ASU, CGU enter agreement to establish international Biosignatures Center

Arizona State University (ASU) and Taiwan's Chang Gung University (CGU) have formalized an agreement to establish an international Biosignatures Center aimed at the prevention, early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer and other diseases.

ASU's Nobel Laureate, Leland Hartwell, Ph.D., is Chief Scientist at the Biodesign Institute's Center for Sustainable Health (CSH) and will co-direct the Chang Gung Biosignatures Center. "The most important thing we can do to improve healthcare and reduce its costs, is to develop informative tests for prevention, early detection, and effective therapeutic intervention for disease. This collaboration is the most exciting opportunity I have had to achieve these goals," said Hartwell.

This agreement unites two ambitious research universities that are dedicated to improving healthcare through a comprehensive interdisciplinary effort that seeks collaborative engagement of key healthcare stakeholders including: governments, public and private health insurers, research institutes, industry, and innovative healthcare delivery systems around the world.

The Center for Sustainable Health (CSH) at ASU was founded by Michael Birt, Ph.D., Director. CSH will provide expertise, technology platforms, access, and informatics support to the Chang Gung Biosignatures Center. It is anticipated that research centers at multiple sites both in Taiwan and internationally will exchange information in a pre-competitive space to improve health outcomes and reduce the human and financial cost of disease. "In addition to our relationship with Chang Gung University itself, we have been delighted by the response from leading companies in the medical field interested in collaborating with us to provide more innovative solutions to help sustain health," said Birt.

Last year, the Center for Sustainable Health (CSH) launched the Global Biosignatures Network (GBN) to harness scientific, academic, industry, and healthcare system resources to make a major impact on 21st century healthcare practice. A global network of Biosignatures Centers is also needed to properly scale the effort, provide rigorous standards of practice needed to overcome barriers, and supply a global platform to share methods, results and experiences. In keeping with CSH's mission to sustain human health, the GBN will work with forward-thinking partners to establish additional Biosignatures Centers within member systems. Each Biosignatures Center will serve as a virtual coordinating center to discover, develop, validate, and implement diagnostic tests based on new enabling molecular and digital technologies for managing disease with an emphasis on prevention, early detection and effective therapeutic interventions.