A new patent, "Methylation biomarkers for breast cancer" (UPSTO Patent No. 9982307), was granted on May 29, 2018. Developed by Professor Vladimir Bajic, Senior Bioinformatician Roberto Incitti and former Bioscience Core Lab Research Scientist Hicham Mansour, it uses a similar methodology as a previously granted patent, "Methylation biomarkers for prostate cancer" (USPTO Patent No. 9976187).
Xiangliang Zhang, KAUST associate professor of computer science and principal investigator of the Machine Intelligence & Knowledge Engineering Lab, joined the Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC) on July 1, 2018. In CBRC, Xiangliang will work on the problems of modeling biological networks using machine learning models.
Women in Data Science (WiDS) is like the Global Women's March for analytics; it's a phenomenon too big for just one city. WiDS is the largest data science conference on Earth—taking place in over 50 countries, it has attained more than 100,000 attendees and is tagged as a global movement. The annual conference aims to inspire and educate data scientists worldwide—regardless of gender—and support women in the field. This year's WiDS conference was held at Stanford University with more than 100 regional institutions all over the world participating, including KAUST.
A new patent, "Methylation biomarkers for prostate cancer" (USPTO Patent No. 9976187), filed by Professor Vladimir Bajic, Senior Bioinformatician Roberto Incitti and former Bioscience Core Lab Research Scientist Hicham Mansour was granted on May 22, 2018. 
Martin Ibarra and Michael Margineanu are two KAUST PhD students with a deep interest in the translational opportunities of bioscience research. Working with KAUST Innovation and Economic Development (I&ED), the pair designed KAUST’s first bio-entrepreneurship ideation workshop for a large turnout of Biological and Environmental Science Engineering (BESE) students and postdocs.
​CBRC Ph.D. student Somayah Albaradei won first place in the People's Choice category of the 2018 Spring Enrichment Program's ePoster-City of the Future competition. She won an iPad Pro and received a certificate of recognition.
Yi Mei Ng, a Ph.D. student under the joint supervision of Dr. John Archer and Prof. Takashi Gojobori, won Best Keynote Talk at the 2018 Young Algaeneers Symposium held in Oban, Scotland on May 16-18, 2018. Besides a certificate of recognition, she will also receive a prize of £200.
Meshari Alazami, a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Associate Professor Xin Gao, successfully defended his thesis proposal on May 22, 2018.  His topic, "Towards Rational Design of Biosynthesis Pathways", was well received by committee members Associate Professor Xin Gao, Distinguished Professor Takashi Gojobori and Assistant Professor Robert Hoehndorf.