Polish gene project moves to drop Chinese tech on data security concerns

Chinese company BGI had reportedly developed and improved a prenatal screening test sold in at least 52 countries in collaboration with People's Liberation Army hospitals

A European Union-funded project to build a genomic map of Poland plans to drop gene-sequencing technology from China's BGI Group over concerns about data security, one of the project's leaders told Reuters.

The Genomic Map of Poland's concerns stem from questions over how Polish genomic data may be used that relate to national security, said Marek Figlerowicz, a Professor at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry at the Polish Academy of Sciences who steers the project.

Mr. Figlerowicz said the concerns were initially raised by a earlier this year from the U.S. National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) which said BGI may be serving as a "global collection mechanism for Chinese government genetic databases."