Public Health

On August 9th, Hua Fund (a charity fund BGI co-founded) in collaboration with Maoming City Health and Family Planning Bureau, Maoming City Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Guangdong Provincial Ministry of Land and Resources Volunteer Service Corps and Ming Ai Corps Star Volunteer Service Team, held a ceremony to kick off a public welfare program to offer “Free HLA Matching services for Medium and Heavy Thalassemia Patients in Maoming City”. The program has provided free matching tests for 73 families including a total of 219 people for the medium and severe thalassaemia patients in Maoming City, which also forms part of Maoming City government’s Thalassaemia prevention and treatment program.

On August 17th, BGI Genomics’Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Project representatives visited Gong Yan, a single mother who has cervical cancer in Wuhu City First People's Hospital of, Wuhu City, Anhui Province, and offered her and her family and friends financial assistance and a BGI SeqHPV Cervical Cancer Self-test card.

On May 8th, the 25th "International Thalassemia Day", "Shenzhen Radio and Television Public Welfare Foundation·Hua Fund Public Welfare Fund" (hereinafter referred to as "Hua Fund"), Guangdong Province Thalassemia Prevention Association, and Southern Medical University Southern Hospital launched a new thalassemia themed charity event in Guangzhou South Hospital, providing free on-site matching services for families with severe thalassaemia, expert consultations, and public lectures.

On June 23rd, Hua Fund worked with Shenzhen Radio Pioneer 898 to raise social awareness to two young sisters who suffer from Thalassaemia in Shenzhennicknamed“Litchi Little Sisters”– Junjun and Yaoyao, and launched a joint aid program to call for help for the sisters.

In September, the Cervical and Breast Cancer Working Group launched a “Cervical Cancer, Please Stay Away from Them” charity project, aiming to offer cervical cancer screening for women in poverty-stricken areas through public welfare. After the project was launched, it has received widespread social reactions. More people become aware of the disease, and willing to offer help.。

The Cervical and Breast Cancer Working Group has raised a total of RMB10,000 for two patients on the “9.9 Charity Day” , The two patients were grateful to the government’s cancer screening program for saving their lives and giving them hope for a happy life. They also thanked the working group and people’s kindness .

“Caring for women, stay away from Two Cancers” Women's Health Public Welfare Science Program, led by Shenzhen Maternal and Children’s Health Hospital, and co-organized by Shenzhen Women Entrepreneurs Association, Shenzhen Women's Medical Association, Shenzhen Women and Children's Development Foundation, Shenzhen Radio and Television Public Welfare Foundation, and BGI, have organized activities in a number of organizations and communities including Dacheng Law Firm, Chow Tai Fook Jewelry, Wan Gu Group, Bus Group and Shenzhen University since November.

On March 21st, Hua Fund is a special fund under the Shenzhen Radio and Television Public Welfare Foundation. It was initiated by Shenzhen Radio and Television Public Welfare Foundation and BGI Genomics to offer aid to severe thalassemia and Leukemia patients, and public welfare and scientific education activities related to diagnosis and prevention of rare diseasesthe. Hua Fund started at RMB500,000, mainly from donations by BGI’s executive management and shareholders. Hua Fund announced that it will permanently perform HLA matching services for children with severe acute anemia worldwide for free.

On November 19th, BGI, in collaboration with Shenzhen Women Entrepreneurs Association, Shenzhen Women's Physician Association, Shenzhen Women and Children's Development Foundation, and Shenzhen Radio and Television Public Welfare Foundation jointly launched the Shenzhen Women's Away from Two Cancer Initiative, forming“Stay Away from Two Cancers Working Group". The initiative aims to achieve "early prevention, early detection and early treatment" of two cancers through genetic testing, imaging examination and regular "two cancers" public education, to raise awareness among population and protect women's health.

On June 24th, BGI launched the “Ziqi Plan” which is part of BGI’s Using Genomics Technology to TreatRare Diseases Program, providing free HLA bone marrow matching testing services for 100 mucopolysaccharidosis patients. The Plan enables the public to further understand the relationship between genes and health, raises the society's awareness of rare disease patients, and contributes to using technologies to benefit rare diseases patients.

Following “Chunshu”’s (Uncle Chun, a nickname for Zhang Erchun a BGI employee who donated stem cells to a thalassemia patient) altruism and kindness, BGI launched the "Chun Shu Plan" which provides free HLA matching services and genetic counselling for 100 thalassemia patients.

On July 8, BGI announced in Beijing that it would launch the “10 million families away from genetic birth defects” program. The program has launched a series of "technical public welfare" projects for rare diseases, including the "Ziqi Plan" for patients with mucopolysaccharidosis, the "Spring Uncle Plan" for thalassemia and the "Xiaoming Plan" for ichthyosis.

On June 12th, the Women's Health Action and Free Cervical Cancer Screening Campaign, jointly organized by BGI and the Fenghuang County Government, was officially launched. It plans to provide cervical cancer screening for more than 50,000 married women at a childbearing age in the period 2012-2014.

On January 8th, BGI has received 30 child patients for HLA high-resolution genotyping testing in Huizhou.

On January 25th, the Chinese Red Cross Society awarded BGI Research (now "BGI Life Science Research") the Red Cross medal - the highest honor of the Red Cross.

On February 28th, the “Love is Flowing” large-scale public welfare program jointly initiated by the National Population and Family Planning Commission and the China Population Welfare Foundation was first launched in Guangdong. An advocate for people’s health, BGI donated 100,000 HPV testing services, worth of RMB￥6 million, to the people in poverty, . The China Population Welfare Foundation commended BGI and issued a Certificate of Honor.

In the same year, the Heshan Municipal Government in Guangdong Province launched the “HPV Screening for Cervical Cancer Program for 100,000 Heshan Women ”, using the highly effective screening model -voluntary community screening service without relying on doctors + self-sampling of the subject + sample preservation card + HPV high-throughput gene sequencing technology. It has become the first demonstration site for cervical cancer screening and early detection for the rest of the country.

On November 15th, at the Shenzhen High-Tech Fair’s press conference, BGI and the Shenzhen Red Cross signed an agreement to jointly carry out the Thalassemia Rescue Project.

In the same year, BGI donated RMB￥43 million to the China Bone Marrow Bank and assisted in the completion of HLA high-resolution sequencing of 90,000 human samples.

The US-based oncology research organization Preventative Oncology International (POI) forms collaboration with BGI and Peking University Shenzhen Hospital using MALDI-TOF HPV detection on BGI’s high-throughput PCR platform in the well-known Shenzhen Cervical Cancer Prevention Research Project II (SHENCCAST II) to study and compare large volumes of clinical samples taken by a doctor and samples conducted by the patients.

The results confirm that the MALDI-TOF self-conducted sample test results have the same effect on the sensitivity and specificity as the results of the HC-2 doctor's sample test, with no significant difference. This technology solves the conventional issues e.g. reliance on seeing a doctor for a cervical cancer screening, and low-throughput but high-detection-cost sampling and screening techniques. It makes it possible for the patients to take their own samples, and the test centers to larger volumes of samples using high-throughput technology at much lower costs.

BGI provided a large-scale free medical examination for the registered households in Yantian District, Shenzhen.

BGI began the research and development on HPV typing genetic testing technology useing next-generation high-throughput sequencing to accurate type 14 high-risk HPV’s (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56,58,59, 66, 68)) which are highly correlated with cervical cancer as published by World Health Organization.

BGI conducted community programs offering large-scale free medical examinations for ethnic minorities in remote areas in China such as Tibet and Inner Mongolia.