In May 2011, the Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia Coli (EHEC) epidemic broke out in Germany, which infected thousands of people and resulted in multiple deaths. Finding the source of infection as fast as possible to provide treatment became the top priority for local health officials.

On May 27th, BGI received samples for an emergency test from Germany. On June 2nd, BGI completed the genome sequencing and published the data. On June 7th, BGI successfully developed the diagnostic kit for this disease and disclosed all the scientific data and information to the international communities for free, laying an important scientific foundation that helped to speed up the control of this epidemic.

On July 28th, a research paper on the EHEC epidemic was published on the world-renowned New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) , which was prepared by an international research team by BGI-Research, the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) , the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and other institutions.

The E. coli Research Paper Published on New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)