According to a British Health official, the life sciences industry in Hong Kong could benefit from the new genome project led by the government. This project seeks to come up with new treatments for cancer and other rare diseases.
Professor Sue Hill of the National Health Service in Britain, it is important to bring this project in the public’s knowledge. This would encourage thousands of people in Hong Kong to have their genetic codes decoded.
Speaking about the advantages of genome sequencing, Sue said that this project would allow the patients to receive better diagnostic outcomes, and consequently better treatments.
While speaking to the Post, Professor Hill shared her experience of the 100,000 genome project which took place in Britain in the year 2012.
This project resulted in the extraction of 100,000 genomes from 85000 individuals. This lot even included patients suffering from cancer and other rare diseases.
In a policy address last year the chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced that Hong Kong is planning a similar project.
This project aims at covering people with cancers and geneti9c disorders that are still undiagnosed. Furthermore, this project plans to cover around 20,000 cases and sequence more than 40,000 genomes.
Using the data from research, scientists will be able to come up with better diagnosis techniques and treatment of rare illnesses.
Sue further added that this project would allow the life science industry in Hong Kong with new way of thinking. She even referred to the amount of genomes to be sequenced as a “significant number”.
Speaking from her prior experience, Professor Hill said that this project would create an environment in Hong Kong that is conducive to genome research.
She said that it is fruitful to let the people in Hong Kong live elsewhere. This will pave the way for the development of a data base that looks at an ethnically diverse population.
At this particular moment the genome data of the Chinese population is lacking in comparison to that of the Caucasians.
The Data collected from genome project in Hong Kong will not only benefit the local genome research scene but the rest of the world as well.
According to the Food and Health Bureau, Hong Kong Genome institute would be set up in a year’s time to implement the local project. This will also include recruitment off new patients.
Dr, Brian Chung Hon-Yin a specialist in clinical genetics said that Hong Kong could learn a lot of things from Britain which includes manpower training.
Brain hopes that the institute would have a department that deals with education and promotion, and reaches out to the locals, explaining to them what genomes are.
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