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Gene Centre, Drug Manufacturer Join Hands
Human genome research based in China will be integrated with pharmaceutical industries and used to treat diseases.
Chen Zhu, director of the Chinese National Human Genome Centre (CNHGC) at Shanghai, said his centre will put great efforts into the research of gene-related diseases, particularly those typical in China, and try to find functional genes to treat them.
His centre took part in the world co-operation on drafting human genome sequences.
Targeted diseases include leukemia, liver cancer, drug-fast tuberculosis, diabetes and schizophrenia.
Chen made the remarks at a signing ceremony of a research co-operation project between CNHGC at Shanghai and Switzerland-based pharmaceutical giant Roche on Saturday.
Roche representatives declared at the ceremony that the company will invest US$300,000 into CNHGC at Shanghai during the next three years to support research into diabetes type II and schizophrenia, said William Keller, general manager of Roche (China) at the ceremony.
"Of course, we welcome not only foreign investment, but also, and actually more important, private or other channels of investment from China to support important research," said Chen.
For the moment, besides Roche and China's governmental support, there is only one Chinese private company, Xinjiang Youhao Group, co-operating with the centre in the genetic research.
Recently Chinese researchers successfully mapped 1 per cent of human genome sequences.
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