Bulletin Spring‧Summer 2001

One such project was the setting up of a database of cardiovascular genes by Profs. C. Y. Lee, K.P. Fung, Ma r y Waye, and Stephen Tsui of the Department of Biochemistry, which marked the beginning of bioinformatics at the University. I n 1997, the Un i v e r s i t y was allocated HK$4.98 million f r om the Industrial Support Fund for the establishment of the Hong K o n g B i o i n f o r m a t i c s C e n t r e ( H K B I C ) i n collaboration w i t h the Ho ng K o n g University of Science and Technology. The centre serves to coordinate bioinformatics research at the University, and to provide researchers i n Hong K o n g w i t h the c omp u t e r h a r dwa r e a nd technical expertise fo r developing molecular biology research. I t was officially opened o n 27th February 1998. Bioinformatics was, moreover, designated one o f the 24 Areas o f Excellence at the University in 1999 as a result of its important i m p l i c a t i o n s f o r the d e v e l o p m e nt o f biotechnology and Chinese medicine. Heart Disease and Cancer — Two Important Targets Since its f ound i ng, H K B I C has been contributing significantly to a research project i n v o l v i n g the large-scale sequencing o f c a r d i o v a s c u l ar genes c o n d u c t ed by the University's Depa r tment of Biochemistry j o i n t l y w i t h the Cardiac Gene U n i t of the University of Toronto and the China National Centre for Biotechnology Development. W i th Prof. C.Y. Lee as the C U H K coordinator, the project has established a database w i t h 50,000 partial gene sequences, the functions of 15 of which have been verified. A n d o f this 15, five are related to cardiovascular growth. 'Thanks to experience acquired i n the cardiovascular gene project, H K B I C is now embarking simultaneously on research into nasopharyngeal carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and children's leukaemia, ' said Prof. C.Y. Lee. He pointed out that priority has been given to nasopharyngeal carcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma because they are more prevalent among Chinese than amon g Westerners, and very o f t e n c a u s ed b y different factors. As f o r l e u k a e m i a , research will draw on the large amount of genetic samples o f y oung patients that have been put under the charge o f the D e p a r t m e n t o f Pa e d i a t r i cs i n the Faculty of Medicine. H K B I C recently acquired a new gene analyser, the fastest in the territory, wh i ch could identify the D N A sequences of 96 genes in two hours (each gene has 1,000 base-pairs on average), which is nine times faster than older machines. Coordinator of the research o n hepatocellular carcinoma. Prof . Stephen Tsui said, ‘We expect to obtain the sequences o f 50,000 genes. W i t h the help o f this new machine, we've already done over 10,000.' Software Development Highly specialized softwar e is required to analyse large quantities o f complex D N A sequences. The centr e is c o l l a b o r a t i n g Prof. Mary Waye testing genetic data for the development of a genetic catalogue for liver cancer and mental illness. HKBIC recently acquired a new gene analyser, the fastest in the territory, which could identify the DNA sequences of 96 genes in two hours. Chinese University Bulleti n S p r i n g • Summer 2 0 00 30