In 2017, WIV has been approved 2 program applications from CAS President’s International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI). Under these programs, two international scientists will come to WIV for carrying out collaborative researches.

As a distinguished scientist under PIFI, Prof. George R. Stark Lerner from Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic will visit the Research Group of Prion Cell Biology led by Prof. Chaoyang Li in WIV for a week in May this year. They plan to further discuss the project that involves uncovering the mechanistic underpinnings of prion regulation of interferon. Besides, Dr. Sheila Ommeh from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, will be a visiting scientist to WIV from September to December. She will work in the Emerging Viruses Group led by Zhengli Shi. They will carry out the proposed project on virus discovery of public health concern from camels, poultry and pigs in Kenya, which leads to better diagnosis and effective vaccine development and will be a great milestone towards improved disease surveillance and pandemic preparedness in Kenya and the rest of Eastern Africa.

The PIFI program set by CAS aims to support highly-qualified international scientists and postgraduate students to work and study at CAS institutions and strengthen their scientific collaboration with CAS researchers. The PIFI program is available for four categories of international researchers and students: distinguished scientists, visiting scientists, postdoctoral researchers and international PhD students.

For more details: http://english.cas.cn/cooperation/fellowships/201503/t20150313_145274.shtml