Macrogen to Supply ‘X-Genome’ Genome Analysis Service to Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London

SEOUL, South Korea

Customized medicine & biotechnology company Macrogen Inc. (CEO HyungTae Kim, www.macrogen.com) announced that it has made an agreement to supply the company’s X-Genome (Xpressway to Genome) service, which is a large-scale human genome analysis service, to the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London (www.kcl.ac.uk, hereinafter KCL).

To make this supply agreement, Macrogen competed with leading genome analysis service institutes according to the agreement procedure for competition for nomination implemented by KCL. Macrogen was highly evaluated for its excellent genome analysis infrastructure, data analysis ability, service quality, and reliability to be selected as the final supplier.

The Institute of Psychiatry under the umbrella of KCL is well-known in the world for its high-level studies on psychiatry and psychology and is one of the largest institutes and graduate schools in the world. Through this supply agreement, Macrogen will provide its Macrogen X-Genome (Xpressway to Genome) service to a study project conducted by the institute to discover the genetic cause of schizophrenia in patients.

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disease that can cause disorders in social functions along with such symptoms as delusions, auditory hallucinations, and emotional dullness. KCL has been conducting studies to discover the genetic causes of schizophrenia over the last several years, and has been searching for an optimum cooperative institute in order to break away from existing methods in which only certain genes from patient samples were analyzed as targets and apply a human whole genome sequencing approach that will enable finding even the structural variations of gene units, and finally selected Macrogen.

In fact, Macrogen is the only European provider of the Illumina HiSeq X Ten sequencing system based large-scale Human whole-genome sequencing service, also known as Macrogen’s ‘X-genome (the Xpressway to Genome)’ service. Optimized for large-scale human genome analysis projects, the HiSeq X Ten sequencing system is capable of analyzing the genomes of 16 people within 3 days for a cost of around 1,000 dollars, giving rise to expectations that it will pave the way to a new era of human genome sequencing. In January of this year, Macrogen became the first commercial service provider to sign a preferred supply agreement for the HiSeq X Ten system with Illumina.

The professor in charge at the Institute of Psychiatry, KCL, John Powell said “We are studying the effects of structural changes in gene units on the brain functions of schizophrenia patients and the possibility of developing new diagnostic and treatment methods,” adding that, “The HiSeq X Ten-based X-Genome service provided by Macrogen is considered to be the most useful in identifying genetic variations from the large-scale patient samples that have been studied by us.”

CEO HyungTae, Kim of Macrogen said “I am very pleased that Macrogen has competed with many competitors to pass the strict standards of KCL and came to be able to support KCL’s study activities,” adding, “We will make efforts to be the best genome analysis service so that KCL can achieve the study objective it is pursuing.”

About The Institute of Psychiatry
The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience* (IoPPN) is Europe’s largest centre for research and post-graduate education in psychiatry, psychology, basic and clinical neuroscience and a School of King’s College London. World renowned for the quality of our research, for psychiatry and psychology, we are the most cited research centre outside the US, and the second most cited in the world as ranked by Thomson ISI Essential Science Indicators. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise we were judged to have the highest research power of any UK institution within the areas of psychiatry, neuroscience and clinical psychology. Our world-class research-led learning experience attracts the very best students from around the world who enjoy unrivalled learning opportunities, supported by strong partnerships with NHS Trusts, industry and healthcare organisations.
Find out more at http://www.kcl.ac.uk

About Macrogen
Macrogen, Inc. (www.macrogen.com), based in Seoul, Korea, is a world leading service provider in high-quality gene analysis and has enjoyed stable and steady growth since 1997. Macrogen Inc. has been dedicated to provide a reliable and efficient service of DNA Sequencing and bioinformatics with profound knowledge and unbeatable amount experience over 17 years. The company’s diverse offerings include DNA sequencing, next generation sequencing, microarray analysis, oligonucleotide synthesis, DNA chip and genetically engineered mice services. We serve over +17,000 customers from academic research and industry in 120 countries around the globe and have subsidiary companies in USA, Japan and Europe, headquartered in South Korea.
Find out more at http://www.macrogen.com