Group photo taken after the opening ceremony of the UK Korea Research Conference on March 22, 2023, at Yongpyoung Resort. Some notable individuals include President YOO Ook-Jun (Korea Academy of Sciences), President NOH Do Young (Institute for Basic Science), Sir Peter KNIGHT FRS HonFInstP (Imperial College London), and Sir Roy ANDERSON FRS FMedSci (Imperial College London).

The small town of Pyeongchang came into the international spotlight when it hosted the 2018 Winter Olympics. Four years later, the brightest scientific minds from both South Korea and the United Kingdom gathered in the same town to discuss various topics from quantum computing to COVID-19.

From March 21 to 23, UK-Korea Research Conference was held in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province. Since 2014, the UK-Korea Research Conference has been held by the two nations, each taking a turn being the host. This year marks the 6th conference, which was held with the support of the Royal Society, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), and Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST).

One of the two main topics of this year’s conference was infectious diseases, which was held in the Crystal Hall of the Yongpyoung Resort.

The program kicked off on day 1 with a co-chair session, where Director SHIN Eui-Cheol (Center for Viral Immunology) detailed immune mechanisms that are responsible for turning mild covid infection into a severe case, and possible anti-inflammatory measures to prevent this from occurring. He also described the effects of corticosteroids as an anti-inflammatory treatment for patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Meanwhile, Caroline Vegvari (Imperial College London), the junior co-chair from the UK, gave a presentation about the importance of clinical trial simulation (CTS) in drug development. By using CTS to predict clinical results and eliminate unnecessary experiments, it is possible to achieve significant cost-saving in new drug development.

Unsurprisingly, COVID-19 constituted the major portion of the discussion at this year’s conference. Diverse areas of COVID-19-related research were presented, ranging from epidemic modeling, diagnostics, virus mutations, and vaccines. In particular, a number of British speakers presented in the field of policy, epidemiology, and disease modeling.

Professor Chris Jewell (Lancaster University) explained the impact of statistical modeling on the British government's corona policy. His presentation explained how solving current problems in Bayesian statistics and computational science can revolutionize our ability to predict epidemic transmission.

Deputy Director Fergus Cumming (UK Health Security Agency) also emphasized the importance of data analysis in COVID-19 policies enacted by the UK government. In particular, he described the difficulty for diverse interest groups in reaching a consensus – for example, those in education may be concerned about the school closings depriving children of education, economists would be concerned about the negative impact of lockdowns, while healthcare workers want to save many lives as possible. This demonstrates the importance of using data analysis to weigh out all these different factors in order to devise the most optimal policy.

Among the Korean speakers, Director JUNG Jaehun (Gachon University) described South Korean COVID-19 policies, and the impact disease modeling had on the decision-making process. In contrast to the UK which briefly switched to policies centered around local governments around the end of 2020, which coincided with a large increase in the number of infections, South Korea managed to curb the infection rate early on owing to its strong nationwide quarantines and contact tracing.

While successful with the earlier strains of the virus, the high R-value of the omicron variant overwhelmed South Korean policy and caused an unprecedented surge in the number of infections, which caused the nation to lift its stringent restriction. These efforts weren't in vain, however, as South Korea managed to minimize the number of infections earlier in the pandemic when more virulent original and delta strains were dominant. Delaying the mass outbreak until the emergence of a relatively benign omicron variant allowed South Korea to have a much lower case fatality rate than most other developed countries such as the UK or the US. Many UK speakers also commented positively on the selfless culture of the Korean people that made it possible for the South Korean government to carry out its policy.

The importance of vaccines and early diagnosis was also mentioned. Research Fellow Oliver Watson (The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) emphasized the success of the global vaccination program, stating that the vaccines prevented 20 million deaths and 1.5 billion infections worldwide, with 12 million of the prevented deaths being in developed countries. But he also pointed out the shortcomings of the global vaccine program. In particular, he criticized the vaccine hoarded by the developed countries. He lamented that had the hoarded vaccines been distributed to the developing countries, one million more lives could have been saved in developing countries with minimum impact on the number of deaths in developed countries.

Professor Helena Peeling (The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) of the UK presented a solid case for the increase of funding in the field of disease diagnosis. She criticized the fact that in the modern healthcare industry, diagnosis is treated as ‘cost’ rather than ‘value’, saying how “Diagnosis is the neglected child, the Cinderella of the industry.” However, the importance of rapid large-scale diagnosis has also become more apparent after the COVID-19 pandemic, with a larger investment in the area to prepare for the fight against future diseases.

While COVID-19 was largely the focus of the session, there were also a number of interesting presentations on other infectious diseases. Managing Director CHOI Young Ki (Korea Virus Research Institute) also gave his own presentation on an emerging disease of concern in the afternoon of day 2 on the topic of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV), which is a tick-borne viral disease that was first identified in China in 2009. The disease can cause severe illness with symptoms including fever, fatigue, and gastrointestinal symptoms, resulting in a very high mortality rate. He discussed the ongoing research on the disease whole, from the viral transmission, epidemiology, and pathogenesis of the disease.

It is hoped that the joint conference between the experts from South Korea and the UK will strengthen the collaboration and research progress in both countries.