Gyeonggi Institute of Health and Environment Introduces Next-Generation Sequencer to Respond to New COVID-19 Variants

Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) Photo by Gyeonggi-do Institute of Health and Environment

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province has established a 'Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS)' system capable of responding to new COVID-19 variants.

The Gyeonggi-do Institute of Health and Environment, under Gyeonggi Province, recently purchased a 'Next-Generation Sequencer' and announced on the 8th that it is now able to proactively respond to new variant viruses such as COVID-19 variants.

The COVID-19 virus has the characteristic of acquiring stronger transmission speed and immune evasion ability through mutations.

To respond to this, the Institute of Health and Environment has secured its own analysis capability recently by purchasing equipment since July, training personnel to operate the next-generation sequencing system, and conducting preliminary tests.

Next-generation sequencing is a method mainly used for analyzing the whole genome (entire genetic material) of pathogens such as new viruses, known to analyze the genetic information characteristics of pathogens most quickly and accurately.

Park Yong-bae, director of the Institute of Health and Environment, said, "We will do our best to block the spread of infectious diseases through continuous monitoring and response to domestic COVID-19 variants such as the Omicron variant as well as overseas epidemic variants," adding, "Since virus mutations frequently occur during the epidemic process and are expected to continue, we will continuously monitor the mutation patterns of COVID-19 viruses occurring in the local community using the next-generation sequencing system."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.