MOU for DEXOM and Platform Development
[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Hwasun Chonnam National University Hospital (Director Shin Myung-geun) is accelerating the establishment of a cancer liquid biopsy platform through industry-academia cooperation and strengthening precision medicine systems for patient-specific customized treatment.
Hwasun Chonnam National University Hospital announced on the 25th that it recently signed an MOU with Dxom (CEO Choi Jong-rak), a venture company founded by a doctor that has been gaining attention.
Through the agreement, both institutions will join forces to develop a platform for early cancer diagnosis using blood. They also agreed to actively engage in information exchange and technical cooperation necessary for conducting related clinical research.
Dxom was established in 2017, led by Professor Choi Jong-rak of the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Severance Hospital, Yonsei University, Seoul. The company is accelerating research and manufacturing of liquid biopsy-based hereditary cancer diagnostic kits and disease diagnostic kits.
At Dxom, efforts are focused on developing kits based on the principle of extracting circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) from blood, decoding its sequence, and detecting mutations.
The core technology involves extracting and amplifying minute amounts of ctDNA in the blood, and the company is evaluated to possess proprietary technological capabilities.
Dxom is developing next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based in vitro diagnostic kits.
NGS is a technology that fragments the human genome and decodes the base sequences to identify genetic mutations. While conventional sequencing methods can analyze about 300 to 500 sequences at a time, NGS can analyze approximately 5 billion sequences in one run.
Through NGS gene panel testing, multiple genes can be analyzed simultaneously to find the most suitable anticancer drugs for patients. The genetic information obtained from NGS testing forms the basis of precision medicine, which provides optimized treatment methods tailored to each patient.
Hwasun Chonnam National University Hospital’s performance in NGS in the field of hematologic cancers is among the best in Korea, raising expectations that NGS-based research cooperation between the two institutions will lead to patient-customized cancer cures.
Director Shin Myung-geun said, “Cancer conquest techniques through precision medicine are rapidly advancing,” and added, “We hope that groundbreaking progress in early cancer diagnosis and customized treatment will be achieved through research and development cooperation with promising venture companies possessing relevant technological capabilities.”
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