SHENZHEN scientists have joined European scientists in a EU project to study obesity and inflammatory bowel diseases, Chinese-language newspapers reported yesterday.

The Beijing Genomics Institute-Shenzhen (BGI-SZ), is the only Chinese research institute in the EU-funded project MetaHIT (Metagenomics of the human intestinal tract), which brings together 12 European research and industrial organizations, a Daily Sunshine report said yesterday.

The ambitious goal of the project, launched at the INRA Research Center of Jouy-en-Josas in France in April, is to study the genome of all bacteria constituting the human intestinal flora in order to characterize its functions and implications for health.

BIG-SZ, a nonprofit genome research institute, will be responsible for the Chinese research, the paper said.

The number of microbes living in our body is 10 times higher than that of human cells. An estimated 80 percent of the bacterial species hosted by the human digestive tract are still unknown. The MetaHIT project aims to boost our understanding of the microbial populations in the human gut. The tools developed by the project will be used to study obesity and inflammatory bowel diseases.

MetaHIT opens numerous perspectives for applications in the field of nutrition and human health.

The contribution granted to this project by Europe amounts to 11.4 million euros (US$18.14 million) for four years as part of the Seventh Framework Program, for a total cost of approximately 20 million euros.

(Mu Zi)