Yonsei Medical Center Transfers Prostate Cancer Genomic Analysis and Prognosis Prediction Technology

Severance Hospital exterior view. [Photo by Yonsei Medical Center]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] Yonsei Medical Center announced on the 24th that it has transferred prostate cancer genomic analysis and prognosis prediction technology to DCGEN, a clinical genomics analysis technology company, and signed a joint research and development agreement.

The technology transferred this time is a patented technology for molecular biological subtype classification and prognosis prediction of prostate cancer, jointly developed by the research team of Professors Youngdeuk Choi and Hyunho Han from the Department of Urology at Yonsei Cancer Hospital and Professor Namhoon Cho from the Department of Pathology at Yonsei University College of Medicine, in collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, USA. The technology fee amounts to a total of 530 million KRW.

Through this agreement, the Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation of Yonsei Medical Center will transfer the technology to DCGEN and conduct the development of NGS (Next-Generation Sequencing)-based prostate cancer molecular diagnostic medical devices through joint research.

The NGS-based prostate cancer molecular diagnostic medical device is expected to help implement personalized treatment by predicting patient prognosis and drug response based on the patient's genetic information. In fact, in the US and Europe, NGS-based genetic test results are used to predict the prognosis of prostate cancer patients, and in Korea, NGS-based devices are also used for breast cancer prognosis prediction tests.

Professor Han said, "Through this agreement, we were able to combine the prostate cancer genomic and clinical data held by Yonsei Cancer Hospital with DCGEN's NGS-based solid tumor prognosis prediction technology," adding, "The ultimate goal is to develop a kit that solves the issues of metastatic recurrence and chemotherapy drug response prediction in prostate cancer."

This technology transfer research was supported by the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Health and Medical Technology R&D Project. In addition, the joint research team of Yonsei Medical Center, Seoul National University Hospital, and DCGEN is planning a project to develop prostate cancer prognosis prediction biomarkers and was recently selected for the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Biohealth Investment Infrastructure-Linked R&D Project (with a total research budget of 1.4 billion KRW over three years), actively conducting research activities.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.