BANGKOK, Thailand, 21 October 2022 – MGI Tech Co. Ltd. (MGI), a company committed to building core tools and technologies to advance life science, today announced the supply of its products* to support the sequencing of the genomes of 50,000 Thai individuals as part of the Genomics Thailand Initiative. The initiative focuses on strengthening the country’s competitiveness in genomic medicine research and improving standards of medical management for its citizens.
“MGI is pleased to contribute to local genomic research and innovation in Thailand by providing two of our high-efficiency sequencing platforms, the DNBSEQ-T7RS*,” said Dr Roy Tan, General Manager of MGI Asia Pacific. “Our cutting-edge sequencing products* have delivered major breakthroughs in sequencing throughput and affordability. We are confident they will be fully and effectively utilised to support high-quality genomic health services and improve lives in Thailand and across the wider Southeast Asian region.”
Launched in 2019, the five-year Genomics Thailand Initiative aims to establish one of the most comprehensive medical databases in the region by cataloguing the genomes of 50,000 Thai citizens. With the goal of improving Thailand’s public health system and strengthening its competitiveness in genomic medicine, the project will deepen understanding of the unique genomic characteristics of the Thai population and provide a foundation for personalised diagnostics, drug selection and treatment across cancer, infectious diseases, rare and undiagnosed diseases, non-communicable diseases and pharmacogenomics.
Housed at Oriental University within the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) of Thailand, the two DNBSEQ-T7RS sequencing platforms* will expand the country’s sequencing capacity and enhance capabilities in precision prevention, diagnosis and treatment. They will also enable local researchers to generate new biological insights into complex diseases such as cancer, while supporting further innovation and discovery.
Powered by MGI’s proprietary DNBSEQ™ technology, the DNBSEQ-T7RS* is a four-chip sequencing platform capable of generating up to 6 Tb of data per day and completing up to 60 whole human genomes daily. Its ultra-high throughput and efficient, productive performance make it well suited to a broad range of applications, including whole genome sequencing, deep exome sequencing, epigenome sequencing, transcriptome sequencing, tumour panels and other large-scale sequencing projects. The platform also plays a strong role in clinical medicine, disease prevention and scientific research, supporting accurate diagnosis of genetic diseases.
Advances in sequencing technology and declining costs have driven the global expansion of government-funded, population-scale genomics programmes, placing higher demands on high-throughput sequencing platforms in terms of capacity, cost, accuracy and automation. With demonstrated strengths in ultra-high throughput sequencing, low cost and end-to-end automation from sample to report, MGI’s DNBSEQ™ sequencing platform* has proven highly effective for large-scale population genomics research. Notably, MGI’s sequencing and automation technologies were selected by Indonesia’s Ministry of Health in August this year to support its National Genome Project, underscoring MGI’s ongoing efforts to make gene sequencing more accessible in the genomics era.
*Unless otherwise stated, StandardMPS and CoolMPS sequencing reagents and sequencers for use with such reagents are not available in Germany, Spain, the UK, Hong Kong, Sweden, Belgium, Italy, Finland, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Portugal, Austria and Romania. No purchase orders for StandardMPS products will be accepted in the USA until after 01 January 2023.
