The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is located at the hub of the three continents connecting Asia, Africa and Europe, and was once with China"Camel bells smell each other, boats look at each other"。Now, in co-construction"The Belt and Road Initiative"Under the new bond of the initiative, Saudi Arabia has once again become"The Silk Road Economic Belt"with"The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road"important junctions. From joint archaeology to people-to-people exchanges, from communication construction to the upgrading of the medical system, the achievements of China-Saudi Arabia cooperation have spread throughout desert oases and benefited everyone.
Saudi Arabia"Vision 2030"It is proposed to increase the average life expectancy from 74 to 80 years. The growing medical and health needs of the Saudi people urgently require a more comprehensive and efficient medical and health system.
In 2023, in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, Genalive, a comprehensive precision medicine testing laboratory jointly established by BGI's wholly-owned subsidiary in Saudi Arabia and local partners, will officially open, integrating non-invasive prenatal genetic testing, single-gene genetic disease carrier testing, neonatal disease testing, hereditary tumor genetic testing, infectious disease testing, etc"Chinese technology"Brought to the Middle East market to help the development of precision medicine and public health services in Saudi Arabia.
Yusra Alyafee, Technical Director of GenAlive Labs, is responsible for GenAlive technical support, data interpretation, and team management. She has studied biology Xi many years, and it is precisely because she saw the huge technical and talent needs of Saudi Arabia's medical development, and chose to continue in the field of genetics after graduating with a master's degree. "Before illness strikes, take care of your health. "According to Yusra, awareness of health risks is as important as the diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
Yusra Alyafee followed up experiments on genalives.
According to the Saudi Ministry of Health, colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cancer in the region and the most common cancer among Saudi men. The average age of onset is 60 years for men and 58 years for women.
The 5-year survival rate of CRC in the early stage is about 90%, but there are no obvious symptoms in the early stage, and it is often not diagnosed until the late stage, so it is also called"The Silent Killer"。According to the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Riyadh, two-thirds of patients with CRC in Saudi Arabia are diagnosed at an advanced stage, posing a major challenge to the local healthcare system.
The duration of CRC is as long as 10-15 years, and it is particularly important to improve the survival rate and reduce the social burden through regular screening. In order to solve these problems, GenAlive provides the Saudi people with BGI's non-invasive colorectal cancer genetic testing product Colotect 10。It uses fluorescence quantitative PCR technology to detect the methylation level of three colorectal cancer-related genes in fecal exfoliated cells carried by feces, so as to assess the risk of bowel cancer or precancerous lesions.
Compared to traditional screening methods, Colotect 10 non-invasive, ** and non-invasive detection characteristics, making it easier for the subject to accept. In addition, the product can detect bowel cancer risk in the absence of active bleeding lesions and has a high sensitivity rate.
BGI's 2023 Global Status of Colorectal Cancer Cognition Report shows that Saudi Arabia has a high proportion of respondents who have never undergone CRC testing (62.).7%), much higher than the global 541% average. "We are convinced that the introduction of such a product to Saudi Arabia will raise awareness of cancer prevention and detect cancer at an early stage. "Yusra said.
Access to accurate disease diagnosis and treatment is important for Saudi Arabians at the moment, but it is equally important to reduce dependence on foreign technology. Therefore, in Yusra's view, in a sense, Genalive is not just a laboratory, but also a transformative development in the Saudi medical industry.
Yusra Alyafee in a meeting with Chinese colleagues.
In order to obtain more accurate results, Genalive's goal is to localize testing and sample processing to Saudi Arabia as much as possible. "According to Yusra, Genalive's testing services are excellent in terms of quality, turnaround time, and accessibility compared to other service providers in Saudi Arabia. Take NIFTY, a series of non-invasive prenatal genetic testing products, as an example: it can detect chromosomal and monogenic genetic diseases through a single blood draw and high-throughput sequencing technology (NGS). Its safe, accurate and efficient characteristics are exactly in line with the growing demand for prenatal testing and genetic testing among the Saudi people.
Saudi Arabia has a growing demand for services based on high-throughput sequencing technology, and we are using genetic technology to improve the efficiency of genetic disease and tumor detection and diagnosis and treatment, and improve the health of the Saudi people, in line with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030'implementation. "Yusra often feels as if this is her calling. Because in Arabic,"yusra"References"The one who makes it easy"She is also fortunate to contribute to an important stage in the development of the Saudi health system.
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Original text**: Zhonghong.com.