Dr. Hoa Giang is the Co-founder and Data Science Lead of Gene Solutions. His background boasts a broad range of experience in the global therapeutics industry. His technical background includes computational biology, bioinformatics analysis and understanding genetic interactions and how they affect the cellular functions. This experience and immense knowledge inform his mindful and robust approach to founding Gene Solutions. Hoa’s experience spans the globe having lived, studied and worked in Vietnam and USA.
In this episode, Hoa shares his journey of how he moved to the USA to pursue an advanced degree in computational biology. Starting from having an interest in biotech, he also shares how he was able to work with Professor Jun Hyong Kim at the University of Pennsylvania and broaden his expertise to bioinformatics. This knowledge helped him to develop new methods of combining wet lab protocol and dry lab analysis for next generation sequencing (NGS). He goes on to mention that he is very passionate about making new technology available to all and thus brought these new novel methods of NGS back to Vietnam in the form of Gene Solutions. In this episode, Hoa also shares about the groundbreaking work being done at Gene Solutions, including their way of staying ahead of competition while aiming to keep solutions affordable and accessible to the masses. He also briefly talks about Gene Solution’s technology, focusing on their two main pillars of reproductive health and clinical oncology, and how it varies from older tests and their strategies of expansion into various new geographical markets. Lastly, he describes the typical challenges that a company would face when they are first starting up and the importance of good teamwork.
Host: Aakash S/O Naresh Kumar Editors: Hana Maldivita Tambrin, Aakash S/O Naresh Kumar, Dillon Chew, John Joson Ng
01:30 Hoa's Background and Early Career
03:58 Founding of Gene Solutions
07:05 Gaps that Gene Solutions Aims to Solve
12:03 Differences Between Gene Solutions’ New Methods and Old Methods
20:17 Challenges Faced by Gene Solutions in Expansion to New Markets
26:32 Importance of Partnerships
37:03 Advice for Aspiring Scientists and Entrepreneurs