Zhang Qian

zhqcindy@163.com

BGI was born to be a global enterprise not only because it is the first Chinese institute engaged in the Human Genome Project (HGP), which was initiated in 1990, but also because the company’s mission is to bring physical wellness to all human beings, said Zhu Yanmei, BGI’s executive vice president.

In September, Zhu talked with the Shenzhen Daily about BGI’s history of returning to China after contributing and gaining experiences with the HGP. “BGI has been a global institute since its establishment, while at the same time keeping a Chinese heart to make the country stronger in terms of people’s physical wellness,” said Zhu.

BGI was founded in 1999 with a vision of using genomics to benefit mankind and has since been the largest genomic organization in the world. Focusing on research and applications in the health-care, agriculture, conservation and environmental fields, BGI has a proven track record of innovative and high-profile research that has generated over 2,137 publications, many in top-tier journals such as Nature and Science.

BGI’s achievements have made significant contributions to the development of genomics throughout the world. BGI’s goal is to make state-of-the-art genomics highly accessible to the global research community and clinical markets by integrating the industry’s broadest array of leading technologies.

BGI also offers a wide portfolio of transformative genetic testing products for major diseases, enabling medical providers and patients around the world to realize the promise of genomics-based diagnostics and personalized health-care. BGI’s services and solutions are available in more than 60 countries and regions around the world.

Zhu explained that in the first several years of development, BGI gained more popularity in universities and research institutes overseas, rather than in China.

“We provided research services to many universities and research institutes abroad, because at that time, not every university or research institute was equipped with a gene sequencer to conduct complicated gene tests,” said Zhu.

With professional sequencing technology and analysis reports, BGI gained fame and success overseas. It wasn’t until nearly a decade ago, when BGI started to provide noninvasive prenatal genetic testing for fetal chromosomal aneuploidy (NIFTY), that the company garnered fame in China, and especially in Shenzhen, since the genetic screening test for expectant mothers is widely used.

According to Zhu, NIFTY is used to reduce the risk ratio of fetal chromosomal aneuploidy by extracting free DNA from maternal blood, adopting new-generation high-throughput sequencing technology and analyzing biological information. The test is mainly to detect trisomy 21 syndrome (Down’s syndrome), trisomy 18 syndrome (Edward’s syndrome) and trisomy 13 syndrome (Pa Dow’s syndrome).

Since 2009, the institute has cooperated with more than 100 large hospitals around the world and has tested over 100,000 samples with a relevance ratio and specificity of over 99.9 percent.

Currently, all local expectant mothers covered by Shenzhen’s public medical insurance can have part of the fees for the genetic screening test shouldered by the insurance.

“It is actually a public welfare BGI delivers and we are ambitious to make Shenzhen the first city in the world to be free of children with Down’s syndrome,” said Zhu.

The company went public in July last year. Zhu admitted that despite the achievements made by the company, there are still challenges ahead.

“The biggest challenge we have here is the public’s understanding of genomic technology,” said Zhu. “For instance, although we are attempting to prevent and cure some diseases through the studies of genes, it does not mean genomic studies can eliminate all kinds of diseases at this moment.”

Zhu added that technology breakthrough is also a challenge. She hopes that a global community of scientists will be set up to jointly conduct and share research on genomic technology.