Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia, nucleic acid testing has been an important diagnostic basis for clinical diagnosis, release from isolation, and rehabilitation and discharge from hospital.

With the further development of the epidemic situation, the anti-epidemic "battlefield" needs to face more complex areas and usage scenarios, and has further requirements for detection equipment and technology.

In order to meet the needs of "mobile real-time detection,” MGI has developed a fully enclosed novel coronavirus rapid detection automaton with Shanghai Tolo Biotech develops supporting reagents. This product can support nucleic acid extraction, detection and result determination of virus samples within one hour, and it is fully automated to directly improve the instant diagnosis efficiency of novel coronaviruses.

In October 2019, MGI released the DNBelab D series sequencer at ICG-14 (the 14th International Genomics Conference), which is a sample preparation instrument based on digital microfluidic technology. The electrode allows experimenters to manipulate droplets freely like writing a program and realize complex steps of molecular biology experiments on the chip. This time, based on the DNBablab D series sequencer, a fully enclosed desktop novel coronavirus rapid tester is compact, reliable, easy for operation and safe.

This device integrates magnetic bead extraction, micro liquid manipulation, temperature cycling, quantitative fluorescence and other functions, and can be used with qPCR, CRISPR and other kits, which can effectively reduce the amount of reagents, improve the reaction efficiency, and shorten the reaction time. This instrument can be used as the POCT products of novel-type coronaviruses detected on-site at the grass-roots medical institutions, effectively reducing the burden on medical staff and front-line workers.

Among them, the novel coronavirus CRISPR rapid detection kit was jointly developed by MGI and Shanghai Tolo Biotech’s patented HOLMES technology, which uses the trans-cleaving activity of CRISPR protein to achieve efficient identification of viral nucleic acid sequences. Fast signal conversion and high-fidelity amplification can amplify tens of thousands of times in a few minutes, thereby achieving the purpose of rapid, efficient, and sensitive virus detection. Combining this patented CRISPR molecular diagnostic technology on the DNBelab D platform can achieve the entire process from sample to report in one hour.

During the detection process, the technician only needs to add the sample and the corresponding kit, the manual time is only two minutes, and the whole process is automatically operated in a closed environment, which completely avoids the pollution caused by the external environment and the operation process. The automatic detection and output of the processed results have extremely low requirements on the experiment and artificial environment, which can meet the needs of fast moving detection, avoid unnecessary physical isolation and long waits, help medical staff to improve the diagnosis efficiency, timely monitor the condition and perform intervention treatment.

In order to fight the epidemic, as a novel force in the research and development and production of domestic life science instruments, MGI sequencers DNBSEQ-T7, DNBSEQ-400, DNBSEQ-50, and automated sample preparation systems MGISP-100 and MGISP-960 have been used in many places to analyze novel coronavirus sequences, improve the processing capacity of samples in the testing center, playing an important role in the frontlines of the epidemic in Wuhan and Hubei.

At the same time, MGI is continuing to carry out technical research on the equipment required for scientific research and clinical detection according to the development of the epidemic situation, improve the detection efficiency of the virus, analyze and study the mechanism of the virus epidemic situation, and fight the epidemic with the support of many partners and stakeholders to overcome challenges.