NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Gentris and the Shanghai Institutes of Preventative Medicine have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on personalized medicine initiatives.
Under the terms of the deal announced today, the partners will launch research projects to discover, develop, and validate new genomic biomarkers. The goal of the partnership is to create translational research and epidemiological projects and training and education programs focused on pharmacogenomics and clinical sample banking.
Gentris, based in Morrisville, NC, will seek to recruit US sponsors for the projects while SIPM will have the same role with Chinese sponsors.
A pilot project conducted by Gentris, SIPM, and an unnamed non-profit research institute based in Research Triangle Park and directed at tuberculosis drug-induced liver injury serves as a model for today's announced collaboration, Gentris said. In that study, researchers designed a common protocol and pooled resources to investigate drug-induced liver injury among tuberculosis patients in three hospitals in Shanghai. The researchers are currently evaluating biomarkers for early detection using metabolomics and pharmacogenomics methods.
Further studies and epidemiological projects will be designed for implementation in Shanghai based on sponsor needs. Therapeutic areas of interest include oncology, infectious diseases, and chronic diseases.
Training and education initiatives will also be created in order to bring US quality standards to China, such GLP, GCP, CLIA, and CAP, Gentris said.