Project partners

IC2Permed involves key partners from Europe and China with strong expertise in Personalised Medicine, led by the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore / Gemelli Foundation

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC – www.ucsc.it), founded in 1921, includes four campuses (Milano, Brescia, Piacenza-Cremona, Roma), 14 faculties, 52 three-year major tracks, 42 graduate level degrees, 1 four-years degree, over 100 master tracks, 53 specializations and 5 Postgraduate Schools covering the understanding and study of those topics that have proved vital to the well-being of each human being: the new frontiers of economics, bioethics, environmental recuperation, developments in the judicial fields, family dynamics, major mass phenomena, the evolution of political systems, new horizons in medicine, the technological applications of physics and mathematics, and the most recent discoveries in environmental research.

The School of Medicine is at present a world-class training ground for future leaders in medical research and practice – including every modern medical discipline as well as some of the most respected medical scholars all over the world – public health, and biomedical science. The School of Medicine plays a pivotal role in the Italian community through the Medical School, established in Rome in 1961, with the teaching hospital Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS (FPG) that represents almost 10% of the entire productive capacity of Lazio Regional Health Service with approximately 95,000 inpatients and 250,000 outpatients cared every year and 1,559 Beds (of which 203 daily hospital and 37 for rehabilitation).

Fondazione Telethon

Fondazione Telethon (www.telethon.it) is an Italian non-profit organisation created in 1990 as a response to the appeals of a group of stakeholders, who saw scientific research as the only real opportunity to fight genetic diseases and win. Thanks to the funds raised through the television marathons, along with other initiatives and a network of partners and volunteers, Telethon finances the best scientific research on rare genetic diseases, with the ultimate objective of making the treatments developed available to everyone who needs them. Telethon research programs cover pre-clinical and clinical research projects as well as patient registries and network of biobanks.

To fund the best science, Telethon operates a quality management system for peer-review of research programs, with certification on the planning of financial portfolio, evaluation and selection, activation, scientific and administrative monitoring and final evaluation of research projects. In addition, Fondazione Telethon has built a strong expertise in drug development, technology transfer, negotiation and management of industrial alliances and regulatory affairs in house to translate scientific results into real treatments.

Fondazione Telethon participates in several international initiatives and contributes to global effort to facilitate research on rare genetic diseases, and access to care. Of note, Telethon is a member of International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) since 2011 and member of International Consortium for Personalised Medicine (ICPerMed) since 2018.

Steinbeis 2i GmbH

The Steinbeis 2i GmbH (S2i) is committed to helping companies and universities to innovate and internationalise (hence 2i) and was founded in 2016 as a 100% spin-off of the “Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum”. It has offices located in Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. Steinbeis 2i supports the work of the Commissioner for Europe of Baden-Württemberg’s Minister of Economic Affairs, Labour and Housing and focuses on providing professional services for the EU’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme.

The core activities of S2i are to assist organisations to participate in European R&D projects, to support the management of international research projects, to give assistance in the exploitation of research results, to promote transnational technology transfer and to stimulate and support the innovation process within industrial companies.

As a member of the Steinbeis network and a partner in the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), S2i also forms a bridge to Europe for companies, research organisations, universities, administrations and policy makers.

BBMRI-ERIC

The pan-European Biobanking and BioMolecular resources Research Infrastructure – European Research Infrastructure Consortium (BBMRI-ERIC) improves the accessibility and interoperability of the existing comprehensive collections, either population-based or clinical-oriented, of biological samples from different (sub)populations of Europe.

With 19 member states and one international organisation, BBMRI-ERIC is one of the largest research infrastructures in Europe. Its Directory lists over 600 biobanks and over 100 million samples and datasets, accessible through the Negotiator tool. BBMRI-ERIC also supports members through its CS IT, Quality Management and ELSI services.

World Federation of Public Health Association

The WFPHA is an international, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization composed of over 115 associations member, mostly multidisciplinary national public health associations, and representing around 5 million public health professionals worldwide. It is the only worldwide professional society representing and serving the broad field of public health.

WFPHA’s mission is to promote and protect global public health. It does this throughout the world by supporting the establishment and organizational development of public health associations and societies of public health, through facilitating and supporting the exchange of information, knowledge and the transfer of skills and resources, and through promoting and undertaking advocacy for public policies, programs and practices that will result in a healthy and productive world.

