Rongzhi Lian Bridges Life Sciences and Information Technology to Break Through Precision Medicine Bottlenecks with Data Services

Speaking of the bioinformatics cloud, Wang Donghui, Chairman of Rongzhilian, couldn’t help but remark:“This is IT infrastructure customized for the genomics industry.”

In late November 2017, Rongzhi Lian and Novogene signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The two parties will engage in comprehensive collaboration in areas such as Bio-Cloud, the NGS Consortium, and internal production systems, aiming to provide more convenient and competitive service offerings for the global gene sequencing market.On another front, Rongzhilian has completed the deployment of its first bio-cloud platform in the United States.

Rongzhi Lian is a leading domestic industry data platform company, with over a decade of experience spanning the fields of life sciences and information sciences. The biological data platform developed by the company is one of the most advanced in China, specifically designed for genomic research. Based on this platform, Rongzhi Lian’s BioCloud has been deployed in Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing, and California, USA, gradually forming a new ecosystem for genomic research and application industries.

Rongzhilian Completes Official Launch of BioCloud System in California, Poised to Serve the Entire United States

The integration of “IT and BT” is hardly a novel concept, nor is this the first time that Rongzhilian has collaborated with biotechnology enterprises. As early as 2013, the company participated in the investment of BGI Genomics. In 2012, it assisted BGI Genomics in designing, constructing, and maintaining bioinformatics supercomputing centers in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, thereby enabling it to achieve world-leading capabilities in gene sequencing and bioinformatics analysis.

The 2017 semi-annual report of Rongzhi Lian shows that the company's biomedical business achieved an operating revenue of 51.03 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.37%, with its biological data services leading domestically.

As a representative enterprise of “BT + IT,” Rongzhi Lian was invited in February 2017 to become a strategic partner of Intel Precision Medicine, jointly building a new ecosystem for precision medicine services.

At this conference, Intel released its proposal for solutions in the field of precision medicine in China, covering innovative solutions, collaboration case studies, and recommended reference architectures. It also put forward the vision of “24-Hour Precision Medicine.” Rongzhilian is a key downstream partner in its industry chain.

In June 2017, the Intel Life Sciences IT Forum was held in Beijing. Rongzhilian was invited to attend the conference and received the Best Practice Award for its Integrated Genomic Computing Appliance Solution. During the event, Intel established a Joint Laboratory for Integrated Genomic Analysis Appliances. Rongzhilian, together with BGI Genomics, Inspur, Judao Technology, Alibaba Cloud, Falcon, and Annoroad Gene Technology, will collaborate with Intel to develop genomics equipment for hospital and research institution clients, addressing their needs for local data analysis.

Rongzhilian Wins Best Practice Award for Integrated Gene Computing Appliance Solution

In November, Rongzhi Lian and Intel co-hosted the “Summit Forum on Practical Applications of Genomic Big Data Platforms.” The forum focused on the practical application of biological genomic big data platforms, bringing together numerous technical experts to discuss topics such as the effective management and utilization of genomic data.

Wang Donghui believes that Intel’s life sciences strategy is a platform-based approach, aimed at providing a foundational platform and building an ecosystem. For Rongzhilian, which has global influence, it is an excellent partner in the data segment.

In implementing innovative solutions for precision medicine, Rongzhi Lian will maintain deep collaboration with partners such as Intel to jointly promote the sound development of precision medicine in basic research, diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, and health and clinical applications.

In June 2017, the 2nd Genomic Cloud Computing Technology Developers Conference (GCTA) was held in Shenzhen, and Rongzhilian attended the conference as a co-organizer.

Rongzhilian’s Bio-Cloud Progress Made Its Debut at the Conference; Wang Donghui Shared Rongzhilian’s Health Management Development Strategy. In addition to the previously launched biological data center and all-in-one biomedical information analysis appliance, Rongzhilian introduced for the first time its Jidao BDP (Biological Data Platform), a data-centric platform integrating storage, management, computing, and inspection into a unified system.

In addition to fulfilling the traditional bioinformatics functions of “storage” and “computation,” Rongzhilian has also endowed Jidao BDP with capabilities for life science data management and biological data analysis. By perceiving the characteristics of life science and clinical data and deciphering the complexity of biological data, the platform enables qualitative analysis of potential associations among data features and their respective influence weights.

