Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science has partnered with Tsinghua University in Beijing, one of the top-ranked universities in China, to collaborate in cutting-edge research in the field of genomics. To help enable the project, Tsinghua University will set aside dedicated laboratory space for the collaborative research.

 

“Columbia’s leading position in the field of genomics and genome technology is the foundation for this partnership with Tsinghua University,” said Morton B. Friedman, vice dean of the engineering school. “By combining expertise from Columbia in the field of genomic research and from Tsinghua in engineering and biochip research, we hope to more rapidly advance technology for the early detection and individualized treatment of disease.”

  

Research will initially be concentrated in the field of genomics and personalized medicine. The parties also plan to facilitate student and faculty exchanges between the two universities, providing for laboratory and study visits in Beijing and in New York by researchers from the two institutions.

 

Columbia’s principal investigator in the collaboration is Jingyue Ju, professor of chemical engineering and head of DNA sequencing and chemical biology at the Judith P. Sulzberger, M.D. Columbia Genome Center. Ju is a leader in the global race to develop the $1,000 genome platform for personalized medicine, using a technology called sequencing by synthesis, which allows for the sequencing of millions of DNA samples at a time on a proprietary chip. A prolific inventor, Ju is credited with co-developing the fluorescent energy transfer DNA sequencing method, one of the key technologies that made the Human Genome Project possible. Tsinghua University’s Jing Cheng, professor of biomedical engineering, will serve as the project’s operational director.

 

Other Columbia faculty involved in the collaboration include Nicholas Turro, William P. Schweitzer Professor of Chemistry and professor of chemical engineering, and Ian Lipkin, John Snow Professor of Epidemiology and professor of neurology and pathology at Columbia University Medical Center. The Columbia Global Center in Beijing, which was established in March 2009 to encourage and facilitate collaboration across academic disciplines with counterparts in Asia, provided key assistance in the negotiation of the agreement. On Oct. 29, a ceremony was held at Tsinghua University to mark the official launch of the collaboration. Kenneth Prewitt, vice president for Global Centers, professor Xiaobo Lu, director of the Columbia Global Center in Beijing, and professor Ju attended the ceremony.