Yang Huanming

Yang Huanming (Chinese: 杨焕明; born 6 October 1952), also known as Henry Yang, is a Chinese biologist, businessman and one of China's leading genetics researchers. He is Chairman and co-founder of the Beijing Genomics Institute, formerly of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was elected as member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2007, a foreign academician of Indian National Science Academy in 2009, a member of the German National Academy of Sciences in 2012, and foreign associate of the US National Academy of Science in 2014.

In this Chinese name, the family name is Yang.
Yang Huanming
Prof Yang Huangming
Yang Huanming in 2023 at the ICG-18 conference in Hunan

Early life and education

Yang was born on October 6, 1952, near Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. He received his B.Sc from Hangzhou University (now part of Zhejiang University) in 1978, followed by a master's degree in biology in 1982 from the Nanjing Railroad Medical Institute (now Southeast University). Yang earned his Ph.D in 1988 from the Institute of Medical Genetics of University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He then completed his post-doctoral training in Europe (at CIML, INSERM/CNRS, Marseille, France, 1988–90) and the United States (at Harvard Medical School and UCLA, 1990–94).[1]

Research

Yang's work include the mapping and cloning of human genes, the sequencing and analysis of the human genome, human genome diversity and evolution, and the ethical, legal, and social issues related to genome research. The study of Yang and his collaborators at the Beijing Genomics Institute on the rice genome made the cover of the April 5, 2002, issue of Science magazine.[2] Yang led a 2001 UNESCO sponsored symposium held in Hangzhou on research ethics that focused on some questionable research projects by foreign researchers in Anhui Province and on strengthening the protection of human research subjects in China.[3] With his interest in bioethics, Yang was the only Chinese appointee on International Research Panel of President Obama's Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical issues in 2011 investigating the 1940s Guatemala syphilis experiment.[4] And from 1998 to 2001 was member of UNESCO's International Bioethics Committee (UNESCO-IBC).[5]

A long running advocate of data sharing, during his participation on the UNESCO-IBC[6] he issued a statement stressing the need for free access to DNA sequences and protested against the monopolization of scientific advances by private firms such as Celera.[7] UNESCO subsequently issuing a similar statement which was then endorsed by the General Assembly of the United Nations partly through his persistent efforts.[8]

Yang led China's participation in the international Human Genome Project.[9] Yang is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was also Coordinator-in-China of the International HapMap Consortium[10] and Chief Coordinator of the Chinese Hybrid Rice Genome Consortium.[11] Yang was Secretary-General of the Chinese Human Genome Project (CHGP), Secretary-General of the Human Genome Diversity Committee, and Secretary-General of the Committee of Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues (ELSI), CHGP.[12]

Yang is also a member of Collegium International,[13] an organization of leaders with political, scientific, and ethical expertise whose goal is to provide new approaches in overcoming the obstacles in the way of a peaceful, socially just and an economically sustainable world.

Beijing Genomics Institute

Yang is co-Founder, Director and Chairman of an institute that has a dual public-private nature since it first established with the help of Wenzhou business people as the Huada Genomics Research Institute (or Beijing Genomics Institute in English) and then later received Chinese government support as the Beijing Genomics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Unusual for when it was an institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 80% of the then 500 research positions at the BGI laboratories in Beijing and Hangzhou were supported through competitive grants from both Chinese and foreign sources. In 2007 BGI split from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and moved their headquarters to Shenzhen as the first citizen-managed, non-profit research institution in China.[14]

References
  1. Normile, Dennis (5 April 2002). "Beijing Genomics Institute: From Standing Start to Sequencing Superpower". Science. 296 (5565): 36–39. doi:10.1126/science.296.5565.36. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 11935002. S2CID 11921066.
  2. Yu, J. (5 April 2002). "A Draft Sequence of the Rice Genome (Oryza sativa L. ssp. indica)". Science. 296 (5565): 79–92. Bibcode:2002Sci...296...79Y. doi:10.1126/science.1068037. PMID 11935017. S2CID 208529258.
  3. Sleeboom, Margaret (1 April 2005). "The Harvard case of Xu Xiping: Exploitation of the people, scientific advance, or genetic theft?". New Genetics and Society. 24 (1): 57–78. doi:10.1080/14636770500037776. ISSN 1463-6778.
  4. "President's Bioethics Commission Names International Research Panel | Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues". bioethicsarchive.georgetown.edu. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  5. "Previous compositions of the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO (IBC)". unesdoc.unesco.org. UNESCO. 15 June 2012. Archived from the original on 20 May 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  6. Yang, Huanming (September 2011). "Support the Manchester Manifesto : a case study of the free sharing of human genome data". Prometheus. 29 (3): 337–341. doi:10.1080/08109028.2011.631275. ISSN 0810-9028.
  7. "International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO (IBC)". unesdoc.unesco.org. UNESCO. 7–9 November 2001. Archived from the original on 20 May 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  8. Pollock, Ludmila; McCombie, William Richard; Witkowski, Jan Anthony (2018). Faces of the genome. Cold Spring Harbor, New York: Cold Spring Harbor laboratory press. ISBN 978-1-62182-293-6.
  9. Wang, Xiaoling; Xia, Zhi; Chen, Chao; Yang, Huanming (1 April 2018). "The international Human Genome Project (HGP) and China's contribution". Protein & Cell. 9 (4): 317–321. doi:10.1007/s13238-017-0474-7. ISSN 1674-8018. PMC 5876186. PMID 28986859.
  10. Gibbs, Richard A.; Belmont, John W.; Hardenbol, Paul; Willis, Thomas D.; Yu, Fuli; Yang, Huanming; Ch'ang, Lan-Yang; Huang, Wei; Liu, Bin; Shen, Yan; Tam, Paul Kwong-Hang; Tsui, Lap-Chee; Waye, Mary Miu Yee; Wong, Jeffrey Tze-Fei; Zeng, Changqing (December 2003). "The International HapMap Project". Nature. 426 (6968): 789–796. doi:10.1038/nature02168. hdl:2027.42/62838. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 14685227. S2CID 8151693.
  11. Yu, Jun; Ka-Shu Wong, Gane; Liu, Siqi; Wang, Jian; Yang, Huanming (29 June 2007). "A comprehensive crop genome research project: the Superhybrid Rice Genome Project in China". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 362 (1482): 1023–1034. doi:10.1098/rstb.2007.2031. ISSN 0962-8436. PMC 2435568. PMID 17331896.
  12. Chen, Z.; Zhang, S. (August 1998). "[Chinese Human Genome Project--opportunity and challenge]". Zhonghua Yi Xue Yi Chuan Xue Za Zhi = Zhonghua Yixue Yichuanxue Zazhi = Chinese Journal of Medical Genetics. 15 (4): 195–197. ISSN 1003-9406. PMID 9691123.
  13. "Membres | Collegium International". Mysite. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
  14. Yu, Jun (2007), Jakobson, Linda (ed.), "Biotechnology Research in China", Innovation with Chinese Characteristics: High-Tech Research in China, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 134–165, doi:10.1057/9780230591929_5, ISBN 978-0-230-59192-9, retrieved 4 February 2023
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.