So if you notice, our funding is basically gathered from all local industries, but Celera is our strategic partner. They will provide databases and we will share certain rights with them, so we will get all the keys for discoveries that we make here.
So, the goal is really not to localize this company but to bring the results out of Taiwan.
TT: So did you come to Taiwan to set up Vita Genomics to essentially dig for gold, and what is your main focus?
Chen: Yes, you can say that we're going after the gold. We're going after the niche that I believe was not being filled by any of the companies in the Western world.
In trying to find or discover the value -- post human genome sequencing -- of course what you do is gene discovery. Of course, we now know there are about 35,000 genes. Almost 5,000 single genes that we know of are associated with particular diseases. But today, only about 500 are well studied. So there is still a lot of room for disease causes to be discovered and [to] therefore lead to the diagnosis and cure of those diseases.
Now, traditional studies in the Western world usually focus on diseases prevalent on that side of the world. That, typically, can be different from what is happening here. [For example], in the southern part of Taiwan they have a type of oral cancer that is quite prevalent but you don't see that problem in the rest of the world. So therefore there are some local niches that one can go after.
So, we're using all Western technologies, like Celera's database. I'm recruiting returnees from the United States. We're basically trying to use top-notch technology and database information and try to go after important diseases that prevail in Asian countries, basically on this side of the world.
TT: What diseases will you be focusing on and what products do you think will come from Vita Genomics first?
Chen: The first could be Hepatitis and a number of other diseases listed on our company brochure. At this time, we haven't yet prioritized our targets yet. It will depend on how good our patient samples are and how close they are from the potential product line.
We are focusing on eight or nine different disease targets and we haven't yet assigned priorities to any particular one -- we'll do that later this year. We haven't even finished building our labs, so we haven't really had a chance to start gathering original data and once we have some preliminary results we will have a scientific advisory board come in and help us decide where we should place ourselves.
TT: Could you give a short timeline of how you see things progressing for your company? You said in October, your Taipei office will open ...
Chen: Yes, so our Tainan Science Park lab facilities should be up sometime in mid to late August. Taipei will be two months behind. So, around the late October time frame our office will open in the Taipei Science Park.
Our target this year is to grow to about 40 people and right now we are only a dozen, including two in California. Then next year, we expect to be about 100 people. We have a number of projects under evaluation at this moment.
We've been talking virtually to about a dozen -- and in the future maybe more -- institutes in Taiwan. That includes both academia and industrial labs. So we want to try to set up as much collaboration as we can and have partners in each particular area.
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