Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG) () is a genomics research center of
Chinese Academy of Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republi ...
(CAS).
History
BIG was officially founded by
Yang Huanming
Yang Huanming (; born 6 October 1952), also known as Henry Yang, is a Chinese biologist, businessman and one of China's leading genetics researchers. He is Chairman and co-founder of the Beijing Genomics Institute, formerly of the Chinese Acade ...
,
Wang Jian, Yu Jun and others scientists on November 28, 2003, when BGI (formerly the
Beijing Genomics Institute
BGI Group, formerly Beijing Genomics Institute, is a Chinese genomics company with headquarters in Yantian District, Shenzhen. The company was originally formed in 1999 as a genetics research center to participate in the Human Genome Project. ...
, founded in 1999 to participate in
the International Human Genome Project on behalf of China) became part of
China Academy of Sciences. In 2006 BGI and BIG split, with
Yang Huanming
Yang Huanming (; born 6 October 1952), also known as Henry Yang, is a Chinese biologist, businessman and one of China's leading genetics researchers. He is Chairman and co-founder of the Beijing Genomics Institute, formerly of the Chinese Acade ...
and
Wang Jian moving BGI out of the CAS system and taking it to Shenzhen, and Yu Jun maintaining BIG in CAS. Yu Jun formalising this split by selling his stake in BGI for a minor sum.
Its predecessor was Human Genome Research Center of Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (CAS) which was founded in August 1998.
Besides coming out of the
International Human Genome Project
The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a ...
, other achievements of BIG included the participation of the
International HapMap Project
The International HapMap Project was an organization that aimed to develop a haplotype map (HapMap) of the human genome, to describe the common patterns of human genetic variation. HapMap is used to find genetic variants affecting health, disease ...
; the completion of the Chinese Superhybrid Rice (''Oryza sativa'' L. ssp. indica) Genome Project; the collaborations of the Silkworm Genome Project and the Chicken Genome Diversity Project.
In 2003,
SARS virus
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-1), the first identified strain of the SARS coronavirus species, ''seve ...
became epidemic in China and BIG was the first to sequence SARS virus whole genome in China.
In 2007, BIG moved to
ChaoYang District,
Beijing
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Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
.
In 2019 it was announced Yu Jun was involved in the informed consent meeting for
He Jiankui's embryo-editing trial.
Current
At present, BIG has a number of nearly two hundred faculty and staff members, including one
Academia Sinica academician and one
CAS academician and the number of graduated students is about two hundred.
Research Divisions
* CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences & Information (He Lin)
* CAS Key Laboratory of Genomic and Precision Medicine (Zeng Changqing)
* BIG Data Center (National Genomics Data Center)
[National Genomics Data Center. (2020). "Organizational Structure"]
National Genomics Data Center website
Retrieved 26 March 2020.
* Core Genomic Facility (Wu Jiayan)
Research Program
* International Rice Genome Sequencing Project
* International Chicken Genome Sequencing Project
* HapMap Project
* The Saudi-Sino Date Palm Genome Project
* Genome polymorphism of several populations in China
* The Cancer Genome Project
* The Stem Cell Genome Project
Lists of Directors
*
Yang Huanming
Yang Huanming (; born 6 October 1952), also known as Henry Yang, is a Chinese biologist, businessman and one of China's leading genetics researchers. He is Chairman and co-founder of the Beijing Genomics Institute, formerly of the Chinese Acade ...
* Wu Chung-I
References
External links
Official website of Beijing Institute of GenomicsComputational Biology and Bioinformatics in Beijing Institute of Genomics
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Genetics or genomics research institutions
Research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences