"Battle" on the tip of the tongue

structure of the African swine fever virus (left: 5-layer cut-out; right: overall structure of the shell layer)the rise in pork prices throughout Chinese's entire 2019 memory. One reason is that the century-old African swine fever virus has suddenly accelerated its spread over the past year or so, bringing huge economic losses to the country and profoundly affecting people's lives. At the same time, Our scientists have launched a battle against the virus, and in just one year has achieved remarkable research results.
brother's meat has gone up again. "It's a slightly poignant tone that runs through Chinese memories of 2019. This memory is particularly profound for Cao Lei, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
his hometown of Sichuan is one of the "worst-hit areas" of Africa's swine fever epidemic, with pigs raised by villagers dying in large numbers. When he called his family, he often heard the urgent question: "How are you doing, is there a way?" Cao
is a member of rao Zi of the Institute of Biophysics and a member of the team of academicians and Wang Xiangxi researchers. On October 18, 2019, the team, in cooperation with the director of the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (hereinafter referred to as Harbin Veterinary Research Institute), announced the first analysis of the fine three-dimensional structure of African swine fever virus particles. The relevant papers were published in Science on the same day, causing widespread concern around the world.since August 3, 2018, when the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs reported the country's first outbreak of swine fever in Africa, the virus has spread rapidly to most parts of the country, causing huge economic losses and affecting the livelihoods and livelihoods of countless Chinese people.
" African swine fever virus is a very large and complex pathogen. Wang Xiangxi told China Science Daily, "We think we should have some advantages in doing this work." "Over the past 6 years, Rao Zi and/Wang Xiangxi's team have analyzed the atomic resolution structure of more than 20 all-virus particles. Among them, the herpes simplex virus resolved in 2018 reached 125 nanometers in diameter, is the largest human analysis of high-resolution structure of the virus at that time.
, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a researcher at the Institute of Biophysics, immediately contacted Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, the only scientific research institution qualified to study the live virus of African swine fever, to offer relevant cooperation. "Director Step Zhigao quickly agreed."
at the same time that scientists spontaneously set out to show their ability, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and other large-scale scientific research institutions are also concentrated in the deployment, co-ordination of organizations, and quickly launched a scientific and technological cooperation against African swine fever.
in the face of the raging epidemic, China's scientific research community and time race, has achieved a series of world-leading key results.
March 2019, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute announced the successful separation of China's first African swine fever virus strain. In May, the institute announced the creation of its own vaccine candidate for African swine fever. In recent months, this dual-gene-missing weak-toxic live vaccine has completed systematic laboratory safety assessment and effective tests, focused on breaking through major technical bottlenecks in vaccine large-scale production, completed the preparation and testing of intermediate products under GMP conditions, and recently submitted a biosecurity evaluation application to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Areas, which is expected to enter clinical trials.
said the research team is deeply concerned about the high expectations of ordinary people and will continue to steadily advance vaccine research and development in the future.
" African swine fever has a hundred years of history, but the previous accumulation of research results is not rich. It is not easy for Chinese scientists to study so deeply in more than a year. Rao Zi and told China Science Daily.
these achievements not only reflect the rapid development of life science and technology and the improvement of China's comprehensive scientific research strength, but also the fruits of China's strong support for basic research.recently, Wang Xiangxi conducted research on the work of some domestic scientific research institutions. He introduced that the current research on African swine fever in China has formed a more perfect system and echelons, including at least four major sectors: basic research, prevention and control, vaccine research and development and disease-resistant pig breeding.
after achieving phased results such as a double-gene-missing weak-toxic live vaccine and the analysis of viral particle structure, the researchers continued their efforts.
the end of October 2019, Rao Zi and/Wang Xiangxi team further discovered four important antigens of the African swine fever virus, providing more evidence for the development of a new swine fever vaccine.
same time, Rao Zi and/Guo Yu of Nan kai University conducted structural and functional studies on several key enzymes of the African swine fever virus. Among them, for the African swine fever virus replication process of the key enzyme duty, the team and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Microbiology researcher Gao Fu team published their own research results, revealing the potential position of african swine fever virus binding drugs, for the development of effective drugs provide a valuable "key."
