BGI has already invested hundreds of millions of dollars, and is at the forefront of a technology revolution known as Next Generation Sequencing (NextGen), which allows genomics testing to be done at a scale and speed that was previously impossible.
In 1999, BGI contributed to 1% of the Human Genome Project, and today, BGI’s sequencing capabilities have contributed more than 50% of the world’s genetic sequencing.
-- Harvard University’s geneticist George Church.
I‘m very impressed with BGI’s achievements in gene sequencing, genomics and bioinformatics since its inception... I have seen many people who didn’t finish university and get in technology and industry. But I have never seen people like BGI team who didn’t finish university but get in basic scientific research, and have done so well.
——From Bill Gates’ letter to Wang Jian in 2013