NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Beijing, China-based Novogene said today that it has established a genomic sequencing center at the University of California, Davis.
The center is scheduled to open in May and will provide US and global customers whole-genome sequencing services for human, plant, and animal samples for biomedical and agricultural research.
In addition, the firm aims to establish a CLIA-certified laboratory within the UC Davis facility.
The new center will mark Novogene's entry into the US market. The company is one of the largest sequencing service providers in China and was primarily focused on the ag-bio space until last year, when it said it was developing NGS-based cancer panels for the clinical space and that it was collaborating with Illumina to develop a diagnostic sequencing platform that it would bring through China Food and Drug Administration clearance.
Novogene plans to equip the facility at UC Davis with five of Illumina's HiSeq X units as well as other NGS technologies, bioinformatics, and analytical capabilities.
"We look forward to providing US-based NGS services and bioinformatics analyses in support of diverse global genomics research needs," Novogene CEO and Founder Ruiqiang Li said in a statement.
UC Davis also has a joint sequencing center that it established in 2012 with China's BGI.