Asia Pacific

While you can’t do anything to change the course of a typhoon moving towards you, you can take the necessary precautions before it reaches your shores - the earlier the better. So, you need to know your hazards, and that is why, in the wake of the catastrophic tropical storm Sendong in 2011, the Philippines started developing a complex early warning system.

Researchers at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne wanted to know why there were an increasing number of patients – about a third of them women – being diagnosed with certain types of lung cancer when none of them had smoked and their families had no history of cancer. They turned to big data analytics.

Genomics is generating new insights into the genetic causes of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and congenital disorders, and promises to transform healthcare. In Australia, a specialized high-performance network has been deployed for the Kinghorn Centre for Clinical Genomics, the largest genome sequencing centre in the southern hemisphere, helping to close the gap between research and the clinic.

On the 12th of April 2015, a devastating earthquake hit Nepal demolishing half a million buildings, killing 8.800 and injuring over 16.000 people. The research and education network of Nepal participated in the relief work by setting up emergency wireless networks at a number of hospitals treating earthquake victims.

Genetics researchers around the globe have access to a comprehensive record of all sequenced DNA, thanks to an international effort to share massive amounts of information between databases in Japan, the United States, and Europe.

"With the world's population estimated to reach 9.6 billion by 2050, making staple foods - wheat, grains and rice - higher yielding, more resilient to climate variability and more nutritious is vital. We can’t delay. Collaboration on a global scale is needed to produce the bulk of the food in the world, or there’ll be problems," said researcher Professor Barry Pogson.

Helina Emeru is chief technology officer of Ethiopian research and education network EthERnet. In October 2016, she joined 9 colleagues from around the world at the NORDUnet conference as part of a new Knowledge Exchange Fellowship program.

REANNZ, Unitec, NIWA and Wuhan University are working collaboratively to address the concerning issue of air pollution, via an innovative three-year project that incorporates high-end environmental science, and cutting-edge Internet technology.

The Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011 caused significant damage to local hospitals in the disaster area, destroying medical information systems in the hospitals and losing patients’ important medical records. The losses prompted Japan's university hospitals to jointly construct a new backup system that keeps their medical backup data in remotely located areas.

Computational neuroscience is gathering momentum in India, empowered by the Indian National Knowledge Network, connecting researchers and databases across the country. One of the promising initiatives is the Centre for Excellence in Epilepsy, investigating the complex changes associated with the development of drug-resistant epilepsy.

Regions all over the world establish new, dedicated connectivity for research and education, including Asia, where Bhutan and Cambodia now plug into the networks, choosing video conferencing and e-learning to drive local commitment and development.

The Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences in India is a leader in the field of telemedicine, e-health and allied technologies. India's national research and education network has been integrated within the hospital environment to improve the adoption and application of digital technologies for health.