"While other well-known genomics centers such as Boston’s Broad Institute concentrate more narrowly on human health, the Shenzhen scientists cover a broad biological spectrum. In one shiny lab, thousands of microbes are being scanned for genes that might serve useful industrial purposes, while in another human stem cells are being developed for clinical applications. Scientists have mapped the genomes of everything from cucumbers and 40 different strains of silk worms to the giant panda. They have also cataloged tens of thousands of genes of bacteria living in the human gut, and pieced together the genomic puzzle of an ancient human—an extinct paleo-Eskimo who lived in Greenland 4,500 years ago. While such academic prestige projects are geared toward publication in scientific journals, real-world experimentation is going on at a nearby farm where pigs are cloned to serve as disease models. And in Laos, scientists are testing genetically enhanced plants to feed China’s growing population. The institute has already amassed almost 250 potentially lucrative patents covering agricultural, industrial, and medical applications.
Li Yingrui, 24, directs the bioinformatics department and its 1,500 computer scientists. Having dropped out of college because it didn’t present enough of an intellectual challenge, he firmly believes in motivating young employees with wide-ranging freedom and responsibility. “They grow with the task and develop faster,” he says. One of his researchers is 18-year-old Zhao Bowen. While still in high school, Zhao joined the bioinformatics team for a summer project and blew everyone away with his problem-solving skills. After consulting with his parents, he took a full-time job as a researcher and finished school during his downtime. Fittingly, he now manages a project on the genetic basis of high IQ. His team is sampling 1,000 Chinese adults with an IQ higher than 145, comparing their genomes with those of an equal number of randomly picked control subjects. Zhao acknowledges that such projects linking intelligence with genes may be controversial but “more so elsewhere than in China,” he says, adding that several U.S. research groups have contacted him for collaboration. “Everybody is interested in intelligence,” he says."
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Li Yingrui, 24, directs the bioinformatics department and its 1,500 computer scientists. Having dropped out of college because it didn’t present enough of an intellectual challenge, he firmly believes in motivating young employees with wide-ranging freedom and responsibility. “They grow with the task and develop faster,” he says. One of his researchers is 18-year-old Zhao Bowen. While still in high school, Zhao joined the bioinformatics team for a summer project and blew everyone away with his problem-solving skills. After consulting with his parents, he took a full-time job as a researcher and finished school during his downtime. Fittingly, he now manages a project on the genetic basis of high IQ. His team is sampling 1,000 Chinese adults with an IQ higher than 145, comparing their genomes with those of an equal number of randomly picked control subjects. Zhao acknowledges that such projects linking intelligence with genes may be controversial but “more so elsewhere than in China,” he says, adding that several U.S. research groups have contacted him for collaboration. “Everybody is interested in intelligence,” he says."
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