Message from Professor

 

Bioinformatics arose from Molecular Biotechnology with the advent of DNA sequencing technology, a technology which is constantly gaining ground. The Human Genome Project was a decade long, transcontinental collaborative effort. Today’s Next Generation Sequencing methods are able to sequence an entire genome in a week. Indeed, the cost and time of DNA sequencing is proving to outdo Moore’s Law, the analogous exponential improvement of computer hardware. This trend has forced both the Obama Administration and the 18th National People’s Congress to acknowledge bioscience’s integral role in the knowledge economy of the 21st Century. Next-Generation Sequencing has made personalised medicine a reality and pushes the frontiers of agricultural and environmental biotechnology.

 

Utilising state of the art Next-Generation Sequencing platforms such as Roche 454 GS Junior (454 Jr), Illumina NextSeq500 and MiSeq, FCL Bioscience (Hong Kong) Limited, "FCL”, was established to facilitate collaborative research and providing Next-Generation Sequencing and Bioinformatics support.

 

With access to data-oriented analysis, users can design feasible follow-up experiments for further functional studies. Our molecular biotechnology laboratory is able to fulfill a wide spectrum of functional studies for potential novel genes and/or pathways identified from our preliminary data-mining, ranging from molecular cloning, protein expression, cell culture, quantitative Real-time PCR, etc for validation of their novel functions. With a focus in comparative bacterial genomics and identification of novel target genes/pathways, FCL Bioscience also serves as a hub of collaborative research. As bioinformatics becomes an increasingly powerful tool, key subject and supporting discipline in natural science research, FCL Bioscience will provide an essential platform for future research.