On May 16th, 2021, "Tumour Molecular Diagnosis Frontier Research and Clinical Test Application Salon" was successfully held in Nanjing, hosted by Nanjing Medical Association Laboratory Specialist Branch and Nanjing Medical Association Laboratory Specialist Branch Youth Committee, and undertaken by Oncor Life Sciences (Suzhou) Co. A number of test experts and nearly 100 test colleagues from Jiangsu Provincial People's Hospital, Nanjing Gulou Hospital, Eastern Theatre General Hospital, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, The First Hospital of Nanjing, Zhongda Hospital, Nanjing Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital and other medical institutions participated in this event.

　　Figure / Salon activities

　　Prof Shen Han, Executive Deputy Director of the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nanjing Gulou Hospital

　　At 14:00 pm, the host of the salon, Director Shen Han, announced the official start of the academic.

　　Photo / Prof Pan Shiyang, Director of the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Jiangsu Provincial People's Hospital

　　Professor Pan Shiyang, Director of the Department of Laboratory Medicine of Jiangsu Provincial People's Hospital, made a speech at the beginning of the meeting, congratulating on the successful convening of the academic salon, affirming the rapid development of the frontier research on molecular diagnosis of tumours in China, and expressing great hope for the early realization of the comprehensive clinical application of genetic testing technology.

　　Keynote Speech

　　Photo / Prof Wang Shukui, Deputy Secretary of Nanjing Hospital, Nanjing Medical University

　　During the keynote speech stage, Professor Wang Shukui, Deputy Secretary of Nanjing First Hospital, delivered a keynote speech on "Carrying out Exosome Detection - Helping Tumour Liquid Biopsy". The speech focused on the definition, characteristics, extraction methods, application value and cases of exosomes, and elaborated the importance of exosomes in tumour detection. During the speech, he listed three major application scenarios based on exosomes: biomarkers, drug carriers and tumour therapy, showing the wide prospects of exosome detection in clinical testing applications.

　　Photo / Dr Yan Hong, Deputy Director, Centre for Laboratory Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China

　　In the keynote speech "Research on non-invasive molecular diagnosis of kidney cancer based on urinary free DNA", Dr. Hong Yan, Deputy Director of the Centre for Laboratory Medicine of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, started from the epidemiological characteristics of kidney cancer, existing diagnostic techniques and limitations, and systematically elaborated the clinical significance of the liquid biopsy technique in kidney cancer diagnosis, and reported on the multicentre clinical trials based on this research. Based on this study, a multi-centre clinical trial was conducted.

　　Chair

　　Photo/Professor Wang Junjun, Director of Department of Laboratory Medicine, Eastern Theatre General Hospital, presided over the review.

　　Prof Wang Qianghu, Head of Department of Bioinformatics, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China

　　Professor Wang Qianghu, Director of the Department of Bioinformatics, Nanjing Medical University, delivered a lecture on "Research on Tumour Metastatic Potential Marker Clusters Based on Single-Cell Sequencing", focusing on the results of related research in metastatic pancreatic cancer. It was found that a portion of metastasis-dominant cell subpopulations lead to tumour metastasis, and his team has identified the molecular features and the timing of metastasis occurrence of such cell subpopulations, and experimentally verified the intervention of metastasis-dominant subpopulations.

　　At the end of the report, Prof Wang said, "Basic research is only meaningful if it is converted into services for clinical use and benefits patients." We hope that frontline clinical experts and testing colleagues will be able to give us advice and help to translate the research results together!

　　Moderator

　　Photo/Professor Li Li, Deputy Director of Department of Laboratory Medicine, CUHK Hospital, Southeast University, commented on the event.

　　Picture / Dr Lin Jiahui, General Manager of Suzhou Guokejunhao Biotechnology Co.

　　Dr Lin Jiahui, General Manager of Suzhou Guokejunhao Biotechnology Co., Ltd. addressed the topic "Research on the Application of Microfluidic Technology in Clinical Detection" and introduced the chip, disc and droplet microfluidic technology and the related representative companies and products, and also explained in detail the application of microfluidic technology in different clinical fields.

　　Moderator

　　Chen Yajun, Director of Laboratory Department, Nanjing Maternal and Child Health Hospital, presided over the review.

　　Picture / Dr Zhao Hui, CEO of ONC Life Sciences

　　At the end of the Salon, Dr Zhao Hui, CEO of ONC Life Sciences, gave an in-depth academic report on DNA methylation biomarkers and detection technology. He said, through the in-depth study of the biological characteristics of DNA methylation, it has been proved that DNA methylation is the best marker for early screening of tumours, and DNA methylation is the third dimension of the biological genome, which makes the book of genome more complicated and fascinating.

　　He then analysed the advantages and disadvantages of the existing molecular diagnostic techniques for tumours, and highlighted the MeMore methylation ultrasensitive coupled detection technology developed by ONC.

　　Figure / Advantages of MeMore Technology

　　MeMore technology is developed for detecting the methylation status of trace blood free DNA, which has the advantages of low cost, high throughput, high precision, multiple markers, good flexibility and short time, etc. NGS technology is more suitable for exploring the unknown field, while MeMore technology is more suitable for being a technical tool for the industrialisation of pan-cancer early screening.

　　Chair

　　Figure / Prof Wang Qianghu, Head of Department of Bioinformatics, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.

　　Photo / Group photo of experts and youth committee members

　　China is a big cancer country with tens of millions of families suffering from cancer, the incidence rate is increasing year by year, and the mortality rate remains high. There is a great demand for early cancer diagnosis, but there are still many technical difficulties in developing products that are easy to use and affordable to the general public to meet the huge social demand.

　　This academic conference not only hopes to promote the scientific research and application development of tumour molecular diagnosis through the collision of experts, scholars and enterprises, but also hopes that all walks of life can pay more attention to and support early cancer screening, and jointly promote the continuous enhancement of the level of early diagnosis of tumour.