The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and BGI are partnering to conduct large-scale sequencing and bioinformatics studies of rare and common pediatric diseases at a newly established Joint Genome Center at the hospital, the organizations said this week.

The new center, known as BGI@CHOP, became operational last month. It combines BGI's sequencing abilities with the hospital's extensive biobank and expertise in clinical phenotyping to better understand both rare and common pediatric diseases.