Singapore opens first public-private partnership centre for specialty molecular testing

The National University Hospital (NUH) and Mirxes have announced the official opening of the NUH DMOC@Biopolis, one of Singapore's first public-private partnership centres for specialty molecular testing.

The NUH DMOC@Biopolis is an extension of NUH's Diagnostic Molecular Oncology Centre (DMOC) that co-locates and integrates with Mirxes' clinical laboratory, M Diagnostics at Biopolis. The Centre was inaugurated recently by Deputy Prime Minister, Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies, and Chairman of the National Research Foundation (NRF), Heng Swee Keat.

The culmination of a partnership first initiated in September 2020 and operational since April 2023, the NUH DMOC@Biopolis holds a unique distinction- two clinical laboratories accredited with their respective HCSA (Healthcare Services Act) licenses at a single site.

It marks the integration of NUH’s extensive clinical expertise with Mirxes’ cutting-edge molecular testing infrastructure, catalysing the development and adoption of medical innovations in clinical settings. This unique and timely partnership also brings together expertise and resources from both public and private sectors, fostering knowledge sharing and innovation in specialty molecular testing.

The NUH DMOC@Biopolis offers the APEX (Actionable, Personalized, EXpress) cancer treatment selection test, a cutting-edge 50-gene targeted Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) panel. Another NGS test in the pipeline is COMPASS (COMPrehensive ASSay), the Centre’s latest comprehensive genomic profiling service.