In 2021, Shenzhen BGI Life Sciences Research Institute (BGI-Research) made significant achievements in the realm of scientific research.
Nine articles were published in the world-renowned science journals Cell, Nature, and Science (CNS), and 41 articles were published in CNS series journals. Notable, the breakthrough in Stereo-seq technology marks BGI-Research as a global leader in innovation.
Over the years, BGI-Research has established more than 10 branches and worked with 500+ scientific research organizations around the world to jointly pursue exploration in the field of genomics.
With the 1,000+ scientists at BGI-Research, we would like to share with you the highlights of BGI-Research in 2021.
In 2021, BGI-Research made breakthroughs in multiple scientific and technological fields such as Stereo-seq technology, bioinformatics data compression algorithms, and functional proteins.
Stereo-seq technology, developed by BGI-Research, has reached subcellular-level resolution with high adaptability to different forms of tissue slices and applicability to multiple scenarios. It has become the highest-resolution spatial transcriptomic detection technology in the world.
BGI-Research developed a high-quality integrated bioinformatics algorithm tool for "storage", "calculation", and "application", which improves standard analysis efficiency 5-fold and storage efficiency 6-fold. This tool realizes spatiotemporal single-cell circle selection and 3D reconstruction, and it improves visualization response speed 10-fold or more.
BGI-Research cooperated with renowned science and academic institutes such as Peng Cheng Laboratory, Shenzhen University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Xi'an University of Electronic Science and Technology, and City University of Hong Kong, to complete China's national genetic data compression standard technology system "AVS-G" with a speed of 500 MB/s.
Compared with current general compression tools such as GZIP, AVS-G has higher compression efficiency; AVS-G compression is 3 times faster than the MPEG-G standard, and memory consumption is reduced by 65%. AVS-G has been used productively at the China National GeneBank.
BGI-Research has integrated a number of advanced technologies such as metagenomic sequencing, de novo protein structure prediction, rational protein design, in vitro protein preparation and characterization, and protein structure analysis to realize the complete sequence-structure-function technical process of mining functional proteins from metagenomes.
Highly active tool enzymes mined from the metagenomic data of deep-sea hydrothermal areas have become core tools in biochemical reactions.
BGI-Research is driven by a devotion to life science research and to providing strong scientific support in gene technology for the benefit of mankind.
In 2021, BGI-Research published a total of 300+ papers, including 9 in the main journals of Cell, Nature, and Science (CNS) and 41 in CNS series journals. BGI-Research has established extensive international influence in scientific research fields such as SARS-CoV-2 research, metagenomics, evolutionary biology, seed genomics and phylogenetics, developmental spatiotemporal omics, and DNA storage.
Research on "Efficient Sequencing Method of Coronavirus" was selected by Springer Nature as the annual high-impact research of Chinese scholars in the field of life sciences and biomedicine. This research will help many countries monitor new coronavirus mutations.
BGI-Research completed the omics study of COVID-19 samples, the multi-omics study of severe COVID-19 cases, a series of genetic background studies, and a study on the expression pattern of viral receptors. This research analyzed the potential mechanisms of severe COVID-19 and provided important references for epidemic prevention. The results were published in journals such as Nature Communications.
Through the association analysis of whole genome and metagenomic sequencing data in large-scale populations, a broad association map of gut microbes, oral microbes, and host genomes was constructed. This map laid the foundation for a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of interaction between the microbiota and the human body, and it enables intervention planning using individualized microbiota.
Two related research results were published in the journal Cell Discovery.
For the first time, the diploid genome of the biomedical model species marmoset was assembled and analyzed in a new way. This work was published in Nature as one of the results of the "Vertebrate Genomes Project".
BGI-Research helped reveal the mystery of vertebrate evolution from aquatic to terrestrial species from different perspectives and evolutionary nodes. A series of two papers were featured on the cover of Cell and were selected as "China's Top 10 Advances in Life Sciences in 2021" by the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST).
BGI-Research assembled the pan-genome of the chickpea for the first time and used large-scale sequencing data to help improve crop breeding. The results were published in Nature.
BGI-Research performed whole-genome re-sequencing for 445 cultivated and wild lettuce germplasms from 47 countries around the world and revealed the domestication history of cultivated lettuce. The results were published in Nature Genetics.
For the first time, the spatiotemporal omics maps of the embryonic development of species such as drosophila, zebrafish, salamander, and mouse have been constructed, providing a new perspective for understanding embryonic development.
Additionally, BGI-Research was the first to report that cell competition is a barrier to species chimerism and that cell competition is common in stem cells of different species at specific stages. These results were published in Nature.
BGI-Research completed an integrated encoding and decoding method for DNA storage and evaluation, which provides a basis for future DNA storage industry standards. The results were published in the DNA storage special edition of Synthetic Biology Journal.
BGI-Research also established several closed-loop independent technologies for complete DNA storage with world-leading performance, and a video demonstration of this technology was collected in the "Thirteenth Five-Year" Science and Technology Innovation Achievement Exhibition.
In 2021, Wang Jian, Co-founder and Chairman of BGI Group, Xu Xun, Executive Director of BGI Group, Director of BGI-Research, and others performed deep-sea scientific research in the "Striver" deep-sea manned submersible.
BGI-Research joined other international leading scientific research institutions and top experts for multi-site scientific cooperation around the world.
On December 5, 2021, the "Exploration 1" scientific research vessel returned to Sanya with the "Striver" deep-sea manned submersible on board. Wang Jian, Xu Xun, and Liu Shanshan from BGI Group participated in the deep-sea scientific expedition. Wang Jian, at 67, is the first scientist in China to complete an expedition to the South and North Polar regions of the earth, to summit Mount Everest, and to dive to the deepest part of the world's waters.
In 2021, BGI-Research continued to strengthen global scientific research cooperation and established genomics, single-cell omics, and stereo-seq omics research platforms in Beijing, Sanya, and Xinxiang, in San Jose, United States, and in Riga, Latvia.
BGI-Research has conducted scientific research cooperation projects with more than 100 scientific research institutes, universities, and hospitals around the world, including the Southwestern Medical Center in the United States, University of Oxford in the UK, and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. BGI-Research has established a benign development model that promotes clinical application and industrial development through basic scientific research to supports scientific and technological innovation in the field of genomics.
"The purpose of scientific research is to benefit the world; this is the principle that BGI-Research must adhere to".