Search giant Google last year formed a company focused on tackling aging and other associated diseases, and now Sony is upping its commitment to breakthrough medicine after it announced a joint venture focused on advancing medical research using genetics in Japan. 

Sony is forming a new company to focus on genome research with a view towards realizing personalized medicine and healthcare. The venture, currently called P5 Inc, is a collaboration with M3, a medical company in which Sony is the majority stakeholder, and Illumina, a US-based manufacturer of genome-sequencing equipment. News of the tie-up between Sony and Illumina, which will be a minority investor, was first reported by Jiji Press last year. Sony refers to the collaboration as a “genome information platform.” It will provide genome analysis services for enterprises and research institutions in Japan at first, as well as aggregating genetic data with other medical data.