Novogene, a China-headquartered global provider of genomic services and solutions, has chosen Cambridge for its first genomic sequencing centre in Europe.

The Novogene UK Genomic Sequencing Center will be established at the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge.

The company says the hub will be its springboard to serve its European customers and contribute to human health across Europe. The centre will be equipped with a full automation system and the latest illumina NovaSeq and super computing platforms. 

Establishing this facility will enable Novogene to provide cutting edge next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics services and solutions to scientists at European universities, research institutes, pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies.

Dr Ruiqiang Li, founder and CEO of Novogene, said: “We are proud to set up our first European Laboratory at the Babraham Research Campus. Our UK lab is a first step towards addressing the increasing demand for our European customers and will help us contribute to advancing human health, environmental protection and plant and animal breeding in the UK and the whole of Europe.”

Derek Jones, CEO of Babraham Bioscience Technologies, which is responsible for the management and development of the Babraham Research Campus added: “The role of genomics is rapidly evolving and the Cambridge Cluster has become a hub for innovation in this area, attracting leading organisations, like Novogene, to locate here.

“Close proximity to academic and commercial collaborators – both on campus and within the wider cluster – is hugely beneficial to the organisations based here and results in innovative and ground-breaking research that will ultimately benefit us all.”

A privately-owned institution headquartered in Beijing with branches in Hong Kong, the US and UK, Novogene was founded in 2011 and has been steadily growing at unprecedented rates in terms of both size and revenues. It has genomic sequencing labs in the US (at the University of California at Davis campus), China, and Singapore. 

• PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS: Derek Jones, CEO of Babraham Bioscience Technologies