The Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI; 北京基因组研究所) was founded in 1998. It achieved international prominence as a center for sequencing the human genome. BGI completed one percent of the human genome for the Human Genome Project.

Today the BGI staff of 500, led by Director Yang Huanming (also known as Henry Yang), are in the forefront of genome research. In Spring 2003, BGI was one of the first laboratories in the world to sequence the SARS virus. Current research includes drug discovery and studying the genes of livestock and crops. A cooperative project with Danish partners focuses on the pig genome. BGI independently completed a working draft and detailed genetic map of Chinese super hybrid rice genome. This pioneering work was featured on the cover of Science magazine in April 2002. BGI also participated in international chicken genome project and sequenced silkworm genome in collaboration with Southwest Agriculture University (now Southwest University) in China.

In 2007, in accordance with BGI’s goal for developing projects and platforms that are on the cutting edge of research and technologies, the organization’s headquarters relocated to Shenzhen and founded the first citizen-managed, non-profit research institution in China. In October of that same year, BGI successfully completed the First Asian Diploid Genome Project, which was followed, in 2008, by the launch of the 1000 Genomes Project and the Giant Panda Genome Project. On June 19, 2008, with the support and approval of the Shenzhen municipal party committee and government, BGI-Shenzhen was officially recognized as a state agency.

The Institute has both a private and a public character. It receives funds both from private investors and the Chinese government. The laboratory is also the Bioinformatics Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Beijing Huada Genomics Research Center was the precursor of BGI.

In October 2003, The Beijing Genome Institute Hangzhou (Zhejiang) branch and Zhejiang University founded a new research institute, the James D. Watson Institute of Genome Sciences. The Watson Institute is intended to become a major center for research and education in East Asia modeled after the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

[edit] See also

• Chinese National Human Genome Center
• List of genetics research organizations

[edit] External links

• Beijing Genomics Institute/Bioinformatics Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences
• The Rice Genome: Beijing Genomics Institute (Science, April 2002)
• James D. Watson Genomics Institute founded
• Beijing Institute of Genomics, CAS