that is written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . march 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message bgi a bgi sequencer bgiseq 500 industry genome sequencing founded september 9 1999 beijing headquarters shenzhen guangdong china number of locations shenzhen hong kong wuhan hangzhou beijing china ; boston usa ; copenhagen denmark ; brisbane australia area served worldwide key people yang huanming chairman wang jian president yang shuang genomics ceo yu tak kin duncan coo divisions bgi china mainland bgi asia pacific bgi americas north and south america bgi europe europe and africa subsidiaries list of subsidiaries bgi research bgi co. ltd bgi agriculture bgi college bgi manufacturing china national genebank shenzhen complete genomics gigascience website www.bgi international.com www.genomics.cn bgi chinese ; pinyin hu d j y n known as the beijing genomics institute prior to 2008 is one of the world s premier genome sequencing centers headquartered in shenzhen guangdong china . 1 contents 1 history 2 key achievements 3 current research projects 3.1 human genetics 3.1.1 yan huang project 3.1.2 the 1000 genomes project 3.1.3 diabetes associated genes and variations study lucamp cancer genome project 3.1.4 cognitive research lab 3.2 animals and plants 3.2.1 1 000 plant and animal reference project 3.2.2 three extreme environment animal genomes project 3.2.3 international big cats genome project 3.2.4 symbiont genome project 3.3 microorganisms 3.3.1 ten thousand microbial genomes project 4 bioinformatics technology 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit wang jian yu jun yang huanming and liu siqi created bgi in november 1999 2 in beijing china as a non governmental independent research institute in order to participate in the human genome project as china s representative . 3 4 after the project was completed funding dried up . so bgi moved to hangzhou in exchange for funding from the hangzhou municipal government . in 2002 bgi sequenced the rice genome which was a cover story in the journal science . in 2003 bgi decoded the sars virus genome and created a kit for detection of the virus . in 2003 bgi hangzhou and the zhejiang university founded a new research institute the james d. watson institute of genome sciences zhejiang university . the watson institute was intended to become a major center for research and education in east asia modelled after the cold spring harbor laboratory in the us . in 2007 bgi s headquarters relocated to shenzhen as the first citizen managed non profit research institution in china . yu jun left bgi at this time purportedly selling his stake to the other 3 founders for a nominal sum . 2 in 2008 bgi shenzhen was officially recognized as a state agency . 5 in 2008 bgi published the first human genome of an asian individual . 3 6 in 2010 bgi shenzhen was certified as meeting the requirements of iso9001 2008 standard for the design and provision of high throughput sequencing services 7 the same year bgi bought 128 sequencing machines and claimed to be the world s largest genome center . 3 in 2010 it was reported that bgi would receive us 1.5 billion in collaborative funds over the next 10 years from the china development bank . 8 9 in 2010 bgi americas was established with its main office in cambridge massachusetts 10 and bgi europe was established in copenhagen . 11 in 2011 bgi reported it employed 4 000 scientists and technicians . 1 bgi did the genome sequencing for the deadly 2011 germany e. coli o104 h4 outbreak in three days under open licence . 12 in 2013 bgi reported it had relationships with 17 out of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies 10 13 and advertised that it provided commercial science health agricultural and informatics services to global pharmaceutical companies . 14 that year it bought complete genomics of mountain view california a major supplier of dna sequencing technology for us 118 million . 12 the institute has described itself as partly private and partly public receiving funds both from private investors and the chinese government . the laboratory was also the bioinformatics center of the chinese academy of sciences . key achievements edit first to de novo sequence and assemble mammalian 15 and human genomes with short read sequencing so called next generation sequencing 16 sequenced the first ancient human s genome 17 sequenced the first diploid genome of an asian individual 18 as part of the yan huang project initiated building a sequence map of the human pan genome estimated to contain 19 40 million bases not in the human reference genome 19 20 contributed 10 % of sequence information for the international hapmap project bgi s first project was contributing 1 % of the human genome project s reference genome and was the only institute in the developing world to contribute produced proof of principle study for sequencing the microbiome of the human digestive system an estimated 150 times larger than the human genome 21 22 key sequencing center in the 1000 genomes project first chinese institution to sequence the severe acute respiratory syndrome sars virus just hours after the first sequencing of the virus by canadians 23 key player in the analysis of the 2011 e. coli o104 h4 outbreak 24 sequenced 40 domesticated and wild silkworms identifying 354 genes likely important in domestication . 25 sequenced the first giant panda genome 15 equal in size to the human genome in less than 8 months 26 sequencing revealed that the giant panda ailuropoda melanoleuca has a frameshift mutation in a gene involved in sensing savory flavors t1r1 . the mutation might be the genetic reason why the panda prefers bamboo over meat . however the panda also lacks genes expected for bamboo digestion so its microbiome might play a key role in metabolizing its main source of food . 