HEEWON SEO, MSc, PhD

    Senior Bioinformatics Scientist
    Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases
    Cumming School of Medicine
    University of Calgary

    Heewon.Seo@ucalgary.ca
    Curriculum Vitae as of May 23, 2026
    GitHub
    Numismous

    Senior Bioinformatics Scientist
    Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases
    Cumming School of Medicine
    University of Calgary

    Heewon.Seo@ucalgary.ca
    Curriculum Vitae
    GitHub
    Numismous


BIO

    Heewon studied at Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea, where he earned both an MSc and PhD in biomedical informatics. During his doctoral training, he applied next-generation sequencing technologies for variant- and gene-based analyses, identifying genomic variants associated with drug-induced side effects. Following his PhD, he pursued postdoctoral research at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, Canada, where he developed a translational framework for precision oncology. His work integrated large-scale pharmacogenomics datasets to design and evaluate drug combination therapies, aiming to improve treatment strategies in cancer. Heewon is currently a Senior Bioinformatics Scientist at the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. His research now focuses on translational microbiome science, where he applies computational and integrative approaches to uncover host–microbe interactions that drive chronic diseases. Beyond his research, Heewon is committed to collaborative science, open-source bioinformatics, and mentoring the next generation of computational biologists.

EDUCATION

  • Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Science (2018)
    Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
    Dissertation: Methods for Variant- and Gene-based Analysis for Pharmacogenomics Research.
  • Master of Science in Medicine (2012)
    Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
    Thesis: Loss of Function Gene-set Analysis of Personal Genome using Pathway-Disease Similarity.
  • Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (2010)
    Sejong University, Seoul, Korea
    Summa cum laude, Three-year graduation

EXPERIENCE

  • Senior Bioinformatics Scientist (Sep 2025–present)
    Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
  • Lead Bioinformatician (Jan 2024–Aug 2025)
    Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
  • Bioinformatician (Nov 2020–Dec 2023)
    Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
  • Visiting Researcher (Jan 2018–Oct 2020)
    Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, ON, Canada
  • Postdoctoral Fellow (Jan 2018–Oct 2020)
    Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Biomedical informatics
  • Spatial transcriptomics
  • Translational genomics
  • Computational pharmacology
  • Statistical genetics

SKILLS

  • High-level languages : C/C++
  • Scripting languages : R, Python, javascript, PHP, and HTML
  • Structured query languages (SQL) : MySQL, MariaDB, and NoSQL (MongoDB)
  • Operating system : Good working knowledge of Linux and MacOS
  • Adobe products : Illustrator, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro

