NEW YORK – A newly minted partnership between Singleron Biotechnologies and the Institute for Healthier Living Abu Dhabi (IHLAD) aims to foster the adoption of the former's single-cell technology in the Middle East while driving the latter's research for personalized medicine.
Last week, the companies launched a joint venture named AD-Omics that will combine IHLAD's knowledge in human longevity research with Singleron's single-cell multiomics technologies to advance precision medicine in the United Arab Emirates and beyond.
"The UAE has always been trying to build up their precision medicine and genomics capabilities," said Singleron CEO and Cofounder Nan Fang. "For now, I think this would be our way of entering the region."
According to Fang, Singleron and IHLAD were in talks for almost two years before the companies formally kicked off AD-Omics. Singleron considers IHLAD as a "perfect partner" for the joint venture because of its familiarity with the Middle Eastern market as well as its focus on precision medicine, she noted.
The Middle East "is a region with high potential, but we are not from the region, and we feel we don't know the local culture that well to be able to just come [to the market] and without any partners," Fang said.
As a company, AD-Omics will operate a service lab to support local single-cell omics projects using Singleron's products and platforms, Fang said. In addition, AD-Omics will distribute Singleron's single-cell reagent kits and instruments in the region for customers in the Middle East and North Africa regions.
While AD-Omics will primarily focus on single-cell multiomics, Fang said, the company will also offer other genomic services leveraging its next-generation sequencing capabilities.
Singleron will contribute IP, technologies, and expertise to AD-Omics, and several of its employees will help establish the lab. She declined to share financial details of the partnership, other than noting that the companies "are nearly equal" in the partnership and will "work closely together" to manage the company.
While AD-Omics brings Singleron's reach to the Middle East, the company, based in Germany and China, has been expanding its commercial footprint in recent years, including to other parts of Asia and North America.
For IHLAD, the JV brings new opportunities for its longevity research. "Through AD-Omics, we will not only enhance diagnostic and treatment pathways for chronic conditions but also contribute to the health and longevity of the population by making predictive, personalized care more accessible," IHLAD CEO Nicole Sirotin said in an email.
According to Sirotin, through AD-Omics, IHLAD plans to leverage patients' single-cell multiomics data and AI to enable "real-time clinical decision-making and personalized treatments for complex chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer," which she said are common across the Middle East.
Sirotin said the company is currently "mapping out [its] research priorities and onboarding key regional and global partners" and will integrate the first wave of diagnostic offerings into clinical practice "very soon."
Additionally, AD-Omics will offer training programs to clinicians in the region to help them incorporate precision diagnostics into daily care. The company also plans to establish regional centers of excellence to "serve as knowledge and innovation hubs, not just for the UAE but for the broader Middle East."
By serving as a "launch pad" for local single-cell research, AD-Omics also aims to drive the adoption of Singleron's technologies in the Middle East, Fang said.
The partnership between Singleron and IHLAD mirrors the broader interest by the UAE government in attracting more life sciences and biotechnology companies to the region.
Last week, for instance, the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), and the Department of Health-Abu Dhabi launched a so-called Health, Endurance, Longevity, and Medicine (HELM) cluster to help innovate healthcare and attract international investment.
"AD-Omics directly aligns with the UAE’s commitment to becoming a global life sciences hub," Sirotin said. "We’re creating an ecosystem where technology, clinical care, and research are deeply integrated, exactly the kind of ecosystem that Abu Dhabi has long been investing in."