Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Australian firm Xing Technology aimed at the translation of diagnostic technologies.

The partners will leverage their expertise and technologies in the field of personalized healthcare. More specifically, they will optimize DNA nanoball technology to improve the quality and throughput of sequencing data to lower costs. They will also will collaborate on integrating circulating tumor cell isolation, characterization, and sequencing to accelerate use of the technology for disease screening and monitoring.

Additionally, they plan to jointly research and manufacture a diagnostic product developed by Xing, a spin-out of the University of Queensland. The product, which leverages Xing's laboratory-in-a-drop technology, potentially could be used to accurately, rapidly, and inexpensively screen and monitor disease at the point of care.

In addition to human health, the diagnostic tool could have applications in animal health and plant science. In connection to the deal, BGI subsidiary MGI will deploy the BGISeq-500 NGS sequencer in Xing's lab in Brisbane, Australia.