PUBLICATIONS

† : (co-) First author, *: (co-) Corresponding author

  1. Reproducible transcriptional modules define glioblastoma ecosystems across independent cohorts.
    Heewon Seo
    bioRxiv 2026 DOI: 10.64898/2026.05.20.726700 | View PDF
  2. Spatial Transcriptomics Revealed Alzheimer’s Disease Associated Molecular Markers in Parvalbumin Interneurons.
    Heewon Seo†, Dylan J. Terstege, Yi Ren, Shiying Liu, Kimberly-Ann Ruth Goring, Bo Young Ahn, Jonathan Epp*
    Nat Commun 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-73474-6 | PMID: 42161970
  3. Spatial transcriptomics identifies IL-32 as a lipid droplet-associated cytokine linked to tubular injury in human diabetic kidney disease.
    Kieran Meadows†, Hyunjae Chung, Son Vo, Aysa Imanzadeh, Heewon Seo, Sisay Getie Belay, Asha Swamy, Wulin Teo, Kevin Chapman, Graciela Andonegui, Hallgrimur Benediktsson, Peter K. Stys, Thang Pham, Daniel A. Muruve, Justin Chun*
    Inflamm Res 2026;75(1):33 DOI: 10.1007/s00011-026-02192-y | PMID: 41653322
  4. Evaluating Gene Representation in Spatial Transcriptomics across Pre-Designed Panels.
    Heewon Seo*, Roman Krawetz
    bioRxiv 2025 DOI: 10.1101/2025.04.07.647642 | View PDF
  5. Impaired Parvalbumin Interneurons in the Retrosplenial Cortex as the Cause of Sex-dependent Vulnerability in Alzheimer’s Disease.
    Dylan J. Terstege†, Yi Ren, Bo Young Ahn, Heewon Seo, Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, Liisa A. M. Galea, Derya Sargin, Jonathan Epp*
    Sci Adv 2025;11(18):eadt8976 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adt8976 | PMID: 40305608
  6. Spatiotemporal Modeling Reveals High-resolution Invasion States in Glioblastoma.
    Varsha Thoppey Manoharan†, Aly Abdelkareem, Gurveer Gill, Samuel Brown, Aaron Gillmor, Courtney Hall, Heewon Seo, Kiran Narta, Sean Grewal, Ngoc Ha Dang, Bo Young Ahn, Kata Osz, Xueqing Lun, Laura Mah, Franz Zemp, Douglas Mahoney, Donna L. Senger*, Jennifer A. Chan*, A Sorana Morrissy*
    Genome Biol 2024;25(1):264 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-024-03407-3 | PMID: 39390467
  7. CD73 Inhibits cGAS-STING and Cooperates with CD39 to Promote Pancreatic Cancer.
    Célia Jacoberger-Foissac†, Isabelle Cousineau†, Yacine Bareche†, David Allard, Pavel Chrobak, Bertrand Allard, Sandra Pommey, Nouredin Messaoudi, Geneviève Soucy, Secil Koseoglu, Ricard Masia, Andrew C. Lake, Heewon Seo, Christopher B. Eeles, Neha Rohatgi, Simon C. Robson, Simon Turcotte, Benjamin Haibe-Kains, John Stagg*
    Cancer Immunol Res 2023;11(1):56-71 DOI: 10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-22-0260 | PMID: 36409930
  8. Orchestrating and Sharing Large Multimodal Data for Transparent and Reproducible Research.
    Anthony Mammoliti†, Petr Smirnov, Minoru Nakano, Zhaleh Safikhani, Christopher Eeles, Heewon Seo, Sisira Kadambat Nair, Ian Smith, Chantal Ho, Gangesh Beri, Rebecca Kusko, Eva Lin, Yihong Yu, Scott Martin, Marc Hafner, Benjamin Haibe-Kains*
    Nat Commun 2021;12(1):5797 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25974-w | PMID: 34608132
  9. CaReAl: Capturing Read Alignments in a BAM file Rapidly and Conveniently.
    Yoomi Park†, Heewon Seo†, Kyunghun Yoo, Ju Han Kim*
    J Big Data 2021;8:23 DOI: 10.1186/s40537-021-00418-w | View PDF
  10. Identifying Genetic Variants Associated with Ritodrine-induced Pulmonary Edema.
    Seung Mi Lee†, Yoomi Park†, Young Ju Kim, Han-Sung Hwang, Heewon Seo, Byung-Joo Min, Kye Hwa Lee, So Yeon Kim, Young Mi Jung, Suehyun Lee, Chan-Wook Park, Ju Han Kim*, Joong Shin Park*
    PLoS One 2020;15(11):e0241215 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241215 | PMID: 33166306
  11. Homozygote CRIM1 Variant is Associated with Thiopurine-induced Neutropenia in Leukemic Patients with both Wildtype NUDT15 and TPMT.
    Yoomi Park†, Hyery Kim†, Heewon Seo, Jung Yoon Choi, Youngeun Ma, Sunmin Yun, Byung-Joo Min, Myung-Eui Seo, Keon Hee Yoo, Hyoung Jin Kang, Ho Joon Im, Ju Han Kim*
    J TRANSL MED 2020;18(1):265 DOI: 10.1186/s12967-020-02416-7 | PMID: 32611418
  12. Gene-wise Variant Burden and Genomic Characterization of Nearly Every Gene.
