The International Phenome Centre Network (IPCN), founded by Imperial College London and more than a dozen international partners in Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, the US, and the UK (www.phenomenetwork.org), was launched officially this week at the 2016 World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) conference in Doha, Qatar.
This global network is a critical link between leading research centers across the world and will support research into some of today’s most pressing global health challenges. Bruker (NASDAQ: BRKR) is very pleased to be the key IPCN corporate partner for NMR technologies, methods and the NMR standard operating procedures (SOPs), which are crucial for clinical metabolic research and validation.
NMR at MRC-NIHR UK National Phenome Center, London.
The IPCN will greatly increase global research capabilities in the field of phenomics, the dynamic interactions between our genes and our environment. Through comprehensive analysis of biological fluids or tissue samples, phenomics examines how microbiomes, lifestyles and the environment interact with genes.
Phenomic analysis of metabolites is mainly driven by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry analysis. The IPCN relies on the Bruker IVDr by NMR system, a biofluid metabolic 600 MHz NMR screening platform with well-documented and tested SOPs, for clinical and translational research.
NMR spectroscopy is a central pillar of molecular phenomics and systems metabolism - the place where genes and environment meet at individual and populations levels- and this is the origin of all our disease risks and our responses to therapies. We are of course delighted to continue our long standing strategic alliance with Bruker in this major new IPCN venture which is well placed to impact on our fight against some of the world’s most challenging diseases and emergent disease threats".
Professor Jeremy Nicholson, Director of the MRC-NIHR UK Phenome Centre and Chair of the IPCN
Dr. Robert Trengove, Director of Separation Science and Metabolomics at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia commented: “We are very excited about the launch of the International Phenome Centre Network and to be a member from the start. We are certain that only such a network with complete standardization can address the challenges in healthcare which we want to overcome, using NMR and LC-MS as the major complementary phenomic analysis tools. The outstanding quantitative reproducibility of NMR allows us to integrate our metabolic data, be it targeted or untargeted, with that acquired on other NMR systems in the IPCN. This will support the discovery and validation of future diagnostic assays with worldwide validity.”
Dr. Manfred Spraul, Chief Technology Officer of the Bruker BioSpin Applied, Industrial and Clinical (AIC) Division, added: “Phenomics holds great potential in healthcare, and the collaborative research being undertaken by the global phenome centers under the auspices of the IPCN could lead to the early detection and possible prevention of disease. Our IVDr NMR platform enables global clinical research collaborations and validation in phenomics, which is a key aspect of precision medicine.”
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For more than 50 years, Bruker has enabled scientists to make breakthrough discoveries and develop new applications that improve the quality of human life. Bruker’s high-performance scientific research instruments and high-value analytical solutions enable scientists to explore life and materials at molecular, cellular and microscopic levels.
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