The precision medicine biotech company Macrogen (CEO Hyonyong Chong, www.macrogen.com) (KOSDAQ:038290) announced today that it is launching the gene identification service iD4U worldwide, through which it will provide various identification services.

iD4U, an abbreviation of “identification for you,” provides various gene identification services based on individuals’ genetic information, including kinship testing, personal identification testing and genetic testing in human remains. iD4U provides services developed with international standard testing techniques and is able to produce test information with high reliability.

iD4U is now available at the official website http://www.id4u.com/eng. Customers can easily view the test results online. When a customer files an application for a test on the iD4U website, Macrogen sends a service kit to the customer. The customer in turn sends back the service kit with buccal epithelial cells, blood, hairs, bone fractions and other samples, a procedure that completes the application process. Test results will then be available at the iD4U website within three days from the arrival of the service kit at Macrogen.

Kinship testing is a service not only for parent-offspring identification, but also for genetic paternity or genetic maternity identification. In the past, this service was mostly used for such blood relationship identification during legal parent suits. Recently, however, the service has been used to provide evidence in acquiring citizenship in such cases as family immigration into a foreign country.

Personal identification testing is the surest method of identifying an individual, and is called DNA profiling or DNA fingerprinting. This testing was originally used mostly for criminal investigations; however, it has recently been encouraged to conduct preliminary analyses to prevent the disappearance of infants, adolescents, and senior citizens who do not have official identification, and also to ensure identification of those in hazardous occupations in case of calamities.

Genetic testing on human remains is a service in which the genetic information obtained from the remains is compared and analyzed to see if it matches that of parents and siblings to establish any blood relationship. This service can be used to identify martyrs and unidentified graveyards.

Macrogen also launched Human ID, a personal identification test designed for global researchers, in April 2015. The service has now been expanded to cover not just Korea but Central and South American countries, including Argentina.

CEO Hyon-yong Chong said, “Macrogen has provided genetic and genomic analysis services for biotech researchers and customers for clinical trials worldwide for the past twenty years. Based on such experience, Macrogen has built world-class technology and service know-how.” He added, “With the launch of iD4U, a gene identification service that can satisfy various demands of general consumers, Macrogen will continue to introduce various services that utilize genetic information in daily lives to the market.”

Last year, Macrogen released faest™, a next-generation prenatal genomic testing service, which has contributed to expanding its customer base to include not just the market of existing researchers but that of clinical trials and general customers.