China Unveils '100,000 Genome Project' to Draw Fine Genetic Map of Nation
Xu Wei
DATE:  Dec 28 2017
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
China Unveils '100,000 Genome Project' to Draw Fine Genetic Map of Nation China Unveils '100,000 Genome Project' to Draw Fine Genetic Map of Nation

(Yicai Global) Dec. 28 -- China has today unveiled the first national plan in the field of human genome and the largest human genome project in the world. The "China 100,000 Genome Project" aims to study the interconnection between disease, health and genetic inheritance by mapping a fine genome map of Chinese people, the state-owned chinanews.com reported.

The "China 100,000 Genome Project" covers major regions in the country and will select, apart from the Han Chinese, the Zhuang people, Hui people and other seven minority groups with a population of over 5 million. The genome plan is to map the Chinese nation's genetic map, the report said.

The main objective of the project is to study how Chinese people fall ill from healthy conditions, providing references for medical research, clinical diagnosis or treatment of diseases in China, said Professor Wang Yadong, the chief scientist of the project. The sequencing and analyzing tasks of the entire project will be completed within four years to make it the world's most effective genomic project.

Once the project is completed, it will be highly conducive to understanding genetic background of disease-related cases concerning Chinese people, both the Han Chinese and other ethnic minorities, in the future, said Zhao Guoping, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Chinese National Human Genome Center in Shanghai.

Genes are fragments with genetic effects in DNA, which are related to mankind's birth, age, illness and death. The genome is the aggregate of genes and humans have about 25,000 genes, while the purpose of the genome project is to decode the 25,000 genes in human bodies, thus deciphering human genetic information.

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Keywords:   Genome,Health,Project,Mapping,DNA,Gene