Construction began on Saturday on the National Engineering Center For Biochips in Pudong, a research facility for the chips, which can be used to detect diseases in humans and chemical agents used in biological warfare.

　　"With the aim of boosting the city's economic development through high technology, we should make every effort to build up a world-class research center for biological chips," Vice Mayor Zhou Yupeng said during a ground-breaking ceremony.

　　The center is funded by a 120 million yuan (US.5 million) grant from the central government and another 110 million yuan from the local government, and is scheduled to open by the end of this year in Zhang-jiang High-Tech Park.

　　It will combine the research skills of 11 local companies and institutions, including Fudan and Jiao Tong universities and the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences.

　　Biochips are a series of miniature test sites, or microarrays, arranged on a solid platform - typically smaller than a fingernail - that allow many tests to be performed at the same time. Doctors, for instance, can use them to test a blood sample for numerous viruses much quicker than traditional tests.

　　Many in the industry believe they will soon be used regularly to test for cancer, leukemia and various virus-caused diseases such as the atypical pneumonia.

　　"Biochips will greatly quicken the process of studying functional genomics. And the knowledge and potential drug targets derived from these studies will greatly facilitate the city's industrialization of biotechnology," said Zhao Guoping, director of the center.