Three science alumni, Mr. Aldrin Yim, Mr. Allen Yu, and Mr. Marco Li founded a biotechnology company in 2013 specialising in genomics and bioinformatics. Having heard about friends and relatives who passed away from cancer, they determined to make good use of their science knowledge to help those in need, and one of the possible ways is to search for suitable therapies for cancer patients by informing cancer drugs sensitivity and resistance.
They first developed a cancer genetics test by adapting the up-to-date sequencing technology to detect aberrations and abnormality in 186 cancer genes which may trigger a wide range of cancers. The specific causes of individual tumour are then revealed upon consulting their actively growing pharmacogenomics database which stores huge volume of data about how a person's genes affect his/ her response to medications. Clinicians will therefore be able to personalise each patient's treatment to reduce the side effects and raise the effectiveness of the therapy chosen. They are now collecting more data and cases to enrich the database, and hope to benefit more patients in the future. University Publication
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