National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC) and Thermo Fisher Scientific Private Limited (Thermo Fisher) signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Technical Support and Equipment Access. This MoU takes the collaboration to the next level from the already solid ground of the successful partnership since 2015.
Since 2015, Thermo Fisher’s has significantly contributed to shaping metabolomics platform at BIOTEC. A collaborative effort on metabolomic profiling of natural products against plant pathogens of economic importance agriculture of Thailand was pursued. BIOTEC’s expertise in natural product discovery, coupled with Thermo Fisher’s expertise in metabolomics and mass spectrometry technology enables natural product-specific metabolome profiles to be created. Data generated were processed and analyzed by software developed by Thermo Fisher, which resulted in the identification of potential bioactive compounds against plant pathogen. Software capacity is also one of the critical elements to the success of metabolomics data analysis. BIOTEC as a user helps giving feedback and specific requests to further develop even more efficient software for data interpretation, which could cater a more specific need of other users.
 |  |
Moreover, on the horizon is the plan to establish an efficient dereplication protocol for metabolite profiling of natural products which could go beyond the current application in agriculture. Application in areas, such as Biomedical and Life Science, will be explored.
In terms of scientific breakthrough, the collaboration enables BIOTEC and Thermo Fisher to apply the advanced technology in metabolomics to eliminate bottlenecks in natural product research, mainly the time-consuming, labour-intensive and expensive identification process. The results could be applied to various applications in a wide range of industries, for example. life science and biomedical, which significantly help to accelerate the innovations.
Throughout the process of metabolomics platform development at BIOTEC, capacity building in data analysis and technique has been carried out through workshops held both in Thailand and Singapore. The activity fills capacity gap of BIOTEC research team where there was a lack of comprehensive data analysis.
This collaboration has not only benefited both parties, but the impacts also reach to the Thai scientific community.