China's leap forward in biotechnology - An interview with Zhu Chen, director of the Chinese National Human Genome Centre of Shanghai and Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

摘要

EMBO reports: After China joined the Human Genome Project, it contributed around 1% of the whole sequence. That is quite a major achievement for an emerging economy. Why did the Chinese government decide to contribute such a considerable effort to this international project? Zhen Chu: There are two reasons. China is the most populated country in the world. We have 56 ethnic groups and we think that these represent an important genetic resource that can be used to study the history of the population and many important biological traits, including human diseases. We also need to increase our capacity for building a knowledge base for the further development of biomedicine in China. We think that the Human Genome Project gives us a good opportunity to make a leap forward in the biological sciences and in technology development. We have lost opportunities in the past. There was no research during the so-called cultural revolution, and Lysenkoism in the former Soviet Union had an influence on China as well. So genetics and molecular biology were missing during that period. If we take this opportunity now, then we may promote the development of biotechnology in China and catch up to the advanced world's level.