The first national research project aimed at uncovering the internal and external causes of birth defects and ultimately establishing standard ways to carry out screening and diagnose molecule levels was officially launched on Monday.

It means that research on key causes and methods of early intervention relating to birth defects, including congenital heart disease, cleft lip or palate, neural tube defects and mental deficiency, is expected to make major breakthroughs by the time the project is concluded in five years, said Huang Guoying, president of the Children's Hospital at Fudan University in Shanghai, which is leading the project.

China has a high incidence of birth defects, and about 70 percent of the more than 80 million disabled people in the country are born with birth defects, Huang said.

"The prevention and treatment of birth defects are now more crucial after the implementation of the universal two-child policy," he added.

Huang said the main goals of the project include establishing a database of patients with the most common birth defects, clarifying the mechanism and process of how the defects develop, and discovering at least eight genetic locations that determine the expression of the diseases.