LabGenomics Joins Government Consortium for Ministry of Health and Welfare's 'Hospital-Based Human Microbiome R&D' Project

LabGenomics announced on the 5th that it will participate in the "Hospital-Based Human Microbiome Research and Development" project jointly supported by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

This project is a task conducted over five years by the Zoonotic Infectious Disease Research Division of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. For this research and development project, LabGenomics will form a consortium together with Professor Seol Woo-jun of Chung-Ang University and Macrogen.

LabGenomics will perform META shotgun sequencing production using Illumina equipment. Under the supervision of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the consortium will collect samples and produce data for meta tasks assigned to each hospital and research institution over three years, including skin and digestive system samples.

The government plans to collect and analyze standardized hospital-based human microbiome samples and genomic data through this project. This will establish a domestic human microbiome data infrastructure and contribute to the activation of national-level development of new diagnostic and therapeutic agents for infectious and non-infectious diseases that are difficult to treat.

The microbiome can be applied in various fields such as healthcare, cosmetics, and food. Recently, it has gained more attention as major domestic pharmaceutical companies invest in new drug development. Last month, LabGenomics developed BiOralCare™, an oral microbiome test, and began supplying it to an online specialty mall targeting hospitals operated by major domestic pharmaceutical companies. Subsequently, they plan to sequentially launch vaginal microbiome tests, skin microbiome tests, and gut microbiome tests to expand their microbiome-related business.

A LabGenomics representative stated, "We will actively utilize our microbiome test development technology and analytical know-how to contribute to the success of the 'Hospital-Based Human Microbiome Research and Development' project jointly promoted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency."

Meanwhile, according to the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, the global microbiome market is rapidly growing at an annual average growth rate of 31.1%. It is expected to expand from approximately $269.8 million (about 356 billion KRW) this year to $1.37 billion (about 1.8 trillion KRW) by 2029.

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