Being the Pioneer of Life Sciences in China: —Introduction to Beijing Genomics Institute

Zhang, Xin

With the purpose for serving the human beings through science, considering the demands for national economic development and the academic environment of CAS, we proposed our long-term development goal, or “roadmap”—from genomics research to human health. Under this goal, we brought forward three scientific programs for the development of science and the Chinese nation. The first one is Yanhuang Program for the protection and exploitation of human genetic resources for disease prevention and human health. Based on genomics technology, this program researches the relationship between gene polymorphism and diseases, pathogeny, and metabolism, and carries out the collection and application of genetic resources of the Chinese population. Its scientific subjects are heredity, metabolism and health. The second one is Shennong Program for the protection and modernization of traditional Chinese medicine and biological resources. It is aimed at the modernization of traditional medicine and pharmacology, and works on the exploitation and application of pharmic biological resources starting from genome research. The scientific subjects of this program are traditional Chinese medical science, traditional Chinese medicine and health. The third one is Xuanyuan Program for the protection and exploitation of biological and ecological resources. This program aims at the modernization of agriculture and starts from the genomics research on biological and ecological resources, with food nutrition, entironment and health as its scientific subjects.