Not limited to gene sequencing companies, Jidao BDP can cover nearly all bioinformatics and life science-related research institutions, enterprises, and even cloud operators that are centered around biological data.

From Jidao BDP, a biological data platform covering life sciences enterprises, to Helicube, an all-in-one bioinformatics analysis and application appliance designed for the medical and health sector; from ELSA, a globally leading human genome analysis algorithm, to Database.bio, a biomedical knowledge base supporting medical diagnosis, and further to the Multi-Gene Browser (MGB), Rongzhilian has developed a new generation of bioinformatics analysis systems and a bio-health cloud platform, tailored to the characteristics of life sciences data.

While actively collaborating with Intel, Rongzhilian has also been participating in industry conferences within the biotechnology sector, leading to increasingly frequent interactions between the company and the biotech industry.

In July, the Global AI Summit and the Launch Ceremony of China (Hangzhou) AI Town were held in Hangzhou. Rongzhilian, together with iFlytek, Fosun Pharma, Deloitte Consulting, and other organizations, jointly initiated the establishment of China’s first industrial alliance in the “AI + Healthcare” sector. Rongzhilian provides the alliance with capability support in data centers, bioinformatics solutions, bioinformatics cloud applications, and consulting and services for bioinformatics data products.

In November, Rongzhi Lian was selected as a vice-chairman unit of the National Precision Medicine Industry Innovation Alliance, led by West China Hospital, and took the lead in one of the seven special committees—the Artificial Intelligence and Health Big Data Special Committee.

Rongzhi Lian Selected as Vice Chairman Unit of the China Precision Medicine Industry Innovation Alliance

Frequent participation in events within the precision medicine sector serves a dual purpose: showcasing products and leveraging these opportunities to forge connections with more industry partners, jointly fostering a robust ecosystem that integrates Information Technology (IT) and Biotechnology (BT). Wang Donghui revealed that the company has already established effective communication mechanisms with most leading enterprises in the industry.

Many results in sequencing are derived through statistical and probabilistic calculations, with conclusions representing probabilities rather than certainties—a notion that contrasts with traditional perceptions. As market education deepens, acceptance is gradually growing; meanwhile, the continuous decline in costs will drive a sustained increase in sequencing data volume.

Wang Donghui stated, “We can see that in the medical field, the volume of sequencing data is growing very rapidly.”

Since the advent of precision medicine, a large number of genetic testing companies have emerged both in China and abroad. The vast amount of genomic data accumulated through high-throughput sequencing has provided new directions and tools for disease diagnosis, molecular subtyping, and drug development.

However, with the generation of massive amounts of genomic and health data, companies are facing immense pressure and challenges in data management. How to refine the operation of these data and achieve data matching applications,and effective storage and management have gradually become common challenges faced by biogenetic companies.

For companies like Rongzhi Lian, this actually presents an excellent opportunity to enter the precision medicine sector.

“Our current challenge lies in building our marketing system; we need to further strengthen our capabilities in this area,” said Wang Donghui. He revealed that Rongzhilian engaged in extensive communication with biotechnology companies during the product development process, tailoring its products specifically for the industry.

“We will also continue to invest in product R&D, as the competitive market landscape is dynamic,” he stated.

While maintaining deep cooperation with BGI Genomics and serving clients such as Novogene and Geneplus, among other leading domestic medical research institutions, the Company has also established a subsidiary in the United States to actively expand its business overseas.

Unlike Intel’s platform strategy and Inspur’s hardware-centric attributes,Rongzhi Lian positions itself as a data platform service provider for the biotechnology industry, leveraging an optimal combination of industry-specific “IDC + biological data platform + all-in-one appliance” to effectively store, manage, and schedule data., to truly achieve efficiency gains and energy savings for more industry clients.

“We maintain a very open mindset. In China, there are cloud platforms such as Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud, while abroad, there are public cloud service providers like Amazon. What we focus on is underlying applications and data centers, which actually have a complementary relationship with public clouds,” said Wang Donghui.

He revealed to VCBeat that the company will not only further expand its domestic market but also seek opportunities in overseas markets.