BRISBANE, Australia, 18th June 2021 – Amid growing concern over the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant in Victoria, Queensland has tightened border restrictions while maintaining robust local testing capacity to protect its residents. MGI is proud to supply Pathology Queensland with testing equipment and kits, contributing to the safety of Queenslanders.
Pathology Queensland Infectious Diseases Laboratory
MGI’s proprietary COVID-19 Testing Package, installed at the Pathology Queensland Infectious Diseases Laboratory (IDL) in Herston Health Precinct, began operations in April 2021, initially processing saliva samples collected across Brisbane. Two weeks later, the lab expanded the workflow to include nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal samples. Dubbed the “MGI system” by lab staff, it surpassed the 10,000-test milestone within its first month. The integrated system can process up to 4,700 tests daily, with a 24-hour turnaround from swab collection to reported result.
Dr Ian Mackay, IDL’s Senior Molecular Scientist, said, “Our approach is to establish a diverse portfolio of advanced technologies to best serve Queenslanders. We appreciate how quickly the MGI team respond to our ongoing technical needs and how efficiently the equipment and testing kits were supplied. We are currently handling approximately 1,100 tests per day, as there is no community transmission in Brisbane, but our capacity is growing and we are well placed to respond should any new clusters emerge.”
Local Support from MGI
With a dedicated local team of technical specialists and engineers, MGI offers strong support to customers across Australia. Dr Bicheng Yang, Director of MGI Australia, said, “This project is particularly meaningful for us as Brisbane is our home city. Most of our team members are based here, and we share a building with the IDL. This proximity ensures fast response times, smooth operations, and reliable delivery of high-quality test results.”
MGI COVID-19 Testing Package
The MGI COVID-19 Testing Package is efficient, safe, and reliable. It includes the high-throughput automation systems MGISTP-7000 for sample transfer and MGISP-960 for sample preparation. These systems minimise manual labour, reduce sample processing time, and significantly improve operational efficiency and testing throughput. Turnaround has been optimised to return results within 12–24 hours of sample arrival at the IDL.
MGISTP-7000 and MGISP-960
The MGISTP-7000 integrates tube decapping, recapping, barcode identification, automated liquid transfer, and negative pressure protection. It can transfer 192 samples from swab or plain tubes to 96-well microplates in 40 minutes. The MGISP-960 automated workstation, with a 96-channel pipettor, extracts nucleic acid from samples and can process 192 samples in 80 minutes, or 32–96 samples in 55 minutes, accommodating different sample batches efficiently.
All MGI products are registered with the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) and have been widely used nationwide under the Security Through Accelerated Testing Initiative.
About MGI
MGI (MGI Tech Co., Ltd.) is committed to providing effective and affordable healthcare solutions. Leveraging proprietary technology, MGI produces sequencing devices, laboratory automation equipment, consumables, and reagents to support life science research, medicine, and healthcare. Its multi-omics platforms cover reagents, medical imaging, lab automation, and genetic sequencing. MGI’s mission is to develop and promote advanced life science tools for future healthcare. For more information, visit the MGI website or connect on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube.
About Pathology Queensland
Pathology Queensland (PQ), part of Queensland Health, provides diagnostic pathology services to all Hospital and Health Services (HHS) across metropolitan, regional, and remote Queensland. PQ offers laboratory services in anatomical pathology, chemical pathology, haematology, immunology, microbiology, and genomics. PQ also plays a vital role in supporting coordinated responses to public health incidents and disasters.
Unless otherwise specified, all sequencers and sequencing reagents are not available in Germany, USA, Spain, UK, Hong Kong, Sweden, and Belgium.