The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has gone all out to tackle the epidemic prevention and control and recuperation technology: Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute has developed a variety of African swine fever rapid diagnosis and detection technology and products, to solve the African swine fever diagnosis technology productization and marketization, the lack of on-site rapid diagnosis technology and other issues. Lanzhou Institute of Livestock and Veterinary Medicine from the need to completely kill the African swine fever virus, verify the screening of high-efficiency killing effect of commonly used disinfectants, the development of a new type of green special effects disinfectant, put forward scientific and standardized disinfection procedures. Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, in cooperation with the Great North Agricultural Group, jointly studied and established a full-process pig farm re-breeding technology system and popularized the application, forming a "large-scale pig farm biosecurity prevention and control technology" key points, to guide the pig farm to carry out re-breeding work.
" at present, the domestic scientific research layout on African swine fever is more comprehensive, the work is also more orderly. In particular, the mechanism of cross-unit cooperation and timely sharing of results has given a strong impetus to the research process. Rao said. At the same time, he pointed out that while the enthusiasm of scientific researchers is high, it is inevitable that there will be blind duplication, waste of resources and other phenomena, hoping to form a more rational and efficient research pattern in the coming 2020, in order to curb the outbreak of swine fever in Africa to make a more practical contribution. africa's swine fever virus has been entangled with humans for hundreds of years since it was first discovered in 1909. China has made a series of major scientific breakthroughs in more than a year, which is something to be proud of, but there is also helplessness.
china is the largest pig breeding country, but the experience of prevention and control of African swine fever is from zero. The large number of domestic pig farmers, the long-standing situation of private slaughterhouses, as well as the special tradition of pig transfer, have opened the door to the spread of swine fever in Africa. African swine fever has become the pressure and driving force of Chinese science and technology workers at an unprecedented rate in China.
At the mobilization meeting to carry out the analysis of the African swine fever virus, Rao Zi and loudly said to every member of the team: "We should, like the SARS period in 2003, respond to the country's urgent needs, solve the country's difficulties, go all out to fight this battle!" The
the African swine fever virus is up to 260 nanometers in diameter, more than twice the previously parsed "big" herpes simplex virus. This poses a great challenge to data collection. Shanghai University of Science and Technology fully supports the work of Rao Zi and/Wang Xiangxi's team under very tight conditions when the bio-frozen electroscope machine is very tense. The team collected high-quality data on the electro-mirror platform for four months in a row and obtained more than 100T of data. There are foreign counterparts and Rao Zi and quipped: "As long as you start to do, we will not win." "
" for four months in a row when the green light machine, except China, anywhere in the world can not be achieved. "We have not only the world's leading equipment resources, but also the world's leading large animal P4 laboratories, state-of-the-art protein facilities and state-of-the-art technical teams. Over the years, China's investment in basic research, finally played an advantage in this event, the achievement of basic research for the country's major strategic needs of a typical example. "
" we also have very hard-working, excellent young people. Rao said affectionately. For more than a year, these young people have been fighting day and night on the front lines of scientific research, using knowledge and technology to race against the rampant African swine fever virus.
in early February 2019, Wang Xiangxi flew to Shanghai in the morning to guide data collection, took a taxi back to Beijing at night, and was told it was free when he drove out of the highway toll booth. "I realized that it was Chinese New Year's Eve, and it was new."
the Spring Festival this year, six young people from the research team did not go home, two in Beijing, two in Harbin and two in Shanghai. I can't even make a table for dumplings. Wang Xiangxi smiled.
, who was not named in the paper, was the hero behind the scenes, helping to collect data in Shanghai. "In my hometown, most of the pigs raised by retail farmers have suffered. I told my aunt the knowledge, instructed her how to prevent and control, how to disinfect, how to manage, helped her to keep 80% of the pigs, but also to more father and fellow villagers spread the experience. He said, "I just have a simple belief that science can do a lot of things here." ”