The Korean government on Monday named three local genome sequencing companies in the state-led big data project to curate clinical and genome data.

The three companies are Macrogen, DNA Link, and Theragen Bio.

They will join the so-called K-DNA project to be led by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The cross-ministerial project to collect and analyze clinical records and genomic data from more than 20,000 people over the next two years was designed to support the development of new therapies, medical devices and digital healthcare in a faster and more effective manner.

The three companies will initiate genome sequencing in a consortium from November.

The analysis will be conducted on initially collected DNA samples from 7,500 donors with next-generation genome sequencing (NGS) to produce high-quality human genome data.

By Park Yoon-gyun and Minu Kim

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