Institute of Medical Virology Institute of Medical Virology of Wuhan University developed from the previous Lab of Virology of Hubei Medical University, which was founded in 1965 with the approval of the Ministry of Public Health. It is one of the oldest research institutes in the fields of medical virology at university level. During the past 40 years, the institute has developed and improved a lot and currently it became the State-level Key Discipline of Microbiology, Local-level Key Discipline of Pathogenic Biology, State Key Laboratory of Virology as well as Key Laboratory of Virology of Ministry of Education. In addition to offering doctoral program and master program, it is also a postdoctoral circulation station and now it has enrollment of 30 doctoral/master program students.
Institute of Medical Virology of Wuhan University consists of three labs: lab of molecular virology, lab of clinical virology, and lab of virus and carcinoma. Currently, it has a workforce of 25, of whom 13 have senior titles, including 3 doctoral supervisors; 12 have medium titles. The laboratory mainly carries out fundamental and applied research on severe human viral infections.
Since the founding of the institute, it has achieved nearly 100 science research projects, among which many reached international or national advanced levels, 23 projects won ministerial or provincial awards. Among the projects, “Seventh Five-Year Plan” /“Eighth Five-Year Plan” of National Committee of Science, “National Natural Scientific Foundation of China” are included. Moreover, it is also supported by grants of “Natural Science Foundation of Hubei”; “Chen Guang Project”; “Education commission of Hubei”; Scientific and Technological Commission of Hubei”.
Since the midst of 1980’s, cooperated with US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, lab of clinical virology isolated a strain of Hantaan virus from the urine of a patient with hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and proved ribavirin’s inhibitory effect against Hantaan viruses. Meanwhile, lab of molecular virology selected human papillomavirus (HPV) from the muti-pathogeny of cervical cancer and investigated the role of HPV on pathogency of cervical cancer and the association of cell oncogene and anti-oncogene. In the early of 90’s, lab of virus and carcinoma isolated a strain of Bluetongue virus from the animal for the first time in the nation wide and then did a lot of research on its pathogenicity and oncolysis. With the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, the project “Immunogenicity, safety, and protective efficacy of an inactivated SARS-associated coronavirus vaccine in rhesus monkeys” was carried out by lab of clinical virology. Many achievements it got these years with great application value contributed a great deal to China’s economic construction and social progress.
The institute takes an active part in extensive exchanges with higher educational institutions at home and abroad. During the past few years it has sent more than 30 young teachers or students abroad for long-term study or short-term visits under various programs, invited 9 famous foreign scholars to be its honorary professors or guest professors, and established relations of academic cooperation and exchanges with many universities, colleges and scientific research institutions in countries and regions like U.S.A, Japan, and Germany. In its history of about 40 years, the institute has trained over 300 postgraduates with doctoral and master’s degree. Most of them are now working at hospitals, disease control centers, and medical research institute throughout the country. Quite a few have become eminent experts and scholars.
Major research:
1.Molecular virology (To investigate the role of carcinoma relevant viruses and oncolytic viruses)
2.Clinical virology (To study the pathogenicity, immunity and molecular epidemiology of Hantaan virus, SARS-CoV, influenza virus, et al. Do some research on viral diagnosis) 3.Antiviral research (To study the antiviral activity of chemical agent or traditional Chinese herbal in vitro and in vivo) 4.Molecular biology (To study the structure, function and expression of carcinoma relevant virus gene; To study the genetic diagnosis and therapy of carcinoma)