VietNamNet Bridge – If reasonable investments are made, Vietnam would be able to
decode the genome of about 100 Vietnamese people by 2015. Decoding the genome
would not only help discover, diagnose and prescribe diseases, but also help
find good genes to improve the Vietnamese race.
Associate Professor Dr Nong Van Hai from the Biotechnology Institute has
affirmed that the achievements would be attainable if the State accepts to make
reasonable investment in the scientific research work at the meeting between the
Ministry of Science and Technology and the Vietnam Science and Technology
Institute held in Hanoi some days ago.
Looking for good genes
According to the professor, genome decoding programs have been carried out since
1980s of the last century, including the Genome project headed by the US with
the joining of 20 countries and territories. The project, carried out in
1989-2003 completed the decoding of the genome of five individuals representing
five races in the world.
Recently, the UK, US and some other countries have been carrying out a project
on decoding and analyzing the genomes of 1000 individuals in the world. To date,
the decoding of four people has been completed, including two Chinese.
In 2007, China kicked off the project on Chinese genome which aims to decode 100
genomes of Chinese people. The decoding of two people has been completed, while
the country plans to decode 10,000 genomes or millions of people in the next
years.
Especially, the country has invested spent money to buy hundreds of the
next-generation gene decoding machines with high performance, giant high-speed
computers that serve the gene analysis and 160 DNA sequencing machines.
China has surpassed France and Germany in terms of gene decoding equipment, now
ranking the fourth in the world in terms of material facilities and becoming the
7th among the 16 nations leading in the world in terms of human genome analysis.
Also according to Dr Hai, scientists have found out from the research works that
human individuals of different races are 99 percent similar to each other, and
they only have a very small percentage (0.1 percent) of difference in the
genome. However, the very small difference plays the decisive role in
demographic characteristics, the health of the whole nation, and the genetic
factors relating to the health of every individual.
In Vietnam, the Vietnam Biotechnology Institute has successfully decoded the
mitochondrial genomes of three nationalities of Kinh, Tay and Muong (three
individuals for each nationality). Besides, tens of other human genes have also
been decoded, which has been utilized in mitochondrial genome analysis, serving
the work of inspecting the remains of martyrs
Genome Research Institute establishment proposed
Hai emphasized that making research on the structure and the functions of the
genes inside people’s bodies is a basic scientific matter. Especially, every
country needs to decode the genomes of their nationalities themselves, which
cannot be done by others.
Therefore, he has suggested setting up a genome institute which belongs to the
Vietnam Science and Technology Academy comprising of 20-30 researchers, who are
the genome experts.
The institute would receive equipment and necessary material facilities to carry
out the decoding and analyzing the genome of Vietnamese people. It is expected
that by 2020, the institute would be upgraded into a national research unit
belonging to the Vietnam Science and Technology Academy with 50-70 researchers,
while it would be even bigger with 150-180 researchers by 2030.
Source: Dat Viet