NEW YORK – Sophia Genetics will provide its genomic analysis and interpretation platform to customers of MGI, the instrument subsidiary of China's BGI Group, under a collaboration announced Thursday.
The nonexclusive deal gives MGI users access to Sophia technology to convert previously validated assays for use on MGI's massively parallel DNBSEQ sequencers, the company said. These customers also will be able to benefit from the Sophia Set-Up Program to support both this migration and the implementation of new assays on DNBSEQ systems.
"This will enable existing [massively parallel sequencing] users to use MGI DNBSEQ sequencers to advance their research and translational genomic goals," Hui Jiang, COO of MGI, said in a statement.
"This further supports essential access to highly accurate data that healthcare institutions require for reliable testing results," added Kevin Puylaert, Sophia's vice president business development.
The news comes one day after MGI introduced a new ultra-high-throughput sequencing platform that can produce human genomes at $100 in consumables costs when running at scale. That news broke at the closing session of the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology annual meeting in Marco Island, Florida.
Also on Wednesday, Switzerland-based Sophia and synthetic biology firm Twist Bioscience entered into a partnership to streamline genomic analysis.
Last week, MGI announced that it will start shipping its sequencing systems in the US in April, a move that has been opposed by Illumina, which has been in patent litigation with MGI and BGI and is seeking a preliminary injunction from a court to block MGI's US launch.