NGS Ushers in a New Era for Precision Diagnosis and Treatment of Urological Cancers: GenoOcean and MGI Establish Innovation Application Demonstration Center

On September 28, major news was announced at the 2021 Emedcon Laboratory Construction and Development Conference. Beijing Oakxin Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Jinxiang Medicine”) held a ceremony with Shenzhen MGI Tech Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “MGI Tech”) to establish the Demonstration Center for Innovative Applications of High-Throughput Sequencing Technology in the Precision Diagnosis and Treatment of Urological Tumors.

Lou Feng, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Jinxiang Medicine (fourth from the right), and Fang Xiao, General Manager of MGI China Region (third from the left)

This August, Jinxiang Medicine and MGI Tech entered into a strategic partnership. The establishment of the Demonstration Center for Innovative Applications of High-Throughput Sequencing Technology in the Field of Precision Diagnosis and Treatment of Urological Tumors marks a significant milestone in their strategic collaboration. The two parties will jointly create the first such demonstration center in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, focusing on the application of high-throughput sequencing technology in precision oncology. They will also deepen their cooperation in the precision diagnosis and treatment of urological tumors, working together to develop a one-stop platform covering the entire workflow of genetic testing for urological cancers.

Leveraging the MGI MGISEQ-2000 high-throughput sequencing platform, the center will enable Jinxiang Medicine to deliver more precise, convenient, and higher-quality genetic testing services for oncology. The establishment of this center will facilitate a rapid enhancement of Jinxiang Medicine’s sequencing data production capabilities, foster the development of an AI-driven precision medicine analytics platform based on genomic big data, and drive further exploration and breakthroughs in the fields of precision cancer diagnosis, treatment, and screening.

As the incidence and mortality rates of urologic tumors, including urothelial carcinoma, renal cell carcinoma, and prostate cancer, continue to rise year by year in China, there remains a lack of effective detection methods for early diagnosis and postoperative screening. Furthermore, the inability to implement personalized, differentiated treatment has resulted in suboptimal overall therapeutic outcomes.

Therefore, the diagnosis and treatment of urologic tumors urgently require advancement through genomic technologies to assist clinicians in making more precise diagnostic assessments and therapeutic decisions. The development of high-throughput sequencing technology has provided corresponding precision medicine solutions.

High-throughput sequencing technology, also known as massively parallel sequencing or next-generation sequencing (NGS). Leveraging advantages such as high throughput, low cost, and high accuracy, this technology has been widely adopted in the field of precision medicine and is gradually becoming the mainstream approach for tumor gene sequencing services. Its application scenarios include companion diagnostics, early cancer screening, prognosis management, and scientific research and development.

Jinxiang Medical, which has signed an agreement with MGI Tech, is a national high-tech enterprise dedicated to providing clinical oncology precision medicine solutions centered on genomics through its independently developed big data analytics platform for genomic data.

Public information indicates that Jinxiang Medicine is headquartered in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, with testing and R&D centers in Beijing and Tianjin covering a total area of 5,000 square meters. More than 80% of its professional technical staff hold master’s or doctoral degrees.

Since its inception in 2018, Jinxiang Medicine has focused on the development of next-generation sequencing technologies. After four years of dedicated efforts, Jinxiang Medicine has accumulated extensive experience in precision treatment for hematologic and urologic malignancies, offering more than 30 testing service products, serving over 500 hospitals, and earning recognition from numerous clinical oncology and laboratory experts.

At the 2021 AstraZeneca Prostate Cancer Precision Medicine Summit, Golden Oak Medical stood out among more than 30 participating testing companies and was awarded the title of “High-Quality HRR Testing Unit” by the Chinese Urological Association.

For healthcare service providers, the depth and breadth of their product pipelines determine their future prospects. The collaboration with MGI Tech signals that Jinxiang Medical will further enrich its product pipeline in the field of urological tumors, leveraging its existing technological advantages.

Following this collaboration, Jinxiang Medicine will develop localized, end-to-end solutions for urological tumors based on MGI’s MGISEQ-2000 high-throughput sequencing platform. MGI will also continue to provide Jinxiang Medicine with high-quality supporting products and services to meet the needs of its clinical diagnostic product development.

Golden Oak Medicine’s robust R&D capabilities have been fully demonstrated in the past. The company is currently the only industry leader in China that possesses a proprietary gene database for urologic tumors and the most comprehensive hemato-oncology gene database in the country. It has launched more than 30 testing products, providing comprehensive coverage across multiple clinical scenarios, including early diagnosis and screening for various cancer types, hereditary risk assessment, companion diagnostics for targeted and immunotherapies, tumor diagnostic subtyping, prognostic evaluation, and dynamic monitoring. It is foreseeable that, with the advancement of this collaboration, Golden Oak Medicine will continue to deliver breakthrough products in the field of urologic oncology.