Ethical concerns raised about an international gene-mapping endeavor have been responded to by Chinese scientists involved in its East and Southeast Asian component, launched in Beijing on April 18.

"Last year, China publicized research confirming that East Asians originated in Africa," said Professor Jin Li of Fudan University's School of Life Sciences, "This time our focus is to draw a map of Chinese ancestors' migrations, to learn more about the development of our nationalities and languages."

The five-year Genographic Project is privately sponsored by the National Geographic Society and IBM, and will analyze 100,000 DNA samples to trace humanity's migrations across the globe since the first people are thought to have left Africa 50,000 to 60,000 years ago. Scientists in Brazil, China, France, South Africa, the UK and US are taking part, among others.

Qiu Renzong, chairman of the Ethics Law Committee of China's Human Gene Group, was cautious about the work, particularly after the Harvard genetic projects in Anhui Province in the mid-1990s, when blood samples were taken from farmers without their informed consent.

Qiu said the project should be approved by the ministries of health and science and technology and speculated that the country could gain more in return for its contribution to the project.

Jin explained that scientists in the various countries involved are collecting their own samples and data and publishing their own results, and that there would be no loss of rights over China's genetic resources.

The Modern Humanity Research Center of Fudan University will be responsible for the work in East and Southeast Asia, coordinated by Jin, and aims to collect about 20,000 DNA samples. Of these, 15,000 will be taken in China, though the precise locations are still under discussion.

Chen Lan, Chinese Academy of Sciences vice president, said China boasts abundant genetic resources and many groups who have inhabited the same area for a long time will be particularly useful in pinning down ancient migrations.

Qian Ji, Jin's assistant, said Fudan University has set up an ethics committee to supervise the taking of samples, "We spent two months ensuring our work plans were in accordance with relevant laws and regulations."

According to the National Geographic, the Genographic Project will release all data into the public domain and will not attempt to patent any of it. Full approval was received for the work from the Social and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board at the University of Pennsylvania Office of Regulatory Affairs on April 12.

In late March 2002, after a two-year investigation, the US Department of Health & Human Services Office of Public Health and Science announced that 15 Harvard-affiliated genetic studies on diseases ranging from asthma to schizophrenia were faulty because the rights of thousands of Chinese farmer-participants had been violated by American researchers in the 1990s.

(Jingbao Newspaper, translated by Wang Qian for China.org.cn, April 25, 2005)