Biologists in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen will soon
release the first map of an East Asian gene, laying the groundwork
for future discoveries about the race.
This will be the third individual gene map released, building on
previous work by two US biologists - James Watson, the Nobel
Prize-winner who published his map in May, and Craig Venter, who
published almost all 6 billion letters, or 96 percent, of his own
personal genetic code in the journal PLoS Biology early this
month.
"The yellow race must have its own genetic traits. Our project
will lay the groundwork for personalized genetic research,
especially for East Asians," Ye Jia, spokeswoman for the Beijing
Genomics Institute Shenzhen (BGI-SZ), a non-government, non-profit
scientific organization, said yesterday.
The project is the result of joint efforts by the BGI-SZ, the
Beijing Institute of Genomics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences
(BGI-CAS) and the National Engineering Research Center of
Bioinformatics Center (NERC-BS), which had previously worked as a
team for the Human Genome Project.
With personalized genetic genome sequences, or genetic maps,
people will be able to gain a new understanding of their genetic
destinies, from diseases to personality traits, according to the
DNA inherited from their parents.
"For the first time, we can answer almost any question of what's
genetic, what's the environment. Our genes can tell us
probabilities of what might happen and give us a chance to do
something about it," Venter was quoted by CNN as saying in a recent
interview.
Specialists will be able to use these maps to search for clues
of links to diseases such as blindness, diabetes, hypertension and
obesity, allowing people to take actions or treatments to prevent
them, Ye said.
The breakthrough will also promote the development of new
medicine and therapies, she said.
It is not easy to sequence the genomes of ordinary people at the
moment, given the high costs, Ye said.
"Although the introduction of a new gene sequencing machine at
the end of last year has cut costs and improved efficiency, it
still costs about $2 million to sequence an individual genome," she
said.
The idea of being able to predict diseases has fired the
imaginations of many Chinese people, some of whom are hoping that
genetic maps will be commercialized as quickly as possible.
"It might be sad to know my genes could leave me susceptible to
deadly diseases, but I would still be happy to have a map as I
could live a healthier life and take preventive measures," Zeng
Yong, an IT manager in Beijing, said.
(China Daily September 21, 2007)