China has opened its first national gene bank it also claims is the largest of its kind in the world.

The China National GeneBank (CNGB) in Shenzhen, Guangdong province is also the fourth of its kind anywhere. Similar centers are located in the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.

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CNGB, referred to in Chinese media as "China's Noah's Ark," officially opened Sept. 22. It will store and carry out genetic research and aims to collect 300 million genetic samples. Doing so will allow Chinese scientists to preserve, manage and utilize the genomic data and biological samples of Chinese characteristics.

CNGB operates 150 domestically developed desktop gene sequencing machines and a $20 million Revolocity high-throughput sequencing system, otherwise known as a "super­sequencer." Dozens of refrigerators store samples at temperatures reaching minus 200 degrees Celsius.

Chinese state-owned media claims CNGB is the largest gene bank of its kind in the world with its massive library of animal, plant, microorganism and human body cell samples.

Genetic information stored includes a cancer database with 3,000 samples; information on 50,000 genome mutations and databases on birth defects, plants, birds and crops.

Established by BGI-Shenzhen, CNGB is the first national genebank integrating a large-scale bio-repository and an omics database. It is approved by Chinese government and has the mission of collecting, preserving and exploiting genomics resources.

It will also build a network fostering global communication and collaboration on biodiversity conservation and genetic resources utilization.

BGI, formerly known as the Beijing Genomics Institute, is one of the world's premier genome sequencing centers.

CNGB will serve as a library of raw genome data to benefit scientists across an array of fields, especially medicine, pharmacology and biomedicine, said Cao Yu, principal investigator of the National Centre for Protein Science in Shanghai.

Cao said it was in China's national interest to have its own gene bank rather than storing samples in other countries.

"Cooperation is the global trend but it is more secure to preserve data in China since the variations among the genomes from different races could be used in both good and evil ways," he said.

Cao said new samples could be collected and stored directly but their DNA data needs to be decoded and verified before being saved at the bank.

Tagschina, China National GeneBank, CNGB, Shenzhen, China's Noah's Ark, genes, genetic research, BGI-Shenzhen