AI and robotics into liquid biopsy research to build a research platform for rapidly and precisely identifying and validating cancer-related biomarkers (indicators that can detect changes in the body).
□ Liquid biopsy, which assesses the status of cancer by analyzing information present in bodily fluids such as blood, has recently been expanding rapidly beyond diagnosis into areas such as treatment response monitoring, drug development, and precision medicine. The integration of AI-based self-driving laboratory technology is expected to automate repetitive experiments and enable sophisticated data-driven analysis, thereby maximizing research efficiency in areas such as the discovery of new biomarkers.
□ “This forum provides a meaningful opportunity for world-renowned experts in liquid biopsy and researchers from Korea to come together and engage in in-depth discussions on the potential of next-generation AI-based liquid biopsy research,” stated DGIST Professor Minseok S. Kim. “We will continue to expand our global collaborative network with research institutions and industry in Korea and abroad to pioneer new models of interdisciplinary research in advanced biotechnology.”
□ Moreover, “Meet the Pioneers: Liquid Biopsy 2026” will be held from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on September 9 in the B1 Auditorium at Korea Bio Park in Pangyo. The event is expected to provide an opportunity for extensive interaction and exchange among researchers in related fields and industry professionals interested in liquid biopsy and advanced biotechnology convergence.
