Chinese, Israeli companies team up to build COVID-19 testing facility
The lab will be able to perform over 10,000 tests per day and is expected to be completed by April 9.
By IDAN ZONSHINEAn employee of German biopharmaceutical company CureVac, demonstrates research workflow on a vaccine for the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease at a laboratory in Tuebingen, Germany(photo credit: REUTERS/ANDREAS GEBERT)
Or Yehuda DNA company MyHeritage announced on Friday evening that it will be working with Chinese genomics giant BGI to build an emergency testing facility which will allow Israel to perform an additional 10,000 coronavirus tests per day.The lab, slated to begin service on April 9, may double its testing output to around 20,000 tests daily.An identical lab was set up in just five days by BGI in Wuhan, the city that was the original epicenter of the coronavirus; another was set up in Shenzhen.According to MyHeritage CEO and co-founder Gilad Japhet, “BGI will ship to Israel in the coming days an aerial train of equipment, including dozens of advanced qPCR corona testing machines – the type of equipment used to detect RNA viruses, which allows the detection of even minimal amounts of the virus. The equipment also includes RNA extraction robots and large quantities of relevant equipment.”In order for the lab to keep up with the tight schedule and start operating by April 9, MyHeritage is preparing to recruit 110 new employees.According to Japhet, “Alongside the air training, about 25 experts from China will come to Israel to train us on how to work with the equipment.”The Chinese team of experts will be exempted from entering isolation as others landing in Israel are required to do, since they are required to come with medical certificates stating that they have tested negative for the virus.According to Japhet, MyHeritage will be responsible for funding and Chinese BGI will donate the equipment and manpower. “Our goal is not to become rich, but to benefit humanity. This is the time for the Israeli high-tech industry to shine,” Japhet concluded.Last week, MyHeritage announced it had donated 66,000 special swabs to the Health Ministry for the purpose of conducting coronavirus tests.
