NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – PerkinElmer today announced it has opened a new laboratory in Suzhou, China that will offer testing services to support neonatal health and monitor infectious diseases in adults.
The Suzhou PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory will offer laboratory services, including molecular cytogenetics detection, screening for inherited metabolic diseases, and viral load testing.
"With China's newborn population exceeding 16 million per year and prenatal screening at 40 percent, the Chinese government is increasingly focused on investing in maternity and child care institutions for birth defect prevention," Xu-ming Bian, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, said in a statement. "Chinese regulations on maternal and child health administration are improving, the national birth defects prevention network is evolving, and prenatal screening and diagnosis systems have been established."
PerkinElmer said in a statement that it hopes the laboratory will offer scientists and clinicians a venue to collaborate on basic and translational research and development. It also said it plans to expand its menu of laboratory services to include tumor testing, as well as introduce new genomic sequencing applications.
In June 2014, PerkinElmer signed an agreement with China's National Health and Family Planning Commission to implement a newborn screening program in the country.