iCarbonX has chosen Malta as the first international base of a project aimed at developing an artificial intelligence platform to facilitate research related to the treatment of diseases, preventive care and precision nutrition. This approach is considered as an essential element to enable the future development of personalized medicine.
iCarbonX founder and CEO Dr Jun Wang was the co-founder and former CEO of genome-sequencing powerhouse BGI that in 2013 acquired California-based Complete Genomics. He is a renowned expert in genomics and artificial intelligence, and is concurrently a Professor at the University of Copenhagen.He first spoke of his vision of a health-monitoring system based on a million genomes, in a viral interview published in Nature magazine in July 2015.
iCarbonX Malta will be based at the Malta Life Sciences Park and is expected to enhance the country’s growing reputation as a medical and health care hub. It is expected to attract the attention of innovative international players in the pharmaceutical sector. Malta’s excellent relations within the Mediterranean region were determinant in the choice of a Malta platform.
Dr Wang, who was recently in Malta to finalise arrangements with Malta Enterprise, was accompanied by a team of specialists including Chief Scientist Yingrui Li, Visiting Professor at the University of Queensland, Australia, Professor Qiang Pan-Hammarström, Professor of Clinical Immunology & Transfusion Medicine, at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and Professor Zhenglong Gu of Cornell University. Dr Wang is looking forward to establishing close links with fellow scientists at the University of Malta.
Upon its launch in 2015, Shenzhen-based iCarbonX was heralded in the international business press as the “next Google in biotech”.