UK genomic research center to launch China center

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, a British genomic research center and leader in the Human Genome Project, will establish an Asia-Pacific resource center at Soochow University in east China's Jiangsu province, local authorities said Wednesday.

Suzhou Industrial Park and Soochow University will co-invest 100 million yuan (16.4 million US dollars) in building the transnational cooperation project, according to a work conference organized by the two investors.

Depending on the resources of the Sanger Institute, the center will set up a stem cell resource center and a platform for mouse genome function deciphering to boost biomedicine development and research in the park.

"It is a very high platform for us to cooperate with the world's top research institute to investigate pathogenesis and develop medicine," said Jiang Xinghong, deputy head of Soochow University.

The Sanger Institute was founded in 1993 by the Wellcome Trust and the UK's Medical Research Council. It has four main areas of research: human genetics, pathogen genetics, mouse and zebrafish genetics and bioinformatics.

The Suzhou Industrial Park was launched in the 1990s to spur the growth of manufacturing industries.