Shanghai Key Laboratory of Clinical Molecular Diagnostics for Pediatrics affiliated to Shanghai Children’s medical center was established in October 2020 with approval from the Science and Technology Commission for Shanghai Municipality. Professor Qihua Fu has since been the director for the laboratory, and professor Qiuhui Pan, Jian Wang, Binbing Zhou and Yu Liu been the vice director. The laboratory gathers the best talents from molecular diagnosis related subjects at Shanghai Children’s Medical Center and encourages collaborations between its members as well as scientists in related fields. Currently the laboratory has more than 50 researchers including 7 professors and 10 associate professors, 15 technicians and 18 assistant research fellows. Globally, genetic disease, cancer and infectious diseases remain the leading causes for death for children under 5 years old. Molecular diagnostic testing combines laboratory medicine with the precision for molecular biology and has revolutionized the way clinical and public health laboratories investigate clinical genetics, oncology and infectious diseases. Shanghai Key Laboratory for Clinical Molecular Diagnostics for Pediatrics conducts frontier basic and translational researches that combine state-of-the-art knowledge and approaches for genetics, molecular diagnostics, bioinformatics, and clinical medicine to investigate the mechanism for children's genetic diseases and cancer, find new disease diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets. The laboratory aims to promote significantly the competitiveness for Shanghai in the field for clinical molecular diagnosis in pediatrics and provide both theoretical and technical support in developing precise molecular diagnostic technologies used in clinical practice by discipline orientation, application demonstration and talent training. The lab mainly has the following research directions:1. Molecular diagnosis for children's genetic diseases (PI: Jian Wang, Qihua Fu)2. Molecular diagnosis for solid tumors in children (PI: Qiuhui Pan)3. Molecular diagnosis for pediatric leukemia (PI: Binbing Zhou )4. Bioinformatics Standardized Computing Cloud Platform and Genome Database (PI: Yu Liu)
