Bangkok--3 Jul--TCELS
Thailand Center of Excellence for Life Sciences (TCELS) had successfully placed its flag at the 2012 BIO International Convention where it could establish collaborations with the US giant firm in developing advanced pharmacogenomic technologies and with Korea in expanding researches into the industry.
The collaborative project with the US is aimed at developing applications of the Probe Capture assay on next generation DNA-sequencing technologies on HIV-1 pharmacogenomics, the most advanced of its kind in the world which will give new tools for simultaneously diagnosing both human and virus genomes for understanding diseases in the hands of front-line physicians, and bring clear benefits to the patients.
The 2012 BIO International Convention held last week in Boston, Massachusetts in the US had drawn 20,000 participants including researchers, scientists, investors and businessmen from both public and private sectors. TCELS had led the team of Thai delegates who are its ally agencies including the Board of Investment (BOI), the National Nanotechnology Center (Nanotec) and Naresuan University to the event, where the works of Thai researchers were presented at the “Thai Pavilion.”
At the convention, TCELS presented the projects under its support which included the whitening cream product from natural latex extracted by Prince of Songkla University, the discovery of genes that are allergic to the anti-retroviral drugs Nevirapine and d4T which is the world’s first discovery by the Pharmacogenomics Project, Ramathibodi Hospital under Mahidol University, as well as other preclinical and clinical research developments that meet international standards. This is to prove the country’s potential in research collaboration and services.
TCELS Acting Director Kamchorn Balangura said throughout the 4-day event, there were more than 700 visitors showing their interests and seeking information about Bio-Nanotechnology investment, standard clinical researches and development, as well as life science products of Thailand.
Mr Kamchorn said Thailand has achieved great success from the event as it could establish collaboration with giant countries like Korea and the US. The Chuncheon Bioindustry Foundation (CBF) which is Korea’s regional industrial estate has interested in integrating the researches into the industry, and already signed MOU with Thailand.
Meanwhile, the US biotechnological firm, Pathogenica, which works on advanced DNA-sequencing technologies also agreed to sign an MOU to collaborate with TCELS-supported Pharmacogenomics Project.
Prof Wasun Chantratita, head of the Pharmacogenomics Project, Ramathibodi Hospital who also participated in the 2012 BIO International Convention, said Dr Yemi Adesokan, the CEO of Pathogenica had followed Thai researches on pharmacogenomics for a while and had expressed his interest to establish collaboration on this subject with Thailand. After knowing the Pharmacogenomics team was at the convention, talks were held and both groups agreed to work together.
Dr Adesokan is a formal postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University, and inventor of the advanced genome and biotechnology called “Capture assay on Next Generation Sequencing”.
Under the MOU, Diagnostic tests will be developed by the two teams to allow physicians to quickly, cheaply and simultaneously pinpoint features of a patient’s HIV-1 viral load, HIV-1 drug resistance and the risk of adverse antiretroviral drug reactions with accurate results. This information will help physicians in prescribing the drugs that suit and fully benefit each patient.
Dr Wasun explained that to identify HIV- 1 viral load, HIV-1 drug resistance and adverse antiretroviral drug reactions today, scientists must use multiple different tests based on different platforms. This is a slow process and each method often fails to detect small differences in nucleic acid sequence that can have a huge impact on adverse antiretroviral drug reactions, the HIV’s virulence and resistance.
The Pathogenica’s technology can pick out specific regions of both human (patient) and pathogen (HIV-1) genomes discovered by scientists from Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University such as specific markers from HLA and Cytochrome P450 genes involved in adverse drug reactions of a particular patient, and also part of viral genome such as the polymerase gene of the virus involving with the drug resistance. These different parts will be simultaneously sequenced in the single assay, and the test kits will provide a cheaper, faster, and more precise approach than existing tests.
“The goal of individual diagnosis among HIV-infected persons is to improve human welfare, save lives, andsave cost. The collaboration between TCELS and Pathogenica’s next generation sequencing tests are among the first tests that will upgrade the medical diagnosis which brings ultimate benefits to the patients, and the system to interpret the diagnostic results to make them user-friendly and easy to understand for clinicians,” Dr Wasun said.
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[email protected]; www.tcels.or.th; 02-6445499