WFPHA is accredited as an NGO in official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO). It collaborates with the WHO to advance the field of public health through the promotion of pro-health policies, strategies and best practices around the world. The Federation is also accredited to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), holds consultation status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and holds observer status with Codex Alimentarius of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

G.A.C.

G.A.C. Group (G.A.C.), Global Approach Consulting, is an international innovation consultancy firm specialised in innovation performance support. It was established in 2002 and has 200+ specialists, mostly with PhD or MSc, spread across Europe, South America, Canada and Southeast Asia. The headquarters of the company are based in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France; with offices in several cities of France, as well as in Romania, Singapore, Canada, Brazil & Germany.

The company has 6 departments: innovation, internationalisation, networks and platforms, and economic studies (including innovation strategies, territorial innovation development, evaluation and impact assessment etc), financial performance, & human resource performance). Thus, G.A.C. specialists provides 360° support to innovation and cover the whole expansion value chain, from ideation to industrialization, from IP advice to Project Management, R&D public funding and new market access, from internationalisation strategy to its operationalization, legal document drafting to operational support. Our technical experts are consultants specialized per industry and knowledgeable in sectorial trends, issues and skilled on innovation projects to face industry and societal challenges.

G.A.C. recently integrated the consultancy team and projects of inno TSD (now G.A.C.), specialists in supporting inter-regional and international collaboration for innovation (500+ projects implemented since 1986): cluster and SMEs internationalisation, university‐industry cooperation, exploitation and IPR support, outreach activities, business incubator management, supporting start-ups and other innovative companies, impact maximisation, stakeholder engagement, as well as inter-regional connections and mutual learning activities.

BGI Research

Founded in 1999, BGI is one of the world’s leading life science and genomics organizations. BGI’s mission is to use genomics to benefit mankind and to be a leader in the era of life sciences. BGI follows a genomics development model of “research, production and application”. With businesses in more than 100 countries and regions around the world, BGI has established cooperation and partnerships with thousands of different organizations across multi-disciplinary research areas including medical health, resource conservation and judicial services.

At the same time, BGI provides equipment, technical support and solutions for the needs of national economies and people’s livelihoods, such as precision medicine and precision health. BGI is committed to applying its genetic and technological achievements to real world settings in order to realize the dream of trans-omics for a better life.

BGI·Research is one of the top ten basic research institutions in Shenzhen. After years of dedication in genomic research, BGI·Research has become a world-leading research center. Focusing on developing gene reading, writing and storage technologies, and leading international big data and disease prevention mega-science programs, BGI·Research aims to establish a comprehensive scientific research system covering bioinformatics, human genomics, agricultural genomics, microbiology, and marine biology.

Mission – Trans-omics for a better life / Vision – To be a world leader in the age of life sciences / Core Values – Curiosity, Application of Knowledge, Working for the Betterment of Mankind.

National Cancer Centre

Cancer Hospital Chinese Academy of Medical Science (CHCAMS) is the first cancer hospital in China, of 62 years old. CHCAMS also serves as National Cancer Center of China, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, National Quality Control Center for Cancer Standardized Diagnosis and Treatment, National Clinical Trial Center for Anticancer Drugs. CHCAMS is also the home of National Cancer Prevention and Control Office and National Cancer Registration Center. China Cancer Research Foundation (CCRF), Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CscO), Beijing Cancer Society and other professional cancer societies were also established at CHCAMS.

CHCAMS has worked comprehensively in cancer prevention and control, research, translation, diagnosis and treatment, thus leading the development of oncology and the innovative establishment of a research-oriented hospital in China. So far, we have 20 clinical departments, 13 medical technology departments, including 3 national key clinical specialties (thoracic surgery, oncology and diagnostic imaging). and 5 national key disciplines (oncology, anaesthesiology, cell biology, pathology and pathophysiology, imaging and nuclear medicine).

In 1986, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology was founded, as one of China’ s first national key laboratories. In 2001 and 2011, two Beijing key laboratories (one in molecular mechanism of carcinogenesis and prevention, the other in clinical research on anti-cancer molecular targeted drugs) were housed in CHCAMS, respectively. In 2015, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer was inaugurated in CHCAMS. In 2018, two CAMS’ s key laboratories (one in translational research of lung cancer, the other in genomic biology) were hosted in CHCAMS. Looking forward, CHCAMS is continuously evolving as a national-level R&D base and carrying on the innovation in clinical practice and fundamental scientific research.

