Precision Medicine Lab

The Precision Medicine Lab is a cross-disciplinary laboratory that allows data analysts and deep learning experts to work very closely with biologists, geneticists and clinicians to leverage the power of genome-scale datasets, big data from the hospital and machine learning to improve cancer patient outcomes.

Our aim is to:

1)  Establish a robust, well-maintained and secure biorepository that can store samples collected from patients.

2)  Develop a ‘multi-omics’ stack beginning with exome and microbiome data from cancer patients along with matched clinical data including health records and images from radiology and pathology.

3) Use machine learning methods to analyse the rich stack of datasets and predict new therapeutic targets and pathways.

4)  Experimentally validate all predictions in cell lines and in vivo models.

This is Pakistan’s first concerted attempt to pilot precision cancer medicine funded by the Federal Government. The lab has an unfair advantage of being located at the heart of Phase-V biomedical cluster in Hayatabad, Peshawar – which is arguably the densest healthcare cluster in the country, attracting patients from all over the country and the broader region.

The Precision Medicine Lab, as an affiliate Lab of the National Center for Big Data and Cloud Computing, funded by the Government of Pakistan that aims to develop integrated genomic and health datasets and use computational methods to help improve individual patient outcomes, especially in cancer, and to improve development of new drugs and to provide enabling technology for drug combination studies and targeted drug delivery.

The Precision Medicine Lab (CECOS) has the following two goals:

  • Goal 1: Develop a National Cancer Genome Repository to enable personalized cancer care in Pakistan.
  • Goal 2: Develop a computational framework for drug re-purposing and side-effect prediction.