The official result of the world's human genome sequencing project will be published in the scientific review Nature in April, a Chinese scientist said Saturday in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.
Zhang Sizhong, a professor with the heredity teaching and research division of Sichuan University, said the governments of China, Japan, France, Germany, Britain and the United States, and the scientists who took part in the Human Genome Project (HGP), will issue a joint, detailed sequencing of the human genome, a project which was completed two years ahead of schedule.
Zhang is one of the Chinese scientists who participated in the HGP.
Launched in 1990 by the United States, the HGP aims to map out the sequence of all 3 billion nucleotide pairs, which help decode the structure and function of the 30,000 genes in the human body, thus revealing a great deal of information on human genetics.
According to experts, through the study of human genetics, scientists can develop new and improved treatments for breast cancer, hereditary deafness, stroke, diabetes and other diseases.
(People’s Daily March 31, 2003)
