This year has already seen two major career honors bestowed on DBMI Professor Peter Park: he was selected as a 2024 Fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) in March, and this month the Ho-Am Foundation announced he is the 2024 Samsung Ho-Am Prize laureate for Medicine.

ISCB recognized Park “for his seminal contributions in human genome and epigenome analysis. He led pioneering studies of structural alteration in cancer genomes, unveiling the landscape of somatic retrotransposition, microsatellite instability, chromothripsis, and other complex rearrangements. His work had clinical applications, such as a method for detecting homologous recombination deficiency to guide PARP [poly-ADP ribose polymerase] inhibitor use in cancer patients. Dr. Park also explored mutational processes in the brain, utilizing single-cell whole-genome sequencing to study neuronal mutations and early human development.”

Remarking on the ISCB selection, DBMI inaugural chair Zak Kohane observed, “Beyond all his well-known scientific achievements, Peter has invested more than was asked for in teaching, in community support and mentorship. DBMI is fortunate to have him among our founding faculty.” For over a decade, Park has directed the Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics (BIG) track of our PhD program at HMS. 

The Samsung Ho-Am Prize, given to individuals who have made a global impact in their field, includes a $222,500 award. The committee chose Park as “a world-renowned leader in the [interdisciplinary] field of computational biology… He studies the vast amount of information in the human genome to elucidate the mechanisms of disease development. [His] pioneering work has led to the development of innovative computational methods that are now used by universities, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies worldwide to examine DNA alterations in diseased cells. His contributions have played a critical role in mapping the genetic information of human cancers.” An award ceremony will be held in Korea on May 31.