NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The University of California, San Francisco will use a $2 million grant from a Hong Kong-based private foundation to create a personalized genomic medicine research partnership with scientists in China, UCSF said on Friday.
UCSF said it plans to use the funding from the Li Ka Shing Foundation to partner with Shantou University, in Southeast China's Guangdong Province, and the foundation to launch three initial personalized medicine programs.
Under one program, the universities will create a biomedical knowledge network that will connect established clinical-pathological indexes with molecular profiles of diseases. They also plan to develop a program that will focus on systems pharmacology by combining new molecular technologies with traditional hypothesis-driven research approaches.
In another joint effort, UCSF, Shantou, and the foundation will bring together their researchers to launch international leadership exchanges and symposia.
These initial programs will serve as the springboard to other personalized medicine projects in the future, UCSF said.
This funding marks the first grant UCSF has received from the foundation, which is has contributed nearly $1 billion for education, healthcare, and cultural projects since its founding in 1980.