Recently, some netizens posted that virologist Zhang Yongzhen's laboratory at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center was forcibly closed, so he had to sleep overnight at the door of the laboratory.
On April 29, the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center issued a statement saying that the hospital had formulated a relevant resettlement plan in advance and informed it in advance.
Subsequently, Zhang Yongzhen posted a long response on his social media, pointing out that the center asked his team to move out in two days, and the hospital leaders "have not read back" their opinions.
Zhang Yongzhen is a well-known virologist, and on January 5, 2020, Zhang Yongzhen's laboratory measured the genome of the new coronavirus.
The Shanghai Public Health Center responded in the early morning
Recently, some netizens posted that Zhang Yongzhen's laboratory at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center was forcibly closed by the leaders of the center, and Zhang Yongzhen had to sleep overnight at the door of the laboratory, which caused concern.
Pictures posted by netizens
The Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center reported on this matter in the early morning of April 29 that the dispute between the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center and Zhang Yongzhen's team circulated on the Internet has been investigated and some laboratories of the hospital need to be renovated and closed for safety reasons. For the team members of researcher Zhang Yongzhen who carry out scientific research activities in the area, the hospital provides additional office and experimental space in the scientific research building.
The report said, "Our hospital has formulated relevant resettlement plans in advance and informed them in advance. In the next step, our hospital will work with relevant units to properly do a good job in resettlement. Our institute always respects researchers and supports them to carry out normal research work. ”
According to official information, the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center is a 100-year-old tertiary hospital, also known as the Public Health Clinical Center Affiliated to Fudan University. The center is also an important training base for medical education, and is the WHO Clinical Research and Training Center for Emerging and Recurrent Infectious Diseases, the National Key Clinical Specialty Construction Project Unit, one of the key discipline construction units of infectious diseases in Shanghai, and the clinical base of Shanghai Center for Disease Control.
"I've been lying in the door since last night"
In response to the report of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, on the morning of the 29th, Zhang Yongzhen posted a long post on social media in response, saying that the public health center suddenly held an emergency meeting last Thursday, and it only took one minute to announce that the P3 laboratory was going to be upgraded and renovated, and ordered them to move out within 2 days, and none of the team members present heard any specific arrangements for where to move. On the same day, the team members had already expressed the team's opinions and replies to the leaders of the hospital, and the hospital could not read back.
The next day, the young researcher of his team, Mr. Chen, returned to Gongwei (the agreement between Mr. Chen and the center expired at the end of June this year) and questioned the vice dean in charge of scientific research and the director of the scientific research department, before being told to move to the laboratory of another professor in the front building. But the professor didn't have a lab that met their experimental needs. After communicating with the leaders of the hospital, no relocation plan was given.
Zhang Yongzhen wrote: "The proper disposal in this statement means that we are not allowed to enter the laboratory to continue our unfinished experiments and not to take our personal belongings for a day today."
He also pointed out that on the night of the 28th, despite the moderate rain, the public health center did not allow its team to take shelter from the rain in the laboratory's office. "I've been lying in the doorway since last night. ”
Zhang Yongzhen also posted a photo of the floor at the entrance of the laboratory and a screenshot of communicating with the leaders of the hospital but not receiving a response.
Zhang Yongzhen posted a screenshot of communicating with the leaders of the hospital but did not receive a response
According to the website of Fudan University, Zhang Yongzhen received his Ph.D. from the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and was engaged in postdoctoral research at the Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine from 1998 to 2000, and engaged in the prevention and control of infectious diseases and virus biology research at the Institute of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention from 2001 to September 2020. Since October 2020, Zhang Yongzhen has been engaged in infectious disease and virology research at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center.
In recent years, Zhang Yongzhen has led a research team to discover more than 2,000 new viruses in the world, making it the laboratory with the largest number of new viruses in the world. The newly discovered Chu virus, Qin virus, Zhao virus, Wei virus, etc. are in an important position in classification, and Jingmen virus is the first virus in the world to establish a genetic and evolutionary association between two types of viruses with and without segmentation of the genome. Chu virus is not only the most complex and diverse negative-strand RNA virus in the world, but also the first virus found in the world with a circular genome and the ability to establish a genetic association between genome segments and non-segmented negative-strand RNA viruses. The newly discovered virus not only fills the gap in virus evolution, but also shows the continuity and long evolutionary history of RNA virus, systematically reveals the law of genetic evolution of RNA virus, and redefines the RNA virus circle. In addition, some newly discovered viruses have been shown to cause human diseases, such as Wenzhou virus, Jingmen virus, Chu virus, etc.
On January 5, 2020, Zhang Yongzhen led the research team to take the lead in analyzing the whole genome of the new coronavirus and made an accurate judgment. On January 11, China took the lead in releasing the full genome sequence of the new coronavirus to the world, laying the foundation for the global fight against the epidemic and winning high praise from the international community.
On October 10, 2020, the inauguration ceremony of the East China Institute of Pathogen Biology was held in the Prevention and Control Building of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center. Zhang Yongzhen and Shi Zhengli (part-time) served as the director and deputy director respectively. On December 15, 2020, Zhang Yongzhen was selected as one of the top ten people of the year by Nature magazine.
Source: National Business Daily