Supercomputer Fugaku will be used to help fight against COVID-19 - A new project is added!

RIKEN and the Tokyo Medical and Dental University, in coordination with the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), announced that a new project entitled "Host genetic analysis for severe COVID-19" was added to the ongoing program to combat COVID-19 using the supercomputer Fugaku.

COVID-19 is associated with a high risk of death in cases of sever infection. While some people become seriously ill, others experience only mild symptoms or remain asymptomatic. The project team, led by Satoru Miyano of the Tokyo Medical and Dental University, plans to perform whole-genome sequencing of severe cases of COVID-19 and mild or asymptomatic infections, and identify risk-associated genetic variants for severe disease by supercomputer analysis.

See the project summary slide（386B）

For details of the MEXT-RIKEN program, please see the announcement in April, 2020