Asia Bioinformatics: A new import-export industry

[编者的话]

来自BMN的小文章，以日本和新加坡为例，探讨了亚洲生物信息学的发展以及与社会经济生活的结合。

The drive for new bioinformatics ventures in Singapore and Japan stems from ambitious government programs. While Japan pairs its domestic projects with offshore start-ups, Singapore creates new start-ups, and imports skilled labor or international partners to match its domestic investments.

The buzzword in bioinformatics in Asia at year's end is more jump start than startup; the impetus for new ventures in Singapore and Japan comes from ambitious government programs typical of numerous Asian tigers. The two countries diverge, mirroring nearly opposite approaches: Japan finds off-shore start-ups to partner with its domestic behemoths, while Singapore spawns start-ups, and imports skilled labor or international partners to match immense domestic investments.

Three of Japan's big-name computer firms - Fujitsu, Hitachi, Itochu - are active in the bioinformatics area. In July, Fujitsu announced bioinformatics software for high-speed genome analysis, which compares a new gene sequence against known gene databases to predict the function of an unknown gene.

Hitachi has teamed with Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical and Fujitsu with Mitsubishi Chemical Corp to conduct genomic research. Concurrently, Hitachi Ltd. Life Science Group selected Agilent Technology's microarrays to search for disease-related genes.

New Jersey-based Proteome Systems has joined with Itochu in a Tokyo-based venture featuring its discovery platform for high-level protein research. The partnership marries Proteome Systems' bioinformatic expertise to Itochu's strength in information technology. The convergence of info and biotechnologies drives bioinformatics, noted Proteomics CEO Keith Williams, who believes the partnership complements Proteomics' ongoing collaboration with Shimazdu Corporation for next-generation development of proteomics instrumentation.

Some see importance in Japan's preeminence in nanotechnology. "Nanotechnology has just begun to contribute to drug development and delivery in the pharma space," says Robert Burrows, spokesman for GeneLogic, a Maryland-based provider of genomics-based information and bioinformatics products and services to the pharma and biotech industries. In October, Mitsubishi and Fujisawa joined other major Japanese drug companies as subscribers to Gene Logic's drug discovery tool.

Burrows does not see imminent global competition from Asian bioinformatics start-ups. "Faced with the rapid development curve and uncertainties over emerging protocols, the Japanese will remain net importers of bioinformatics technologies for some time," he predicts.

While Japan's approach builds from the depths of its historic strengths in proteomics, Singapore's style is all breadth, matching brainpower and technical partners from abroad with heavy domestic investment in a still-nascent bioscience infrastructure. The Economic Development Board (EDB), the lead agency driving industrial investments, assists companies considering strategic location to Singapore. Since the early 90s, the EDB has singlemindedly sought to transform Singapore into a life-science juggernaut.

In 2000, the EDB redoubled that effort with the launch of the National Biomedical Science Strategy, which would pump an estimated $2 billion into the effort. Results were almost immediate. By November 2000, Lynk Biotechnologies, one of the first life-science start-ups spun off from the National University of Singapore (NUS), opened its research facilities in Singapore Science Park.

The brainchild of NUS Professor Lee Chee Wee, Lynk's drug discovery platform can "tailor-make" novel molecules that bind irreversibly to selected proteins. These molecules can be simulated and designed to bind to specific target sites and produce desired pharmacological effects.

"We can zoom in on the active site of the protein where the binding of particular drug occurs," says Gurinder Shahi, CEO of BioEnterprise Asia (BEA), a Singapore-based life-science incubator, and cofounder of Lynk. "We know what proteins the drug is binding to, and where the key fits the lock." Shahi speaks of custom-designing "keys" to fit the desired therapeutic applications.

Two other start-ups exhibit BEA's flare for discovering high-growth opportunities to support with domain expertise. ReceptorScience, a bioinformatics venture (and sister company to Lynx Biotech), uses proteomics, data mining, 3D visualization, and artificial intelligence to investigate the molecular physiology and pharmacology of receptors and active targeted sites for rational drug design dnd development.

AP Genomics has developed a diagnostic test for dengue virus which uses bionformatics to zoom in on gene sequences and identify a specific signature. "We can say, 'if you have the signature for dengue fever or West Nile virus, for example, then you must have this condition and nothing else," says BEA's Shahi.

Big pharma has shown involvement in Singapore. Novartis launched its Institute for Tropical Disease in Singapore, with seventy scientists researching treatment for dengue, malaria, and other diseases. Eli Lilly joined with the EDB to launch the Center for Systems Biology, a $140 million project that represented the first venture of the new EDB initiative. It will study whole biological systems utilizing bioinformatics.

University of California-San Diego vice-chancellor John Wooley, a science advisory board member for the Singapore Bioinformatics Institute (BII) believes that bioinformatics has a pivotal role to play in aligning public-sector research with private-sector R&D. "Bioinformatics operates at the interface between active experimentation (including data mining and other analyses) and computation," he says.

Wooley sees bioinformatics' rising importance as based on its linkage of the computational orientation of basic research and the experimental practice within applied R&D. Witness Biopolis, a biomedical R&D campus located alongside National University of Singapore that will house the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and the Institute of Bioengineering (IBE) as well as the BII. The GIS develops core technology platforms to bridge clinical and basic research, including high-throughput sequencing and SNP analysis.

"Biopolis is a city-state within a city-state," observes Wooley. "It's built around bioinformatics, but is broader in its likely impact. Its institutes are essential to global competitiveness in biotechnology."