Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- Theragen Bio, a genetic analysis service provider, has been selected for a state project to develop a large-scale, efficient and low-cost method that can quickly analyze thousands of cases. The new method will be used for massive and periodic diagnoses at schools, institutions, enterprises and health care centers.

Theragen said it would team up with college research teams to develop a diagnostic method that enables a large-scale investigation of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. State funding will be provided for two and a half years.

"We will contribute to strengthening a national quarantine system by developing efficient diagnosis methods for new and mutated infectious diseases from abroad, and establish an early diagnosis system for infectious diseases through clinical safety and efficacy verification to enhance the global competitiveness of K-bio," CEO Hwang Tae-soon said in a statement.

Theragen would apply next-generation sequencing (NGS), which can identify mutations that cannot be identified using conventional sequencing technologies. Data storage and the complexity in interpreting enormous amounts of data obtained with NGS still remain a computational challenge to researchers.

Theragen has been involved in a state pilot project aimed at establishing big data in biology as part of the so-called K-DNA project to support the development of new drugs, medical device products and the digital healthcare industry.