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

Zhang, Xin

It was our dream to see the five-star red flag flying in the territory of HGP. What’s more, we expected that this opportunity could promote the subject construction of genomics in China and realize the strategic development object of promoting the subject and industry with projects and achievements. With this great ambition and courage, academic leaders represented by Prof. Huanming Yang et al. established the Human Genome Center of CAS to apply for joining HGP for China, and managed to undertake 1% of the sequencing task. Various difficulties, including hard financing, rough working environment, and laborious tasks day after night, did not scare but stimulated everyone to devote to the project with higher enthusiasm. With the joint efforts of scientists from United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, and China, on June 26, 2000, the six countries announced the completion of the draft sequence of the human genome. On April 4, 2003, leaders of the six countries jointly announced the successful completion of HGP. The participation in HGP not only earned honor and glory for China, but also promoted the subject construction of genomics in China to catch up with the world, established large-scale technique platforms for genome sequencing and bioinformatics, and tempered an outstanding team with both professional skill and high solidarity.