Chinese genome sequencer maker MGI Tech Co Ltd announced a strategic collaboration on Tuesday with the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park Corp, and six scientific research institutions and enterprises that have settled in the park.
They aim to jointly build a world-class life sciences innovation ecosystem in Hong Kong to advance global life science development.
The six partners are InnoHK Hong Kong Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, InnoHK Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Health, Quantum Life, Asia Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory Ltd, Codex Genetics and GemVCare.
“These collaborations will have significant impact on the industry and accelerate the pace of scientific breakthrough by bringing more innovative solutions to market. I look forward to seeing the fruits of the collaboration that will prepare the development of precision medicine in Hong Kong,” Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong said.
Looking ahead, Sun envisions a future where Hong Kong continues to lead the way in life and health technology and said he welcomes more and closer I&T collaborations across sectors.
Together, we can build a vibrant ecosystem and attract talent, facilitating faster collaboration and delivery of effective solutions for global challenges, Sun said.
HKSTP Chairman Sunny Chai Ngai-chiu hailed the collaboration as a milestone that will bring profound advancement to Hong Kong’s spatial omics and precision medicine sectors.
He said the collaboration can strengthen Hong Kong’s position in the transformative sectors, which are recognized as breakthrough technologies worldwide and as a huge market.
MGI entered the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park last year and was recognized as a “Key Enterprise Partner” by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Regions government in March this year, becoming a core member of Hong Kong’s technology and innovation ecosystem.
Additionally, MGI announced the debut of αLab Studio, MGI’s artificial intelligent laboratory assistant, on the international market on the same day. Its independently trained and developed AI large language models can generate experimental programs based on instructions, improve the design of experimental workflows, and automatically set equipment parameters to ensure the accuracy and efficiency of experiments.
According to the company, αLab Studio can shorten the experimental design stage time by 40 percent and the experimental programming time by 60 percent, significantly simplifying the scientific research experimental process.
Under the collaboration, MGI and HKSTP will jointly build a world-leading life science laboratory in Hong Kong to provide global researchers with state-of-art tools, including DNBSEQ sequencing, CycloneSeq sequencing, single-cell and spatial-transcriptomics analysis technologies.
Contact the writer at grace@chinadailyhk.com
