Harim Chun
Ph.D. Student · Computational Cancer Genomics

Decoding Cancer Complexity at Spatial & Single-Cell Resolution.

I am a Ph.D. student in Biomedical Sciences at The Catholic University of Korea, integrating spatial transcriptomics, single-cell multi-omics, and gene-regulatory-network analysis to investigate tumor–immune interactions and biomarkers of therapeutic response.

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Research Focus

Applying scalable computational methods to large-scale genomic datasets. My work emphasizes biological insight, reproducibility, and statistical rigor.

Spatial Transcriptomics

Mapping the spatial architecture of tumor–immune interactions and neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy response in pleural mesothelioma.

> Seurat, Harmony, CIBERSORTx

Single-Cell Multi-Omics

Integrating scRNA-seq and scATAC-seq to uncover gene-regulatory networks behind immune-checkpoint response and cellular heterogeneity.

> Seurat, SCENIC, Monocle3, MAST

Cancer Genomics

Discovering biomarkers of cancer progression and treatment response from WES/WGS and bulk RNA-seq patient cohorts.

> GATK, VEP, ANNOVAR, DESeq2

Built with Python · R · Unix/Linux · AWS · GCP · Spark

Experience

PathFinderLab

Sep 2024 — Present

The Catholic University of Korea & Korea University Anam Hospital · Advisor: Sung Hak Lee, M.D., Ph.D.

Graduate Student (2025—) · Research Associate (2024—2025)

  • Spatial architecture of neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy response in pleural mesothelioma — integrating spatial transcriptomic and genomic data to characterize tumor–immune interactions and response-associated cellular states; presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2026.

Choi Lab — Human Genetics & Genomics

Jul 2020 — Aug 2024

Korea University · Advisor: Jungmin Choi, Ph.D.

Graduate Student (2021—2024) · Undergraduate Research Intern (2020—2021)

  • Metachronous gastric cancer — analyzed RNA-seq from 46 patients; identified KDF1 and CDK1 as predictive biomarkers (with Prof. Soo-Jeong Cho, SNU).
  • Liver cancer biomarker discovery — found pseudogene-derived lncRNA PLEKHA8P1 as a prognostic biomarker in TCGA-LIHC (with Prof. Lark Kyun Kim, Yonsei).
  • Hematopoietic stem cell niche — dissected HSPC heterogeneity via scRNA-seq in Cxcr4 cKO mice (with Prof. Joao Pereira, Yale).
  • Gene-regulatory networks of immune-checkpoint response — integrated scRNA-seq and scATAC-seq to identify response-associated regulatory networks in basal cell carcinoma.

Post-Genome Informatics Lab

Aug 2019 — Jul 2020

Soongsil University · Advisor: Sangsoo Kim, Ph.D.

Research Intern — eQTL analysis, structure-based virtual screening, and pan-cancer transcriptomic analysis

Insilicogen, Inc.

Jul — Aug 2019

Yongin, Korea

Bioinformatics Intern — built a Neo4j prototype for genomics-informed personalized nutrition

Publications

Conference Presentations

Education

Teaching

  • 2024 Single-Cell Multi-Omics — KSBI-BIML, Korea Society for Bioinformatics
  • 2023 Spatial Transcriptomics with R — KSBI-BIML & the 19th KOGO Winter Workshop
  • 2022 NGS Data Analysis Pipeline, GATK Best-Practice — Korea University, INNOPOLIS
  • 2019 Hadoop File System and PySpark — CoRE Tutoring, Soongsil University

Awards & Honors

  • 2026—2027 Asan Foundation Scholarship for Biomedical Science — Asan Foundation
  • 2024 Excellence Poster Award — The 20th KOGO Winter Symposium
  • 2021 Brain Korea 21 (BK21) Scholarship — Korea Research Foundation
  • 2020 CoRE Tutoring Best Tutor Award — Soongsil University
  • 2016 · 2020 Semester Honor Scholarship — Soongsil University