AVATAMED, a precision medicine service company based in Singapore, has announced the setting up of a joint lab with Singapore's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), to offer precision oncology services. Through this initiative, AVATAMED and IMCB aim to improve treatment outcome for cancer patients.

The joint service lab is located within IMCB's premises at Proteos building in Biopolis, the heart of Singapore's Biotechnology hub.

Together with IMCB's technological platforms such as the high-throughput drug screening platform, and expertise in cancer and cell biology, the joint service lab will offer AVATAMED's proprietary drug screening technology, the AVATASCAN and its software to oncologists and pharmaceutical companies.

The AVATASCAN technology was born out of a decade of research at Samsung Medical Centre in South Korea, with accumulated drug response and genetic data of patient-derived tumours.

The AVATASCAN screens the patient's tumour samples across a panel of anti-cancer drugs to determine their efficacies in the patient-derived cells. These drug-response results, coupled with genetic data, are then presented to the oncologists to suggest drug treatment options.

The AVATASCAN technology and database can also be utilised by pharmaceutical companies to accelerate their drug development through a more targeted approach.

Toh Hong Boon, CEO of AVATAMED, added, "AVATAMED is a spin-off from A*STAR, so we are delighted to be back at where it all started. Precision medicine is the future, and we want to bring AVATASCAN to benefit patients and the industry. We are excited to embark on this journey with A*STAR."