BGI has opened a genomics research center in Copenhagen's Bio Science Park that will be equipped with 10 Illumina HiSeq 2000 sequencers.
The goal of the center is to establish collaborations in genomics research and its applications to health care, agriculture, and bioenergy.
The center will kick off with two main initiatives: a cancer vaccine project and the 1% Danes' Genome Project.
The cancer vaccine project aims to use sequencing to identify unknown cancer pathogens and develop and patent commercial vaccines.
The 1% Dane's Genome Project is a collaboration between BGI and the University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University, Aalborg University, Herlev Hospital, and the Technical University of Denmark. The effort will sequence the genomes of 50,000 Danish citizens in order to build a database for disease research.
The research center is part of BGI Europe's efforts, which was established in May 2010 in Copenhagen, but until now has been primarily a sales and marketing effort (IS 7/5/2011).