BGI

News items for the week of Nov. 11.

MGI Tech will market Pillar Biosciences' Onco/Reveal NGS panels alongside its high-throughput, automated library prep systems outside the US.

Under the non-exclusive agreement, the firms will make Twist's portfolio of NGS target enrichment products available for MGI's sequencing platforms.

The company claims that certain Illumina sequencers infringe its US Patent No. 9,944,984, "Methods and Compositions for Efficient Base Calling in Sequencing Reactions."

Among other projects, the partners plan to establish a large-scale tropical plant genomics R&D center and associated sequencing and bioinformatics infrastructure.

The suits, targeting products that include the BGISEQ-500 and MGISEQ-2000 platforms, add fuel to the ongoing patent dispute between the two firms.

Under the partnership, Heidelberg-based Eluthia will become the primary distributor of BGI's NIFTY noninvasive prenatal test in Germany.

Scientists from the UK and China discussed two new NIPTs that include single-gene disorders and a study to estimate disease recurrence risk in families.