15 key player in the sino british chicken genome project as of 2010 update plant genomes sequenced include rice cucumber soybean and sorghum . animal genomes sequenced include silkworm honey bee water flea lizard and giant panda . an additional 40 animal and plant species and over 1000 bacteria had also been sequenced . 4 25 27 nature in 2010 ranked bgi shenzhen as the fourth among the ten top institutions in china with all the others being universities and the chinese academy of sciences . the ranking was based on articles in nature research journals . there were similar results for other tops journals . 28 in 2014 bgi was reported to be producing 500 cloned pigs a year to test new medicines . 29 current research projects edit human genetics edit yan huang project edit started in 2007 and named after two emperors believed to have founded china s dominant ethnic group 30 bgi planned in this project to sequence at least 100 chinese individuals to produce a high resolution map of chinese genetic polymorphisms . 31 32 the first genome data was published in october 2007 . 33 an anonymous chinese billionaire donated 10 million rmb about us 1.4 million to the project and his genome was sequenced at the beginning of the project . 31 32 the 1000 genomes project edit main article 1000 genomes project diabetes associated genes and variations study lucamp cancer genome project edit nine danish universities and institutes will collaborate with bgi in this targeted resequencing project . bgi explores associated genome and gene variation in complexes diseases in large scale studies primarily using two methods pcr based resequencing of candidate genes and exon capture based whole exome resequencing . cognitive research lab edit the cognitive research lab at bgi is working with stephen hsu on a project to discover the genetic basis of human intelligence . 34 animals and plants edit 1 000 plant and animal reference project edit bgi is leading an international collaboration to sequence 1 000 plants and animals of economic and scientific import within two years . it has pledged an initial us 100 million to start the program . 35 bgi has already sequenced genomes of 20 species of animals and 9 species of plants sometimes for multiple individuals such as 40 silkworms 19713493 and has an equal number underway as of march 2010 update . three extreme environment animal genomes project edit in 2009 bgi shenzhen announced the launch of three genome projects that focus on animals living in extreme environments . the three selected genomes are those of two polar animals the polar bear and emperor penguin and one altiplano animal the tibetan antelope . 36 international big cats genome project edit in 2010 bgi beijing university heilongjiang manchurian tiger forestry zoo kunming institute of zoology san diego zoo institute for conservation research in california and others announced they would sequence the amur tiger south china tiger bengal tiger asiatic lion african lion clouded leopard snow leopard and other felines . bgi would also sequence the genomes and epigenoms of a liger and tigon . since the two reciprocal hybrids have different phenotypes despite being genetically identical it was expected that the epigenome might reveal the basis of such differences . 37 the project aim was to significantly advance conservation research and was auspiciously announced for the chinese year of the tiger . 38 results were reported in 2013 for the genomes of the anur tiger the white bengal tiger african lion white african lion and snow leopard . 39 symbiont genome project edit a jointly funded project announced march 19 2010 bgi will collaborate with sidney k. pierce of university of south florida and charles delwiche of the university of maryland at college park to sequence the genomes of the sea slug elysia chlorotica and its algal food vaucheria litorea . the sea slug uses genes from the algae to synthesize chlorophyll the first interspecies of gene transfer discovered . sequencing their genomes could elucidate the mechanism of that transfer . 40 microorganisms edit ten thousand microbial genomes project edit this section is empty . you can help by adding to it . february 2016 http english.cas.cn ne case 200908 t20090805 44705 . shtml bioinformatics technology edit de novo sequencing requires aligning billions of short strings of dna sequence into a full genome itself three billion base pairs long for humans . bgi s computational biologists developed the first successful algorithm based on graph theory for aligning billions of 25 to 75 base pair strings produced by next generation sequencers specifically illumina s genome analyzer during de novo sequencing . the algorithm called soapdenovo can assemble a genome in two days 20 and has been used to sequence an array of plant and animal genomes . bgi s 500 node supercomputer processes 10 terabytes of raw sequencing data every 24 hours from its current 30 or so genome analyzers from illumina . the annual budget for the computer center is us 9 million . 41 soapdenovo is part of short oligonucleotide analysis package soap a suite of tools developed by bgi for de novo assembly of human sized genomes alignment snp detection resequencing indel finding and structural variation analysis . built for the illumina sequencers short reads soapdenovo has been used to assemble multiple human genomes 16 17 18 identifying an eight kilobase insertion not detected by mapping to the human reference genome 42 and animals like the giant panda . 15 see also edit chinese national human genome center wellcome trust sanger institute broad institute european bioinformatics institute references edit a b lone frank high quality dna apr 24 2011 the daily beast a b shu ching jean chen 2 september 2013 genomic dreams coming true in china forbes asia retrieved 27 october 2014 a b c kevin davies 27 september 2011 the bedrock of bgi huanming yang bio it world retrieved 14 january 2014 a b the dragon s dna jun 17th 2010