With a mission to lead life science through intelligent innovation and to develop and promote advanced life science tools for future health care in Africa, MGI, a company committed to being a world-leading life science innovator, has been supporting the advancement of genomics in Africa.

To support and promote outstanding genomics in Africa, MGI hosted the MGI's Africa Sequencing Challenge which provided a chance for African Scientists all over the continent to win either a MGI DNBSEQ™ sequencer* or subsistence towards their genomics project.

All scientists, researchers, genomic innovators, genomic startups and all those passionate about genomics in Africa had an opportunity to enter. The goal of the program was to support Africa scientists and genomic sequencing projects in Africa, and to promote the utilization of cutting-edge DNBSEQ^TM technology in science. The challenge was open to all and ran from 24^th January 2022 - 10^th March 2022.

The first-place winner, to win a DNBSEQ™ sequencer* inclusive of installation and training, was awarded to Nkosikhona Hlatshwayo at TOKABIO. "Thanks to MGI for this amazing initiative. Without this foresight and support, valuable projects meant to boost African research and innovation would remain forever stunted. We are looking forward to a long and fruitful collaboration!" – said Nkosikhona Hlatshwayo Tokabio are setting up a dedicated HIV-program in collaboration with multiple governmental and private institutes to improve the status in Africa. "I would like to officially thank you and your team on the sequencing system competition and also for trusting Tokabio to use your technology, advice and cooperation to setup this amazing HIV-program" - said Dr. Phiyani Lebea (PhD), Managing Director at TOKABIO

The second place was awarded to Allo Aman Dido part of the Agricultural Biotechnology, Crop Genetic Improvement Team at the Ethiopian Biotechnology Institute, who was awarded $10,000 dollars towards a sequencing project via third-party service provider.  Third place was awarded to Tapfumanei Mashe the AMR Coordinator and HIV/COVID-19 Medical Laboratory Scientist for the Research Circle (TRC) and the World Health Organization, who won $5,000 dollars towards a sequencing project via third-party service provider respectively. "I am humbled MGI, the support will go a long way in supporting our NGS dreams." – said Tapfumanei Mashe

MGI congratulates the winners and thanks to all for the those that took part in the challenge. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn for future opportunities. 

About MGI

MGI Tech Co., Ltd. (MGI) is committed to building core tools and technology to lead life science through intelligent innovation. Based on its proprietary technology, MGI focuses on research & development, production and sales of sequencing instruments*, reagents*, and related products to support life science research, agriculture, precision medicine and healthcare. MGI's mission is to develop and promote advanced life science tools for future healthcare. As of December 2020, MGI has a footprint that spans across more than 70 countries and regions, serves over 1,000 international users and employs more than 1,700 professionals globally, around 33% of which are R&D personnel. For more information, please visit the MGI website or connect on Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube.

*Unless otherwise informed, StandardMPS and CoolMPS sequencing reagents, and sequencers for use with such reagents are not available in Germany, USA, Spain, UK, Hong Kong, Sweden, Belgium, Italy, Finland, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Portugal.