China and France launched their biggest ever research program on life science and human genome research over the weekend in Shanghai, China's leading industrial and commercial center.

At a ceremony to unveil the Sino-French Life Science and Genome Center, Liu Yanhua, Chinese vice-minister of Science and Technology, said the research program had the support of the Chinese and French governments.

Gilles Le Chatelier, a French official with the Ministry of Research, was present at the ceremony.

The center pools research resources from the Shanghai-based Institute of Life Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, local medical schools, and three French national research institutions, including the French Academy of Sciences and the French Academy of Medical Research.

Their research will include the sequencing and functional research of some genomes, including comparative research on the effect of the mutation of the human genome on diseases.

Chen Zhu, director of the center and vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said their research programs at present involved efforts to identify the genes related to leukemia, hepatitis and schistosome

( April 15, 2002)