Royal Philips Electronics and the Institute of Health Sciences (IHS) have signed an agreement to establish a joint research laboratory within the IHS facility in Shanghai, China, for the purpose of conducting advanced research in molecular medicine.

Philips and the IHS have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the ultimate goal of creating techniques for the early diagnosis of disease and for monitoring the effectiveness of subsequent treatment. In the spirit of collaboration, Philips said it intends to locate a team of its own scientists to work with IHS’ scientists at the research laboratory.

The lab’s research will focus on biomarker discovery, which are specific molecular compounds or molecular imbalances that indicate the presence of a disease. It will also test development for next-generation in-vitro diagnostic tests, which are based on the detection of disease biomarkers in samples of body fluids.

The IHS is part of the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences and is also affiliated with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.