Wellcome deal for Chinese scientists

Scientists in China have begun work on an important genome sequencing project following the donation of £3.5 million worth of high-tech equipment from the Wellcome Trust biomedical research charity.

The Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), Chinese Academy of Sciences, has taken charge of 34 sequencing machines that will be used to help decode the genome of the chicken, which is evolutionarily closer (300 million years) to mammals than other vertebrates, such as fish and amphibians.

The chicken has already proved to be an important vertebrate model for biologists researching neurogenesis, as well as immunology and limb development. It has also been used to study gene defects causing blindness in humans - retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration - as well as growth and obesity.

The specialized machines, which are able to provide vast amounts of data at high speed, were used in the Human Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, Cambridge.

It is hoped the chicken sequencing project will lead to improved health and welfare for chickens, improved food safety and a better understanding of human biology and disease.

Dr Bin Liu, Head of Research and Collaboration at the BGI, which will be contributing to the genome project being led by Washington University, said: "These machines will allow us to take part in one of the most important genome projects and gives us the opportunity to work with other high-class researchers around the world.

"This is a big step forward for the Institute and for China and we hope it will be just one of many valuable collaborative schemes with colleagues in the UK."

Dr Michael Morgan, former Chief Executive of the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, who led negotiations with Dr Liu, said: "It's marvellous that we have been able to collaborate by providing these machines to the BGI. We hope it will lead to their participation in other such projects which are important in both scientific and health terms."

Apart from supplying the machines the Wellcome Trust is also donating chemical reagents needed to set-them up and has paid for the shipping costs. The BGI will foot the installation bill and running expenses.

Nick Brown, Purchasing Manager at the Sanger Institute said: "These machines need to be in a laboratory that has the appropriate set-up, which they have at the Beijing Genomics Institute. They are designed to analyse many more times the information handled by a conventional machine."

Ends

Media contact:

Barry Gardner
Wellcome Trust Press Office
Tel: 020 7611 7329
E-mail: b.gardner@wellcome.ac.uk

Don Powell
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Tel: 01223 494956

Notes to editors:

* Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and a Sequence of the Chicken Genome, January 2003.

• Over the last ten years the Wellcome Trust has funded £6 million worth of research in China. Last year it spent £70 million on its international programmes, which cover more than 40 countries.

• The Wellcome Trust is an independent, research-funding charity, established under the will of tropical medicine pioneer Sir Henry Wellcome in 1936. The Trust's mission is to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health. For more information, visit www.wellcome.ac.uk