    Yoomi Park†, Heewon Seo, Brian Ryu, Ju Han Kim*
    Pharmacogenomics 2020;21(12):827-840 DOI: 10.2217/pgs-2020-0039 | PMID: 32700635
  13. SYNERGxDB: an Integrative Pharmacogenomic Portal to Identify Synergistic Drug Combinations for Precision Oncology.
    Heewon Seo†, Denis Tkachuk, Chantal Ho, Anthony Mammoliti, Aria Rezaie, Seyed Ali Madani Tonekaboni, Benjamin Haibe-Kains*
    Nucleic Acids Res 2020;48(W1):W494-W501 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkaa421 | PMID: 32442307
  14. ToxicoDB: an Integrated Database to Mine and Visualize Large-scale Toxicogenomic Datasets.
    Sisira Kadambat Nair†, Christopher Eeles, Chantal Ho, Gangesh Beri, Esther Yoo, Denis Tkachuk, Amy Tang, Parwaiz Nijrabi, Petr Smirnov, Heewon Seo, Danyel Jennen, Benjamin Haibe-Kains*
    Nucleic Acids Res 2020;48(W1):W455-W462 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkaa390 | PMID: 32421831
  15. Discovery of Donor Genotype Associated with Long-term Survival of Patients with Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
    Chan-Young Ock†, Heewon Seo†, Dae-Yoon Kim, Byung Joo Min, Yoomi Park, Hyun Sub Cheong, Eun-Young Song, Inho Kim, Sung-Soo Yoon, Ju Han Kim*, Youngill Koh*
    Leuk Lymphoma 2018;60(7):1775-1781 DOI: 10.1080/10428194.2018.1542142 | PMID: 30507323
  16. Deleterious Genetic Variants in Ciliopathy Genes Increase Risk of Ritodrine-induced Cardiac and Pulmonary Side Effects.
    Heewon Seo†, Eun Jin Kwon†, Young-Ah You, Yoomi Park, Byung Joo Min, Kyunghun Yoo, Han Sung Hwang, Ju Han Kim*, Young Ju Kim*
    BMC Med Genomics 2018;11(1):4 DOI: 10.1186/s12920-018-0323-4 | PMID: 29368655
  17. APEX1 Polymorphism and Mercaptopurine-related Early Onset Neutropenia in Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
    Hyery Kim†, Heewon Seo†, Yoomi Park, Byung Joo Min, Myung Eui Seo, Kyung Duk Park, Hee Young Shin, Ju Han Kim*, Hyoung Jin Kang*
    Cancer Res Treat 2018;50(3):823-834 DOI: 10.4143/crt.2017.351 | PMID: 28882023
  18. Idiopathic Hypereosinophilia Is Clonal Disorder? Clonality Identified by Targeted Sequencing.
    Jee-Soo Lee†, Heewon Seo, Kyongok Im, Si Nae Park, Sung-Min Kim, Jung-Ah Kim, Seon Young Kim, Joon-hee Lee, Sunghoon Kwon, Miyoung Kim, Insong Koh, Heung-Woo Park, Ju Han Kim, Dong Soon Lee*
    PLoS One 2017;12(10):e0185602 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185602 | PMID: 29088303
  19. Evaluation of Exome Variants using the Ion Proton Platform to Sequence Error-Prone Regions.
    Heewon Seo†, Yoomi Park†, Byung Joo Min, Myung Eui Seo, Ju Han Kim*
    PLoS One 2017;12(7):e0181304 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181304 | PMID: 28742110
  20. Posttranslational Control of T-cell Development by the ESCRT protein CHMP5.
    Stanley Adoro†, Kwang H Park, Sarah E Bettigole, Raphael Lis, Hee Rae Shin, Heewon Seo, Ju Han Kim, Klaus-Peter Knobeloch, Jae-Hyuck Shim*, Laurie H. Glimcher*
    Nat Immunol 2017;18(7):780-790 DOI: 10.1038/ni.3764 | PMID: 28553951
  21. Markers of Disease and Steroid Responsiveness in Paediatric Idiopathic Nephrotic Syndrome: Whole-transcriptome Sequencing of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells.
    Hee Gyung Kang†, Heewon Seo†, Jae Hyun Lim, Jong Il Kim, Kyoung Hee Han, Hey Won Park, Ja Wook Koo, Kee Hyuck Kim, Ju Han Kim*, Hae Il Cheong, Il-Soo Ha*
    J Int Med Res 2017;45(3):948-963 DOI: 10.1177/0300060516652762 | PMID: 28639503
  22. Gastrointestinal Tuberculosis is not Associated with Proton Pump Inhibitors: A Retrospective Cohort Study.
    Kyoung Sup Hong†, Seung Joo Kang, Jong Kyoung Choi, Ju Han Kim, Heewon Seo, Suehyun Lee, Jae-Woo Jung, Hye-Ryun Kang, Sang-Heon Cho, Joo Sung Kim*
    World J Gastroenterol 2013;19(2):258-264 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v19.i2.258 | PMID: 23345949
  23. Development of Korean Rare Disease Knowledge Base.
    Heewon Seo†, Dokyoon Kim, Jong-Hee Chae, Hee Gyung Kang, Buyng Chan Lim, Hae Il Cheong, Ju Han Kim*
    Healthc Inform Res 2012;18(04):272-278 DOI: 10.4258/hir.2012.18.4.272 | PMID: 23346478