A leading scientist said Tuesday that China is willing to absorb investment and donations from enterprises, non-profit foundations or individuals to speed up its research on liver proteome, the ensemble of tens of thousands of proteins specified by human genome.

He Fuchu, a leading Chinese scientist in human liver proteome study and chair of the Human Liver Proteome Project (HLPP) Executive Committee, said his research team expected a 200 million Yuan (about US$24 million) initial government investment last year for a three-year pilot study to be completed in 2005.

"But the due to the outbreak of SARS and avian influenza, the input was reduced to 80 million yuan," said He, also academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

HLPP is a broad-ranging collaborative project coordinated by the Human Proteome Organization (HUPO). The effort is aimed at setting up the collaborations, standards, and procedures for tallying the thousands of proteins expressed in human liver cells.     

He said the Chinese research team has got some investment from the non-public sector, including a 290 million yuan investment from the Jiangzhong Group, a Chinese pharmaceutical giant.

"But there is still a big financial gap," he said.

The HLPP, initiated in November 2002, has attracted scientists from many countries, including France, Canada and the United States. So far, 79 labs, 37 of them in China, have signed on to the liver proteome effort.

The pilot phase project has already begun. By the end of 2005, the project's planners hope to have data on some 3,000 to 5,000 liver proteins. By 2010, they hope to have pinned down 10,000 proteins.

He, the project's leader, said in the coming years, the HLPP should provide novel information for discovery and development of new proteins, new protein functions, drug targets, lead compound and gene therapies for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of liver diseases.

(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2004)