Hong Seng Inks Memorandum of Understanding with UTAR

KUALA LUMPUR: Neogenix Laboratoire Sdn Bhd (NLSB), through its subsidiary Neogenix Evo Sdn Bhd (NESB), signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) to look into potential areas of collaboration for the UTAR Hospital Project in Kampar, Perak, which intends to speed up medical diagnostics research and development (R&D) and services.

HS Bio Sdn Bhd director Dr Kuan Chee Sian, Director of HS Bio said the company would share its expertise in medical diagnostics and genomic R&D, particularly in molecular studies and next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology to spur the medical education for future generations further.

"We will also be setting up a molecular laboratory in UTAR Hospital to facilitate the medical diagnostics services for the northern region," said Dr Kuan, who is also the managing director of NLSB.

NLSB is a 60 per cent owned subsidiary of HS Bio Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Seng Consolidated Bhd.

NLSB is an advanced medical diagnostic and research laboratory providing a wide range of customised life science services in the field of R&D, such as DNA and RNA extraction, bio-analyser, tapestation and gene expression microarray services, NGS and bioinformatics analysis.

Meanwhile, UTAR is a university offering courses in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in many areas. One of it is the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, where it is completing the UTAR Hospital.

The hospital project is divided into two phases, with the first phase will see the construction of a hospital complex with 250 beds for western medicine and 100 beds for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

The university's future phase will add 250 or more beds and will be completed by mid-2022.

Under the MoU, both parties will launch cooperation initiatives involving the provision of medical diagnostic services and collaborative research and share experience and collaborate on research development.

Additionally, both parties will support exchanging ideas through attachments and reciprocal visits by staff members to conduct research and participate in industry-related seminars, conferences, and workshops.

"Moving forward, genomic studies will be instrumental in identifying inherited disorders, characterising the mutations that drive cancer progression, and tracking disease outbreaks," Dr Kuan said.

The collaboration between NESB and UTAR on the UTAR Hospital project is expected to continue the arc of progress that saves and improves lives and creates cost savings, drives economic growth, and enhances global security.