Hong Kong is poised to become an international gene sequencing and genomics research hub, thanks to Beijing's drive to turn the country into an international science powerhouse by 2020.
Already it is housing some of the world's most powerful supercomputers and gene sequencers, the result of the mainland's dominant genomic company, BGI, using the city to host its key laboratory.
Working at the blinding speed of supercomputers, BGI Hong Kong will theoretically be able to sequence 1,300 human genomes every day. By comparison, the Human Genome Project took more than 10 years to unravel the human genome.
'To put that in perspective, [BGI] has about the same capacity as the three largest genome centres in the United States, including the Broad Institute, Washington University and Baylor College of Medicine combined,' said Kevin Davies, editor-in-chief of the American magazine Bio-IT World. BGI was also much larger than Asia's other DNA sequencing centres, Davies said, referring to Macrogen in South Korea and NIG and Kazusa in Japan.
Gene sequencing is a research tool and the basis of biotechnology. For example, in medicine, it helps to identify genetic abnormalities and hereditary diseases, and to produce new drugs. In agriculture, the genes of crops are modified to enhance desirable features and eliminate undesirable ones. In biology, researchers study the evolution of organisms by pinpointing their genetic mutations, or changes in the genetic sequences that were passed on to the next generation by natural selection.
An old printing factory on Tai Po Industrial Estate now houses BGI Hong Kong's four-storey laboratory, which is engaged in an unparalleled DNA sequencing project that may grab global attention; earlier discoveries from its parent institute, BGI, have already been published in some of the world's leading scientific journals, such as Nature and Science.