MGI (company)

In March 2013 Complete Genomics was acquired by BGI Group.[15] After the acquisition, Complete Genomics moved to San Jose, and in June 2018 became part of MGI.[16][17] The acquisition was the one of the outcomes of $1.5 billion 'collaborative funds' i.e., '10 years loan' which was initially provided by China Development Bank to acquire all 128 of Illumina, Inc.'s newest and fastest next-generation sequencers including HiSeq 2000.[18]

Human exome sequencing: Only a few DNA enrichment kits, based on the hybridization of cRNA or cDNA biotinylated probes, are compatible with MGI sequencers which can be utilized for specific activities such as exome sequencing.[3]

Viral RNA sequencing and analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant (in Guangzhou, China): The two sets of sequencing libraries were enriched using amplicon-based and hybrid capture-based approaches, as stated in a research article published in eClinicalMedicine (a LANCET Discovery Science journal). The assessment of variation was performed using SARS-CoV-2 Multi-PCR v1.0 for data based on amplicon sequencing on MGI's ATOPlex RNA Library Prep kit[22] and the nCoV Variant detection process for data based on hybrid capture sequencing.[23] However, only mutation sites with a sequencing depth greater than 100× were reported.[24]

In November 2021, a federal jury in California concluded that MGI America (in its capacity as an affiliate of BGI Group) had infringed Illumina, Inc.'s patents. Accordingly, they awarded Illumina damages of $8 million.[26]

In March 2022, Illumina persuaded a U.S. District Judge to prolong the restriction on MGI America selling its CoolMPS sequencers in the United States for six months until August 2022, when Illumina's patent expires.[27] MGI's CoolMPS sequencing chemistry and DNBSeq-G400 sequencer became commercially available in the US starting Aug. 29.

Complete Genomics, a research subsidiary of MGI, filed a lawsuit in May 2019, alleging that Illumina's "two-channel" DNA sequencing chemistry violates two patents for the technology that deduces the identification of each nucleotide from two signals. The NovaSeq 6000, the NextSeq 500/550/550x, and 1000/2000 Series, as well as the MiniSeq, were all the focus of the lawsuit against Illumina. Additionally, it targeted Illumina's cluster generation & sequencing, and library preparation kits, all of which are interoperable with one or more platforms.[28]

In May 2022, A jury in Delaware concluded that Illumina's “two-channel” sequencing chemistry infringes on two patents owned by MGI Tech through its subsidiary Complete Genomics. As a result of this finding, the jury awarded $333.8 million in damages to the company. The jury also dismissed Illumina's assertions that the patents were invalid. The verdict also invalidated three of Illumina's patents that the firm had asserted in a countersuit claiming MGI Tech had infringed on Illumina's patents.[29]