Theragen Bio Develops Low-Cost, High-Efficiency Microbiome Analysis Technology

Application of New Technology on Shortreed Platform, Paper Published in 'Scientific Reports'

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] Theragen Bio announced on the 8th that it has developed a low-cost, high-efficiency microbial genome analysis technology that can be used to examine microbial community genetic information (microbiome).

Generally, full-length genome analysis using an expensive long read sequencing platform is used to identify microbial species. It was proven that this can be replaced with a short read platform.

Theragen Bio published the results of experiments and analysis methods based on next-generation sequencing (NGS) in the recent issue of the world-renowned journal Scientific Reports, a sister journal of Nature.

The research was jointly led by Theragen Bio and Professor Kyudong Han’s team at Dankook University Core Research Support Center for Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Wonhyung Jung, Youngdo Nam, and Miyoung Lim’s teams from the Korea Food Research Institute also participated.

The research team screened 24 intestinal microbial samples from three healthy adults using both the existing short read platform method and a new analysis method called ‘sFL16S’.

When the analysis data were compared with the microbial classification system of the U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), the new analysis method showed an 89.9% match rate, higher than the 76.2% match rate of the existing method. It also demonstrated that strain-level differentiation is relatively easier.

A Theragen Bio official said, "Through the paper research, we succeeded in verifying a new intestinal microbial analysis technology with excellent accuracy and cost-effectiveness," adding, "Based on genome analysis know-how, we will continue research to establish an optimal microbiome analysis system."

Theragen Bio launched the genome-based intestinal microbial analysis service ‘Terabiome’ last year. It is currently being conducted through hospitals, partner companies, and online channels.

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