By Diagnostics World Staff
October 11, 2016 | The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) and the Wenzhou Medical University and its affiliated hospitals (WMU) in China have announced a collaborative clinical genomics research agreement leveraging the research and scientific expertise of JAX and the clinical experience and expertise of WMU and its hospitals. The two groups will seek to better understand genomic propensities to disease and focus on individualized therapies for cancer, heart disease, and other afflictions.
The Jackson Laboratory-Wenzhou collaboration will take place in two phases. The first phase will entail hiring 75 to 100 new employees including principal investigators and scientific and administrative staff, and establishing a clinical research presence on the campus of WMU and in the Life & Health Town of Ouhai District, Wenzhou. JAX will initiate medical genomics research collaborations among WMU and JAX faculty both in the United States and China.
In the second phase, JAX anticipates building its own laboratory supported by the Ouhai District and Wenzhou Medical University and hiring an additional 300 to 500 employees. The Life & Health Town is reserving space for this new facility in the planned development of a new Health Industry Innovation Center, an R&D incubator for the biomedical industry. As part of the agreement, JAX will provide training for Chinese-based researchers in Wenzhou and at the Laboratory’s JAX-Genomic Medicine facility in Farmington, Conn.
Regarding the potential impact of this collaboration on JAX’s work in the United States, the JAX-Wenzhou collaboration will be complementary to the Laboratory’s sites in Maine, Connecticut, and California, and will benefit from shared intellectual collaboration, cross training and other opportunities.
“The unique aspect of this collaboration focused on functional medical genomics is the scale of the capabilities in both Wenzhou and at JAX,” said Edison Liu, M.D., president and CEO of JAX. "With such scale and coordinated action, we can resolve some of the most complex questions in genomic medicine."
Editor's Note: Edison Liu, CEO of the Jackson Laboratories, will be one of the plenary speakers at the 2017 Bio-IT World Conference & Expo.