Cancer Research
BGI is actively engaging in cancer research in Australia and has established a number of research collaborations with leading local partners including cancer prevention using an "artificial intelligence and genomics" approach, predicting prostate cancer risks using genetic makeup and family history, and more.
AI and Genomics to Predict Cancer Treatment
A major collaborative research project “Artificial Intelligence and Genomics to Predict Cancer Treatment” has been awarded a $2.6 million CRC-P Grant (Cooperative Research Centre Projects) by Australian Government. BGI is the Next-Gen Sequencing partner of the Project, in collaboration with other world leading partners including Max Kelsen the leading partner specialising in artificial intelligence technology, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute as the research partner, Queensland Health Metro North Hospital and Health Service as the clinical partner, and genomiQa as the bioinformatic analysis partner. The Project has to date attracted $6.4 million of cash and in-kind contributions from industry partners.
Predicting Prostate Cancer Risks
BGI and Maxwell Plus have executed a collaborative cancer research project “A model to predict risk of developing advanced or metastatic prostate cancer using genetic makeup and family history of cancers” in September 2018. Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer among males in Western countries, with an estimated 165,000 new cases and 29,500 cancer deaths in 2018 alone. The objective of the project is to understand the genetic makeup of prostate cancer patients and understand how significant the association is between prevalence of prostate, breast, ovarian and colorectal cancers in the families of patients. The risk of the genetic makeup and family history will be combined into a risk model for predicting advanced or metastatic prostate cancer. This project will provide significant research merit for cancer analysis, cancer discovery, and precision medicine. All samples will be sequenced on the cutting-edge BGI genetic sequencer, MGISEQ-2000, in the BGI Australia laboratory.