On April 4, Shanghai carried out Covid-19 testing for 25 million residents across the city. In response, MGI delivered multiple automated nucleic acid testing equipment, along with the support teams in Anhui and Qingdao, to contribute to the COVID-19 response in Shanghai.

MGI Deployed Automated & Integrated Nucleic Acid Detection Mobile Platform from Anhui to Shanghai Overnight

On the evening of March 28, seven prepared professional nucleic acid testing teams in Anhui Province were ready to support Shanghai, including an automated and integrated nucleic acid testing platform and four nucleic acid detection vehicles equipped with MGI automation systems. The daily testing capacity can reach up to 14,000 tubes per day when MGI's three powerful automation systems are put into use together, including the MGISTP-7000 automated sample transfer processing system, MGISP-960 high-throughput automatic sample preparation system, and MGISP-NE384 high-throughput automated nucleic acid extractor.

To ensure the operation of the automated testing equipment, MGI engineers responded immediately and worked non-stop to complete the equipment commissioning and debugging for 48 hours. In addition to taking care of the installation and maintenance of the equipment, MGI's engineer, Donghui and his colleagues also provide swift on-site technical support whenever issue happen.

MGI Deployed Automation System from Qingdao to assist Shanghai contributing to the daily testing capacity up to 1 million

MGI Qingdao also set up a 24-person professional team and a full set of automation testing equipment to support Shanghai rapidly and completed the equipment dismantling work overnight. Due to the shortage of on-site personnel, everyone was under great pressure but sparing no efforts to must ensure that all equipment can be put into use on time.

MGI's automation systems, including the MGISTP-7000, MGISP-960, and MGISP-NE384, work together to increase the daily testing capacity to 50,000 single tube, and 1 million at the maximum per day if 20 samples are mixed in one tube for batch testing.

The MGISTP-7000 automated sample transfer processing system is specially designed for the fully automated pre-processing of sample collection tubes. It can transfer up to 192 samples from airtight sample tubes or plain tubes to 96-well microplates in 40 minutes and simplify the labor-intensive and time-consuming procedures and reduce the risk of cross infection in a diagnostic testing laboratory.

In response to newly released "20-in-1" mixed sampling requirements, the upgraded MGISTP-7000 can load original 20-30ml samples tubes with caps by replacing the gripper and tube decapping module and placing new sample G rack, making it the first automation system that can achieve 20-in-1 mixed sampling in China to provide urgent instrumental support for large-scale nucleic acid testing.

MGISP-NE384 is a high-throughput automated nucleic acid extractor adopting magnetic rod technology, which can efficiently complete the extraction and purification of virus nucleic acid. While MGISP-960 is a highly efficient and widely used automated sample preparation system that automates the nucleic acid extraction and library preparation procedures. MGI automated laboratory systems enable a highly efficient streamlined workflow and finally the standardization, automation, informatization, intelligent and visualized management of the laboratory can be realized. It helps to greatly decrease tedious sample pre-analytical steps and reduce the workload of lab technicians and played an integral role in supporting the COVID-19 response in Shanghai.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, MGI's mobile platform has supported more than 24 cities nationwide by speeding up the efficiency of large-scale testing while ensuring a safer working environment for lab technicians. MGI will also work with all sectors of society to utilize the power of science and technology to safeguard the global community.