Fang Xiaodong: About life science, now I am doing three things.

Precision medicine, crack life science password

Fang Xiaodong said that life sciences and medical science are descriptive and experimental scientific research. Unlike mathematics and physics, they can be well quantified and have many mature laws. Life sciences can only find a wide variety of exceptions, making our understanding of life sciences very limited.

With the advent of the genome sequencer, there has been a major technological breakthrough in the field of life sciences, especially in the field of genomics, and the amount of data has risen tremendously. There is Moore's Law in the computer field, and the Moore's Law in the life sciences. The cost of sequencing will drop once every five months, making the standard digitalization cost lower and lower. Today, data in the life sciences are accumulating very fast, presenting an order of magnitude change. In the near future, sequencing can be completely free, and data storage costs will exceed sequencing costs because the value of the data itself should exceed the cost of the data sample digitization process. Then, how can we better get the hidden rules behind life science through data mining.

"In the field of life sciences, we especially advocate cross-scale and life-wide thinking. As long as there is enough computing resources and computing power, we can always crack the password." Fang Xiaodong said.

From the beginning of anatomy, to the invention of microscopy, to the development of B-ultrasound imaging technology, and with the development of sequencing technology, including the development of mass spectrometry technology, we can use the technology of omics to better from microscopic to macroscopic perspective. Exploring life processes from the dimensions of the entire life cycle allows us to better understand the life cycle.

Whether a person is in a state of health or disease is determined not only by heredity and internal factors, but also by the living environment. Precision medicine and personalized health management, genes are not the only considerations, must be through the group, DNA, RNA, protein, small molecules, intestines, microbes, cells, tissues and individual thinking and mood should be taken into account , including eating habits and lifestyle. For example, many chronic diseases, especially metabolic diseases, cannot be explained only from a genetic point of view.

Data analysis, exploring the hidden secrets of life

Fang Xiaodong said that there are various diseases in the life cycle of people, including infectious diseases, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and metabolic diseases. Each of these processes has corresponding technologies and tools. Ways to help everyone better understand their health status. Before the two people get married, the genetic testing method can get the risk of the child getting a certain genetic disease. When the child is already in the process of embryonic development, the fetus is analyzed for physical abnormalities through non-invasive prenatal diagnostic techniques. After the child is born, the genetic test method can be used to judge whether the child carries some genetic diseases. Sometimes, if the child knows that the child has some genetic metabolic diseases, some intervention or diet control can be carried out in advance so that the child can maintain Normal situation.

Through data analysis, you can also find some interesting and very worthwhile phenomena, such as a considerable part of non-human DNA in human peripheral blood. In addition to human genes, there are non-human things in the blood. Where do you come from, whether it comes from food or whether it causes illness? This is a big change in the understanding of medical or life sciences in the past. There are no clear conclusions yet, but at least in a lot of data, this is the case.

Take intestinal microbes as an example. There are a large number of microorganisms living in the human intestines, which have a great impact on the nutritional balance and nutrient absorption of the human body, including many diseases. According to current research, intestinal microbes affect many well-known diseases, including digestive tract diseases, constipation, diarrhea, etc., as well as stones and intestinal cancer. Only when a potential marker is found can a tumor patient be distinguished from a non-tumor patient. “This means that in the future it is possible to get a risk or potential marker of colon cancer in a person through the detection and screening of feces,” Fang Xiaodong said.

Cloud computing platform accelerates the development of life science research

Fang Xiaodong introduced that with regard to life science, there are now three things to do: save, read, and write. Saving is to save the cells on the body. Huada has launched an employee health plan internally. Each employee has made his own cell preservation and genome-wide and metabolome, and saved the specimen for a specific time period in the future. When you need young cells, especially some immune cells, there is something to use. Reading is to digitize the specimen and turn the DNA into digital information. The last work is to write, the latest scientific research progress is synthetic biology, in the future can directly feel the synthetic life, can synthesize some species that are considered necessary.

The raw materials needed for storage, reading and writing all exist in the national gene pool. This is the national gene pool entrusted by the four ministries and commissions of the State Council and the Shenzhen Municipal Government, and belongs to the gene bank of the Chinese people. The National Gene Bank was officially put into operation in September 2016. The first phase of the acceptance has been completed and the second phase is being launched. The National Gene Bank now has more than 40 databases and holds more than 20 million specimens, including cells and tissues, with an annual data output value of more than 5P.

With the emergence of large-scale massive data, data analysis mining is a huge challenge for traditional biologists, so a cloud-based data platform is needed. This cloud data platform not only provides computing, but also provides a database and knowledge base to save time for biologists. “We successfully tested the analysis of 1000 people and completed the data analysis work in one day. The database contains mature analysis methods and processes, as well as databases and knowledge bases to serve the majority of researchers. Hope to rely on sequencing platforms and computing platforms. By establishing an ecosystem, all people can find their place in the ecosystem, and everyone can carry out extensive cooperation. In the era of group fight, it is not enough to develop in the world alone. This is a big science and great cooperation. The era. Hope that relying on the national gene bank and the independent cost controllable sequencing platform, the future storage and literacy can be done better, I hope that our life science field can lead the world and become the tide of the times." Fang Xiaodong said.