China Medical University Hospital and the top leader of NGS, Illumina, announced their collaboration for "Emergency and critical care for clinical infection - Sepsis mNGS research" to fight for patients to be correctly treated within the "golden hours"

China Medical University Hospital and the global top leading company of next-generation sequencing, Illumina Taiwan Biotechnology Co., Ltd. signed a MoU on August 3rd. They announced they will be focusing on the "Emergency and critical care for clinical infection - Sepsis mNGS research" project and proceed with Meta Genomic Next-Generation Sequencing for the most fatal sepsis on emergent and critical patients. The MoU was signed by Superintendent Der-Yang Cho, China Medical University Hospital, and CEO Yu-Hsiang Cheng, Illumina Taiwan Biotechnology Co., Ltd. in both Chinese and English. Vanessa Moeder, the senior medical affairs director from Illumina's headquarters in the US has recorded a special video to acknowledge the start of the collaboration. The important beginning of such a historical collaboration will help to identify and explore many difficult aspects of sepsis for doctors worldwide. By applying the high inoculum of mNGS gene sequencing, more detailed, complete and universal information about infections can be provided to physicians so they can identify more critical treatment and assistance for patients within the "golden hours."

Superintendent Der-Yang Cho: Not only sepsis gene research! CMUH and Illumina collaborate in the fields of cell therapy, cancer and genetics next

Superintendent Der-Yang Cho, China Medical University Hospital, pointed out CMUH always addresses a lot of gene research and genetic engineering applications. Currently, CMUH owns near 300,000 clinical gene databases so we highly welcome international class biomedical institutes, like Illumina, to collaborate with us. With regards to emergency and critical care for clinical infection related gene research, the collaboration between CMUH and Illumina is the very first of this kind and CMUH is the first collaborative medical center of Illumina in Taiwan to proceed with clinical genetic analysis and related applications. Superintendent Der-Yang Cho added, "gene research of emergency and critical care for clinical infection is the first step in this powerful collaboration of two strong famous medical institutes; there will be more projects to come in the fields of cancer, cell therapy, microbiota and genetics to expand the vision of scientific and medical gene research and applications between Taiwan and the international society. Introducing top global medical technology development to Taiwan is very beneficial."

CEO Yu-Hsiang Cheng, Illumina Taiwan Biotechnology Co., Ltd., said that the project is the first infection and transmitted infectious disease testing study in Taiwan. In the future, Illumina Taiwan Biotechnology Co., Ltd. will focus on three key areas: cancer, rare diseases, and transmitted infectious diseases. In addition, the collaboration may extend to cardiovascular diseases to investigate the new potential of genomic applications in diagnosis and treatment with the top clinical research center in Taiwan.

The mortality rate of sepsis is 29.2% in Taiwan; the mNGS research project can help patients receive the correct treatment and medications earlier than before

In Taiwan, 287 people out of 100,000 die from infections. The mortality rate of sepsis has reached 29.2%, an alarmingly high proportion, and sepsis is referred to as the "silent killer". The signs and symptoms of sepsis are too vague and diverse to be differentiated and diagnosed. Traditionally, when patients contract an infection, the physician will recommend antibiotics for empirical use; however, this may not be the right course of action for a certain ratio of patients due to uncertain pathogens. By the time this is realized, the "golden hours" for treating sepsis have passed. To deal with the worsening issue of super bugs, China Medical University Hospital has connected with experts from the fields of pharmaceuticals, infectious diseases, and AI to develop the "AI-assisted resistant bacterial identification and treatment strategy system", which has won recognition and awards for its cross-territory and excellence in the 2021 City of Bio-driven. China Medical University Hospital has further collaborated with Illumina and Micronbrane Medical to kick off sepsis studies in emergency and critical care with the aim of offering patients more accurate, fast, and reliable test results and better treatment.

Deputy Superintendent Po-Ren Hsueh: The collaborative project can shorten the time spent identifying the pathogens causing the sepsis, assisting clinical physicians in treating patients with the right drugs in time

The principal investigator of the "Emergency and critical care for clinical infections -Sepsis mNGS research" project of China Medical University Hospital and Illumina in Taiwan is Deputy Superintendent Po-Ren Hsueh, Laboratory Medicine Center, CMUH. Professor Po-Ren Hsueh is ranked as top one researcher focusing on Taiwan clinical medicine among the World’s Top 2% Scientists 2020 list. He said that, in the past, the clinical diagnosis of sepsis relied on a microbiological pathogen culture, which is very time-consuming, and sometimes pathogens cannot even be cultured or unknown pathogens cannot be identified. Through the collaboration with Illumina in this research project, by way of genomic next m-generation sequencing, we can quickly discover the gene fragments of the microorganisms and identify which bacteria, virus, fungi or parasite induced the infection so clinical physicians can use the right antibiotics to treat patients within the "golden hour." This is a tremendous help for patients suffering from sepsis.

The special filter technology developed by local Taiwanese company Micronbrane Medical's team, can isolate the pathogens from the mixed background signals by filtering the patient’s sample through a membrane with a special design. The advantage of the Illumina-developed mNGS platform is that it can directly detect the non-human sourced DNA sequence in the patient’s sample and proceed with gene sequencing, then by comparing the biological information, identify the infectious pathogens and bacteria quickly so it can significantly improve the accuracy and efficiency of pathogens in laboratory testing.

China Medical University Hospital expect to optimize the overall testing workflow and accuracy through research collaborations so physicians  can use the right antibiotics immediately and reduce risks and mortalities of patients. Furthermore, the research project will assess a series of  calculations under a health economics model to compare to the traditional blood culture based testing program and path. The results are      expected to bring universal benefits to the testing procedure, system and overall health economic value of society in the future.