At this year's China-CEEC Expo, the "FireEye" laboratory, an anti-epidemic weapon from BGI Group, received a lot of attention.
According to reports, "Eye of Fire" is taken from the traditional Chinese cultural classic "Journey to the West", which is the meaning of Sun Wukong's golden eye of fire. The "FireEye" laboratory is a high-throughput nucleic acid detection laboratory born in China's anti-epidemic struggle, which meets the standards of biosafety protection level II laboratories. It can be quickly built and deployed, with fast detection speed and high accuracy, and is currently rushing to the aid of the world and filling the shortcomings of the world's virus detection.
In the process of global anti-epidemic, Shenzhen-based BGI Group has created a number of typical cases of Chinese equipment, Chinese technology, Chinese experience and Chinese standards "going global". At the expo site, Xiong Tao, vice president of international development affairs of BGI Group, told the Xinmin Evening News reporter again about the days when he went to Serbia last year.
Travel thousands of miles to support the fight against the epidemic
Xiong Tao's fate with Serbia began with a letter from Serbian President Vucic.
"Today I sent a special letter. We expect a lot from the only person who can help in a difficult situation, and that is China. On March 15 last year, President Vucic choked up in a televised speech.
Pictured: Vucic asks China for help in a televised speech Screenshot of the video
On the same day, Serbia officially entered a national state of emergency. In the evening, a batch of nucleic acid detection kits developed and produced by BGI arrived in Serbia.
According to Xiong Tao's recollection, at that time, Serbia's national new crown virus detection capacity was still relatively limited. Therefore, BGI Group proposed to the other side the "FireEye" laboratory plan.
The Cypriot side was quick to respond. The two sides quickly signed a contract to build a "FireEye" laboratory in Belgrade and Niš. In order to help the Serbian side complete the construction of the laboratory as soon as possible, Xiong Tao led five other team members to form a working group and flew to Serbia on April 11.
"At that time, the sea between China and Cyprus had been cut off. The Cypriot side sent the only Airbus A330 to Shanghai. In addition to us on the huge passenger plane, there are hundreds of boxes of anti-epidemic materials aided by China, even the cabin is no exception. Xiong Tao said.
Photo: When the BGI working group set off, the empty Pudong Airport was provided by the interviewee
The aircraft cabin is also almost stuffed with anti-epidemic materials
State-of-the-art laboratory in the entire Balkans
Thanks to the efforts of the BGI team and the high support of the Serbian government, the "FireEye" laboratory in Belgrade completed construction in just five days from the arrival of laboratory equipment on April 15 and was officially put into use on April 22.
"The completion of the laboratory is a milestone." Xiong Tao said, "At that time, when we inspected, we found that the extraction and testing of the new crown virus samples in the Cypriot side lacked unified standards and were very inefficient. After the completion of the laboratory, we recommend that all samples sent into the laboratory be marked with Chinese standards, not only marked with two-dimensional codes, but also using throat swabs of Chinese national standards and their preservation waves. In other words, this is not only an export of Chinese equipment and technology, but also a promotion of Chinese standards.
Pictured: Xiong Tao was interviewed by CCTV before
Once completed, the "FireEye" laboratory became the most advanced nucleic acid testing laboratory in the entire Balkan region, with a maximum daily detection throughput of 2,000 copies, which greatly improved Serbia's virus detection capacity. According to the Serbian government website, the daily detection flux in the country was only 3281 cases on April 22, and it quickly increased to 6703 cases per day on April 30.
On the day of the completion of the laboratory, Serbian Prime Minister Brna Beach personally came to the scene to list and unveil, lamenting that China is a "hardcore brother who overcomes the difficulties of the times". On May 1, President Vucic personally received Chinese aid personnel, including the BGI working group, and praised China for giving Serbia confidence and courage to defeat the epidemic.
Photo: On May 1 last year, Serbian President Vucic (center) sent off members of the BGI working group and some members of the medical team who were returning to China on a rotational basis, with Xiong Tao on the left picture of the Serbian Ministry of Defense
On February 15 this year, Vucic also awarded the Chinese anti-epidemic expert group to Serbia and the Huada Group to thank them for their contributions to the anti-epidemic work in Serbia.
Full confidence in cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe
Today, there are more than 80 FireEye laboratories operating overseas, distributed in nearly 30 countries and regions around the world.
At the exhibition site, BGI Group exhibited the "FireEye" laboratory model and its core instrument MGISP960. This is a high-throughput automated sample preparation system and the key to FireEye's powerful detection capabilities.
Photo: Diplomats from Central and Eastern European countries in China visit the "FireEye" laboratory model in the BGI exhibition area Courtesy of the interviewee
Although he has not been able to set foot in Serbia since returning to China last year, Xiong Tao is still concerned about the epidemic in Serbia and Central and Eastern Europe, and participated in the health industry cooperation conference of the China-Central and Eastern European Expo.
Talking about the future, Xiong Tao said that the cooperation between China and Cebu and Eastern Europe in the fields of anti-epidemic, medical treatment and health is promising, and Central and Eastern Europe is an important development direction for enterprises' overseas business. He remembered that after the completion of the "FireEye" laboratory in Belgrade, the Serbian side arranged for more than 40 people to follow the working group to learn operational matters. These Cypriot staff are highly learnable, and about one third of them have doctorates.
"The local per capita education level is high, the economic and social development also has a certain foundation, coupled with the friendly and stable bilateral relations, these three factors are crucial for the selection of cooperation partners." Xiong Tao said.
Pictured: Chinese and Cypriot personnel work intensively in the laboratory Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Xiong Tao said that during the expo, representatives of Latvia, Poland, Montenegro, Croatia and Greece expressed their willingness to strengthen further cooperation with BGI Group. BGI group also hopes to carry out more cooperation with Central and Eastern European countries to jointly improve the health and well-being of the people.
Yang Yifan, special correspondent of Xinmin Evening News (Ningbo, June 11, this newspaper)