Search DubaiPRNetwork.com

Dubai and UAE

Monday, April 6, 2020/ Editor

Home >> Healthcare and Fitness

BGI Unveils Mobile, Inflatable Biosafety Lab: “Huo-Yan Air Lab” Offers an Effective, Rapid Deployment Solution for COVID-19 Testing

BGI Unveils Mobile, Inflatable Biosafety Lab: “Huo-Yan Air Lab” Offers an Effective, Rapid Deployment Solution for COVID-19 Testing

Home >> Healthcare and Fitness

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, April 06, 2020:    The ability of a country to quickly implement early screening and detection of COVID-19 cases has proven key to effectively managing the spread of the disease. But the scale and speed of infection has posed serious challenges to many governments.

In order to address these challenges BGI, in collaboration with the company Etopia, have jointly designed a mobile, inflatable P2 level biosafety laboratory, the Huo-Yan Air Lab, which enables partners to rapidly deploy and implement a professional, in-country diagnostic laboratory solution for COVID-19. The Huo-Yan Air Lab was unveiled at a launch ceremony at the China National GeneBank on April 3. Because of the outbreak, the ceremony was held in the form of an online cloud broadcast, and nearly half a million people watched the event live on multiple platforms.

“For countries without laboratories or where emergency needs cannot be met, we are addressing the problem with bold innovation,” said BGI Genomics CEO YIN Ye.

Description: 
The “Huo-Yan” Air Lab is an expertly designed biological nucleic acid laboratory launched by BGI for the screening and testing of SARS-CoV-2, for both present and future needs. The Huo-Yan Air Lab uses a modular air dome structure. It can be easily transported by air as standard freight on any commercial passenger plane, and quickly constructed and safely deployed locally to support the screening and detection capabilities of countries around the world, thereby allowing authorities to control the pandemic at an earlier stage. A P3 level biosafety laboratory was constructed using an inflatable structure during the Ebola outbreak in 2014 in West Africa, where BGI contributed to the response efforts and helped to develop virus detection kits. A patent for the Huo-Yan Air Lab has been filed and registered with the international Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The lab covers an area of about 400 square meters and is designed to process from 5,000 to 10,000 samples per day.


Technical Overview:
The design of Huo-Yan Air Lab consists of five major functional areas: Sample Collection, Sample Reception, Sample Preparation, Reagent Preparation and Amplification. 

The Huo-Yan Air Lab is equipped with auxiliary conversion space, including air lock conversion and medical waste exhaust system, and is installed with Class II biological safety cabinets, automatic nucleic acid preparation instruments, qPCR instruments, antibody detection equipment, gene sequencers, high-performance servers and other COVID-19 virus nucleic acid detection equipment. The laboratory is designed with a fresh air system and High Efficiency Particulate Air Filter (HEPA) to independently filter and manage the air entering and exiting the air in each functional area. This ensures that the gases in each functional space do not contaminate each other, and at the same time guarantees that outward emissions are correctly and safely filtered to comply with relevant standards and guidelines for biological safety in gene amplification laboratories and virus detection laboratories. “The Huo-Yan Air Lab fully meets the demands of global biosafety requirements and industry specifications,” notes Dr. YIN, CEO of BGI Genomics, adding that the first round of experiments has been completed in the inflatable laboratory in Shenzhen with good results.

At the unveiling ceremony it was announced that the laboratory aims to obtain third-party certification for testing in the near future. Dr. SU Yunsheng PhD, Executive Vice President of the Shanghai International Institute of Design and Innovation (Tongji University and founder of Shanghai Etopia, introduced the Huo-Yan Air Lab advantages, including scalability, low energy consumption, intelligent design, effective storage, easy transportation and dismantling. Further, in the future the laboratory will be optimized so that it can be sprayed with composite materials in order to form a concrete shell structure and become a permanent structure where needed. 

 

Share


Previous in Healthcare and Fitness

Next in Healthcare and Fitness


Home >> Healthcare and Fitness Section

Latest Press Release

Mohamed bin Hadi Al Hussaini, Pakistan's Minister of Finance discuss ways to enhance cooperation in ...

UAE Circular Economy Council discusses policies to accelerate shift to circular models and expand bi ...

Big Wins Continue with PrivilegePLUS at Mercato & Town Centre Jumeirah!

Dubai Customs hosts Sheikh Mansour bin Ibrahim Al-Mualla to discuss ways of cooperation and strength ...

Christophe Robin's Summer Travel Essentials for Good Hair Days

Dubai Municipality and Parkin sign agreement to enhance the efficiency of public parking infrastruct ...

Dubai Airports launches DXB Greet & Go: a smart, QR code-based pickup service at Terminal 3

Dubai Sports World Returns for Action-Packed August Edition

The World Between Lines and Symbols: An Interactive Art Workshop at Mohammed Bin Rashid Library

Malls Across Dubai Come Alive This DSS With Non-Stop Entertainment, Unbeatable Prizes, and Endless S ...

Emirates A350 debuts in Dammam

Emirates Post collaborates with Dream Dubai to launch AED100,000 prize campaign to celebrate UAE's Y ...

HBMSU Hosts Strategic Mid-Year Gathering Reinforcing Institutional Alignment and Performance Account ...

ROSHN Group Participates at INNOPROM 2025, Russia's Largest Industrial Trade Fair, to Promote Collab ...

Superman Dives Into Dubai Mall

Integrated resorts set to transform tourism experiences across the Middle East and beyond

dnata Catering & Retail forms strategic partnership in Indonesia

MBRF and UNDP to organise 10th edition of Knowledge Summit

Dubai Judicial Institute's Board of Directors holds its third meeting for 2025

Dubai Culture Wins 'Best AI Governance Framework 2025' at GovTech Innovation Awards