Human genome research has entered a new phase as a complete sequence of human genome will be established by next spring, said Yoshiyuki Sakaki, president of the London-based Human Genome Organization (HUGO).

He told the seventh Human Genome Meeting (HGM) which opened in Shanghai yesterday that many scientists were already in the post-sequencing era.

The four-day meeting has attracted more than 1,150 scientists from 35 countries and regions to exchange the latest data and discuss the future direction of human genome research.

The Human Genome Project - a consortium of scientists from the United States, Britain, Japan, France, Germany and China - successfully constructed the draft sequence of the entire genome in February last year.

This solid base has facilitated studies in functional genomics, including disease gene identification, regulation of gene expression, human diversity and evolution, protein structure and function.

Experts say the most highlighted topics currently being researched is single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP ) association studies for common diseases such as cancer, diabetes and hypertension.

Several international SNP projects are in progress, including an Asia SNP database project led by scientists from China, Japan and other Asian countries, according to Sakaki.

Ethical issues sparked by human cloning were another hot topic among participants after an Italian researcher announced that a woman was eight weeks' pregnant with a cloned baby.

Chen Zhu, the nation's leading scientist in genome research, said China does not endorse, permit, support and accept reproductive human cloning under any condition.

This is the first time that HGM has been held in a developing country.

(China Daily April 15, 2002)