The Shanghai Virus Research Institution is established in Shanghai on September 26, 2022. Photo: Chinanews.com

The Shanghai Virus Research Institution was officially established in Shanghai on Monday, with internationally renowned virologist Guan Yi appointed as the first chief of the institute. The new institute is intended to deepen the cooperation and sharing mechanism in the field of virology research.

The institute will also gradually form extensive strategic cooperative relations with relevant enterprises both at home and abroad, and build a platform for the transformation of research achievements, in order to promote the development of the bio-pharmaceutical industry in Shanghai.

Guan is the director of the State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases of the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He initiated the SARS etiological investigation in South China's Guangdong that resulted in the Department of Microbiology at HKU being the first research team to identify this emerging coronavirus, according to the official website of HKU.

The institute was jointly built by Shanghai municipal people's government and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The institute will integrate the school's advantages in virology-related fields, focusing on virus evolution and cross-host transmission, pathogenesis of virus-related major diseases, diagnosis, treatment and transformation of virus infection. It aims to build a virology research innovation institute with international influence, and cultivate more talent.

Guan said at the founding ceremony that virology research plays an extremely important role in human health, medicine and even national security. The institute will focus on the world's leading virology directions and will aim to become a world-class virology research center as part of the bio-pharmaceutical industry cluster in Shanghai, Guan said.

Shanghai's executive vice mayor Wu Qing also said at the ceremony that the institute will focus on the strategic needs of the national and Shanghai public health system, and the city should give full play to talent and resource advantages in related fields.