HGM2015: 'Science for society' to sustain growth

The grand challenges of the 21st century afflicting humankind, among others, have been identified as water, energy, food security, biodiversity loss and particularly health relevant to genomics.

This was among the focus discussed by delegates from across continents at the Human Genome Meeting (HGM) 2015 in the capital city today.

Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tan Sri Zakri Abdul Hamid, said Malaysia should work towards repositioning the focus of science in the country – from 'science for science' to 'science for society'.

This was crucial to ensure sustainable development, especially beyond 2020, he said.

"Against the backdrop of sustainability, 'science for society' is equally, if not more important than 'science for science'.

"For example, in healthcare, by mapping the genetic code of thousands of lives, it will increase the ability to cure hereditary diseases such as cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anaemia and Huntington's disease, among many others," he said.

"The science of genomics is important in enhancing the well-being of the people, thus boosting the country's socioeconomic development by creating and increasing jobs and wealth," Zakri said at the event.

He said he would seriously look into conducting a Malaysian Genome Project, which will map the diverse genetic codes of Malaysians. This would help to intensify the research and development (R&D) scene in Malaysia and propel the science agenda to greater heights.

He said, currently, R&D in Malaysia only contributes 1.07 percent to the growth of the gross domestic product (GDP).

To compete with developed countries such as Japan and the United States, Malaysia needed to have a GDP growth of between 2.75 percent and 3.5 percent in the R&D sector, Zakri added.

It is understood that currently, R&D in Malaysia is not properly streamlined; multiple agencies tend to overlap their numerous R&D initiatives which leads to a lot of redundancy and wastage of resources.

Much of the R&D in Malaysia remain in the labs; less than five percent have been successfully commercialised.

The HGM is an annual conference that has been taking place since 1996, and has since morphed into a major dimension of scientific conference for discourses on human genetics and genomics, genomic medicine and genomic biology.

The four-day HGM 2015, which began yesterday, was held at the KL Convention Centre and attended by some delegates from across continents.

The HGM 2015 is organised by the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) in collaboration with University Science Malaysia (USM) and together with Malaysian Society of Genetics, Malaysian Society of Human Genetics, Malaysian Society of Medical Genetics, Malaysian Node of the Human Variome Project (MyHVP) and Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB).