GVFI’s Vice President Dr. Joseph Fair Visited Wuhan Institute of Virology
On June 3, Dr. Joseph Fair, vice president of the USA Global Viral Forecasting Initiative (GVFI), paid a one-day academic visit to Wuhan Institute of Virology at the invitation of Shi Zhengli, researcher of the Institute. During the visit, he attended "Ge Hong Elite Forum" and gave an excellent academic report named "Biosafety Level 4 Containment Research and Recombinant Biology: How advances in molecular biology can advance in-vitro product design". Many teachers and students, including Director Chen Xinwen and researchers such as Hu Zhihong and Wei Hongping, listened to the report.
In his report, Dr. Joseph Fair introduced the USA GVFI briefly at first. Taking Lassa fever as an example, he then explained its transmission route and the challenges met in rapid diagnosis. Finally, with detailed and authentic data, he showed that the ELISA technology created by his laboratory using recombinant technologies was more convenient, rapid, and accurate than traditional PCR for the rapid diagnosis of Lassa. The technical solution of using recombinant technologies to express albumen and peptide fragment in different carrier systems adopted by Dr. Joseph Fair, presented a promising future with large demands and safety production for candidate vaccine. At the same time, it provided reference for the rapid diagnosis research of other biosafety level-4 viruses.
Dr. Joseph Fair is now engaged in the rapid diagnosis work of virulent viruses for GVFI and looks forward to have cooperations with the Institute in the relevant research field in future.
