Tina Chen
A CHARITY project launched yesterday will provide a low-cost testing service for patients with the blood disorder thalassemia, it was announced at a news conference at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center yesterday, one day before the opening of the 2010 China Hi-Tech Fair.
The Thalassemia Aid Project was organized by the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) and China Red Cross Society Shenzhen Branch to help thalassemia patients, most of whom are children from poor families.
Aid cards were distributed to the first group of thalassemia patients at the news conference. They will receive a typing test critical in helping to find suitable donors for bone marrow transplants, for only half the usual cost.
Zhao Lizhen, vice chief of China Red Cross Society Shenzhen Branch, said people could register with the branch for a card.
BGI and Zhangjiakou Academy of Agricultural Science in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei, will work together to study the gene mapping of millet and develop new high-output varieties of millet.
The BGI, a Shenzhen-based institute founded in 1999, successfully finished sequencing the genome map of the giant panda in 2008.
