Joint Research
As a company, we aspire to contribute to further accelerate the studies of genetics which is why we have been putting an emphasis on conducting joint research with both domestic and foreign research Institutions. Just to give some examples of our past joint endeavors are the ‘studies on developing genetic testing methods on advanced dementia and mild cognitive disorders’, ‘studies on establishing drug-response testing techniques to analyze gene variation which influence pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism’, ‘studies on gene variations affecting the level of malignancy and incidence of prostate cancer’. Supporting studies on the relation of alcoholism and genes as well as sponsoring efforts to achieve international patent for gene therapy utilizing AVV technologies and lastly conducting research on finding ancestry connections within the field of human genetics.
Charitable Donations
We offer charitable donations to various organizations and academic associations, conferences and researchers who are considered to demonstrate strong leadership or contribution to society. Our donations expand to a wide range of recipients whose activities possess agendas or core values based on ‘promoting health, preventive medicine and finding cures for incurable diseases’.
At Genesis Healthcare we have established our own ethics committee in order to obtain a fair and neutral third-party validation on decisions made that affect our company integrity, our research and how we handle individual genetic information.
| April 2017 | 9th Meeting of the Ethics Committee Japanese population and the establishment of analysis techniques to research about autosomal recessive hereditary diseases utilizing next generation sequencing. |
Summary of Minutes Download PDF |
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| March 2017 | 8th Meeting of the Ethics Committee Developing genetic testing methods on testing advanced dementia and mild cognitive disease and their occurrence. |
Summary of Minutes Download PDF |
| March 2016 | 7th Meeting of the Ethics Committee Establishing methods on testing BRCA 1/2 variation through saliva sampling. |
Summary of Minutes Download PDF |
| November 4, 2015 | 6th Meeting of the Ethics Committee Project on extracting and analyzing DNA from hair of a deceased person. |
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| November 2012 | 5th Meeting of the Ethics Committee On a possible joint research with P&G on identifying genes influencing the skin |
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| October 9, 2012 | 4th Meeting of the Ethics Committee About sales promotions on direct-to-customer genetic testing kit ‘GeneLife2012’ |
Summary of Minutes Download PDF |
| November 10, 2011 | 3rd Meeting of the Ethics Committee About sales promotions on direct-to-customer a genetic testing kit on alcohol metabolism and its genetic relation |
Summary of Minutes Download PDF |
| December 21, 2008 | 2nd Meeting of the Ethics Committee Debating ethical dimensions on starting a joint research. |
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| April 25, 2008 | 1st Meeting of Ethics Committee Election of a chairperson and vice-chairperson for the committee |
Summary of Minutes Download PDF |
We believe that along with our commitment to technological advancements, it is just as essential to have an infrastructure to protect the genetic information that is provided to us and amassed in our database. In our effort to create a benchmark for the rules and guidelines in securing sensitive personal and genetic information, Genesis Healthcare and other members with METI(Ministry of Trade and Industry) have worked to formulate an industry guideline. Furthermore, Genesis Healthcare’s Servers and Laboratory are located in a tightly secured building with security guards 24 hours a day/365 days. Numerous security protocols such as surveillance videos and noise alert system to monitor any access to our genetic database assist in protecting the genetic information of our clients which we consider the very core of our duty.
For further reference:
Code of Conduct for companies dealing with pirvate genetic information (Revised in May 2017)
Genesis Healthcare as a company strongly believes in the fact that securing the genetic information entrusted by our customers securely and it is a fundamental component of our business activities as well as a way of contributing to society. To protect our information assets from threats, making sure our security is assured, maintained and continuously intact is most sacred to us. We believe that information security can be manifested in confidentiality, security and possibility and define each of them as follows.
Confidentiality: A state of high protection, only those allowed can access what is being stored and this shall be assured at all costs and never leaked.
Security: A state that shall not be broken, assurance of a state where information and information processing shall be accurate and secure at all costs.
Possibility: A state where information and all connecting assets shall always be usable and accessible to those that are allowed to do so whenever they need to.
Information assets are defined as ‘what we learnt, what we were entrusted with, what we assembled’ (format is defined as paper-based, digital material stored on PC, knowhow assembled by employees). At our company, all members of staff are connected to the information we deal with every day, which is why we consider it our duty to ensure continuous information security, which is why our entire company is considered to be in charge.