BOSTON, Oct. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, part of Catholic Medical Center (CMC) in South Korea, and Singapore General Hospital are the newest organizations to join the Thermo Fisher Scientific Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) Companion Dx Center of Excellence (COE) Program. The COE program establishes strategic research and technical collaborations with leading research hospitals to enable the adoption of Oncomine NGS assays for future clinical applications. The company made the announcement today during its first Global Strategic Partner Summit in Boston, Mass.

"We're honored to join Thermo Fisher's Center of Excellence Program, and this is a tremendous opportunity to advance the development of new methods for identifying molecular characteristics," said Dr. Myungshin Kim, head of the Catholic Genetic Laboratory Center at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital. "Together we can push the boundaries of precision medicine in ways that benefit all patients."

Seoul St. Mary's, the first general hospital established in the Gangnam area, has been delivering holistic treatments for the past 30 years. Dr. Kim will lead research studies using Thermo Fisher's Oncomine assays along with Ion AmpliSeq HD technology for lung cancer research.

"The role of pathologists in cancer care has been evolving and, increasingly, pathologists contribute to the clinical management of patients," said Associate Professor Tony Lim Kiat Hon, head and senior consultant of the Department of Anatomical Pathology at Singapore General Hospital. "This can be largely attributed to the developments in predictive, prognostic markers and advances in molecular technologies. By leveraging each other's expertise and strengths, we hope to be able to advance our care for patients with colon and lung cancer and our research, particularly in the field of precision medicine."

Singapore General Hospital is the largest and a renowned tertiary hospital in Singapore and is a part of the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre. A/Prof. Lim will continue to run customized panels for colon and lung cancer, with approximately 1000 samples in total per year.  The lung cancer profiling study is performed under the auspices of the Asian Thoracic Oncology Research Group and is led by Dr Daniel Tan Shao Weng, Senior Consultant, Division of Medical Oncology at National Cancer Centre Singapore. Dr Lim's lab is also currently evaluating the Oncomine BRCA and TML assays.

"The Center of Excellence Program has exceeded our expectations in the U.S. and Europe and we're excited to bring it into Asia," said Joydeep Goswami, president of clinical next-generation sequencing and oncology for Thermo Fisher. "Through partnerships such as these, we're able to fulfill an important mission to support precision medicine research and accelerate the pathway to the clinic."

Thermo Fisher's Global Strategic Partner Summit convenes clinical researchers, reference laboratory leaders and clinicians from across the globe for a variety of panel discussions and presentations focused on the latest market trends and application of NGS to precision medicine. Thermo Fisher leaders and Center of Excellence program members from the U.S. and Europe will give insight into the progress made in NGS assay development and growing adoption of the technology for advanced care with a focus on rapid cancer assessment.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of more than $20 billion and approximately 70,000 employees globally. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We help our customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics, deliver medicines to market and increase laboratory productivity. Through our premier brands – Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific and Unity Lab Services – we offer an unmatched combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and comprehensive services. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com  

Media Contact Information:

Mauricio Minotta
Thermo Fisher Scientific
+1 760 929 2456
Mauricio.minotta@thermofisher.com

SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific