HS Bio, UTAR to accelerate medical diagnostics R&D, services
KUALA LUMPUR:Neogenix Laboratoire Sdn Bhd (Neogenix Lab), 60 per cent owned subsidiary of HS Bio Sdn Bhd and which in turn a whollyowned subsidiary of Hong Seng Consolidated Bhd), has through its subsidiary Neogenix Evo Sdn Bhd (Neogenix Evo), entered into a memorandum of understanding with Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) to explore areas for cooperation for the UTAR Hospital Project in Kampar, Perak which aims to accelerate medical diagnostics research and development (R&D) and its services.
Neogenix Evo through its immediate holding company, Neogenix Lab, is an advanced medical diagnostic and research laboratory providing a wide range of customised life science services in the field of research and development, such as DNA and RNA extraction, bioanalyser, tapestation and gene expression microarray services, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and bioinformatics analysis.
UTAR is a university offering courses in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in multitude of areas, with one of it being the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences where it is in the midst of completing the UTAR Hospital.
The hospital project comprises an initial phase of a hospitalcomplex with 250 beds for Western Medicine and 100 beds for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and a future phase of additional 250 beds or more which is expected to be completed by mid-2022.
According to a press statement, through the MoU, both parties will initiate joint projects involving provision of medical diagnostic services; collaborative research and to share expertise and joint development of research; and to facilitate exchanges of ideas and facilities including attachment
and mutual visits by staff members to pursue research and participate in seminars, conferences, workshops, etc. that are relevant to the industry.
Commenting on the joint collaboration opportunities, HS Bio director and Neogenix Lab managing director Dr Kuan Chee Sian said: “We are pleased to be selected by UTAR, a leading university in the nation on the areas of our expertise in the medical diagnostics and genomic R&D particularly in the molecular studies and NGS technology to further spur the medical education for our future generations.
“We will also be setting up a molecular laboratory in UTAR Hospital to facilitate the medical diagnostics services for the northern region.
“Moving forward, genomic studies - the study of the entirety of an organism’s genes called the genome using high-performance computing and math techniques known as bioinformatics will be instrumental in identifying inherited disorders, characterising the mutations that drive cancer progression, and tracking disease outbreaks.”
The collaboration between Neogenix Evo with UTAR on the UTAR Hospital project is expected to continue the arc of progress which not only saves and improves lives, but also creates cost savings, drives economic growth, and enhances global security.