WuXi Diagnostics, a joint venture launched last year by WuXi AppTec and Mayo Clinic, is planning to open its first U.S.-based R&D center just down the street from its benefactor in Rochester, Minnesota.
The facility, to be based in the new life sciences center One Discovery Square, is expected to open before the end of this year.
It will serve as a center of WuXi Diagnostics’ development of clinical diagnostic tests and will work in collaboration with Mayo’s department of laboratory medicine and pathology as well as its Advanced Diagnostics Laboratory.
"Our new facility will directly contribute to our further cooperation with Mayo Clinic," WuXi Diagnostics CEO Jason Liu said in a statement. "It will leverage WuXi Diagnostics' research and development capability and Mayo Clinic's advanced clinical practice to accelerate esoteric diagnostic product development and to transform discoveries into diagnostic tests that will benefit all."
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Previously, the joint venture aimed to co-develop and deliver clinical diagnostic services in China.
"This facility allows us to further leverage our existing knowledge and expertise in the esoteric diagnostics in a wide range of areas–cancer, hematology, neurology, gastroenterology, genetics, to name just a few–to provide patients worldwide with laboratory testing that addresses their specific health care needs," said William Morice II, president of Mayo Clinic Laboratories and chair of laboratory medicine and pathology at Mayo Clinic.