Tsinghua University

Tsinghua University (TSU) was established in 1911. Over a hundred years’ development, TSU now has 20 schools, 58 departments, thousands of faculties and over 10 thousand of students. The School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (SPS) at Tsinghua University was established in 2015. It has developed into a leading institution and continues to grow rapidly. Now at SPS, there are 27 principal investigators, 119 teaching/technical/admin, 84 undergraduate students, 176 graduate students, and 35 postdoctoral fellows.

At SPS, we are committed to advancing understanding of unsolved diseases and catalyzing translational medicine to convert research discoveries into new treatments. We endeavor to lead innovations for China’s nascent biomedical industry and make important contributions to human health on the global level. The faculty at SPS are with strong backgrounds and great expertise. All 27 faculty members possess strong track record in leading universities and institutes around the world. Several faculty members bring significant industry R&D experience. The faculty team will continue to expand rapidly in coming years to broaden key research areas. The Institute’s work spans a wide spectrum of fundamental science, translational research and clinical application to develop new therapeutic approaches to treat diseases and injuries.

The Institute of Regulatory Science (IRS) is committed to build a world-class regulatory science center and has identified four priority areas essential to advancing its regulatory mission. IRS aims to build an educational program to train and cultivate global regulatory talents; develop into a regulatory think tank to offer research and analysis to government agencies; become a key leader to interface industry, academia, and government to promote regulatory science; function as a catalyst to facilitate development of regulatory science.

Advisory board

To achieve its objectives, IC2PerMed project consortium mobilises a community of Personalised Medicine experts from China and the EU. The Advisory Board members provide the consortium with expertise, external vision, opinion and feedback on IC2PerMed activities

Wen Mao, Project Lead, Precision Medicine, World Economic Forum

Wen joined the Precision Medicine team based in the Forum’s Beijing office, bringing to the position 10 years of global healthcare and digital commerce experience. She holds a PhD in neuroscience and an MS in regulatory science, both from University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Peking University. Wen worked for bbott Healthcare for six years, based in San Francisco Bay area and in Shanghai, developing and implementing global regulatory and clinical strategies for medical devices in US and China, and supporting diabetes care product launches in 8 European countries, Canada, Australia, Japan, Chile, India, Brazil, US and China. After leaving Abbott, Wen lived in Hangzhou for two years where she was the Chief Operation Officer of an digital commerce start-up company, successfully raising over 150 million RMB in three series, growing the company from 5 employees to nearly 300 in 3 years, and spearheading the company’s transition to an artificial intelligent (AI) enabled retail model.

Jie Huang Ph.D, Research Fellow，Institute for In Vitro Diagnostics Control , National Institute for food and drug Control (NIFDC), China

Mr. Jie Huang is mainly engaged in the quality control and evaluation of in vitro diagnostic reagents. His main research interests is the national reference materials development for in vitro diagnostic reagent evaluation, precision medicine research such as next-generation sequencing and other cutting-edge technology research and evaluation.
Aside his research, he is responsible for the national reference materials development of NIPT detection, Preimplantation Genetics Screening(PGS), oncogene mutation detection, ctDNA detection. Systematic evaluation of the performance of the sequencer, high-throughput sequencing technology in non-invasive prenatal, embryo implantation, tumor mutation detection and other fields. He is also responsible for the drafting and formulation of multiple industry standards.

Notable publications
1. An integrated Asian human SNV and indel benchmark established using multiple sequencing methods；Scientific Reports, 2020, 10:9821
2. Development of a genomic DNA reference material panel for thalassemia genetic testing；Int J Lab Hematol. 2020;00:1–8
3. A Reference System for BRCA Mutation Detection Based on Next-Generation Sequencing in the Chinese Population, The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, 2019, 21(4): 677-686.
4. A reference human genome dataset of the BGISEQ-500 sequencer, GigaScience, 2017,(6): 1-9.
5. A novel RFLP-ARMS TaqMan PCR-based method for detecting the BRAF V600E mutation in melanoma, ONCOLOGY LETTERS, 2018, 16(2): 1615-1621.

Anant Jani,  Oxford Martin Fellow, University of Oxford, UK

Anant is an Oxford Martin Fellow at the University of Oxford. His work focuses on how to improve population health by tackling social determinants of health using technology and innovative organisational and commissioning models. He previously was the Executive Director of Better Value Healthcare (BVHC), a boutique advisory firm working with healthcare systems to focus on value-based healthcare. Through his role at BVHC, he was a member of the PRECeDI project. He earned his PhD from Yale University and BS from Brandeis University.