A group of three Hong Kong scientists will take part in the international HapMap project aiming to find genes that affect human health.

The group, led by Lap-Chee Tsui, chair of the Steering Committee of Hong Kong University's Genome Research Center, will be responsible for constructing a HapMap of 2 percent of the human genome.

The authoritative Nature magazine carried an article on Thursday, introducing the HapMap project. The goal of the project is to develop a haplotype map of the human genome, describing the common patterns of human DNA sequence variants and to make this information freely available in the public domain.

The HapMap is expected to be a key resource for researchers to use in finding genes that affect health, disease, and responses to drugs and environmental factor, Tsui said Thursday.

He said that most common diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, stroke, heart disease, depression, and asthma, are affected by many genes and environmental factors.

Although any two unrelated people are the same at about 99.9 percent of their DNA sequence, the remaining 0.1 percent is important because it contains the genetic variants that influence how people differ in their risk of disease or their response to drugs.

Discovering the DNA sequence variants that contribute to common disease risks offers one of the best opportunities for understanding the complex causes of disease in humans, said Tsui.

He also indicated that the establishment of various technology platforms in the project would enhance the capabilities of Hong Kong tertiary institutions, and enable researchers in Hong Kong to study and gain new knowledge of the genetic variations among specific sub-groups of Chinese populations.

The international HapMap project is a collaboration among scientists in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), and Nigeria.

The Hong Kong HapMap group will have to produce results of 10 million genotyping experiments by the end of September 2004. "We need a lot of automation and high throughput technologies. I am happy to report that the group has already demonstrated its readiness by passing the quality control requirements of the International HapMap Consortium about two months ago," said Tsui.

The project is supported by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government. The University Grants Committee and the Innovation and Technology Fund have provided 25 million Hong Kong dollars (US$3.2 million) and 10 million Hong Kong dollars (US$1.28 million) respectively to support the project.

(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2003)