Rao Zihe: Fighting against the "invisible enemy" to protect life

Life is a wonderful symphony, and cells, as the notes in it, form a unique melody for each person. However, there are always discordant factors invading this melody, that is, viruses. Although viruses may be deadly and dangerous, there is an academician who is not afraid of viruses. He even takes root in them and solves countless virus problems with his research.

Playing with dangerous viruses

Rao Zihe is a molecular biophysicist and structural biologist, and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In order to decipher the mechanism by which viruses invade the human body, he began to conduct research on influenza viruses in the late 1980s, and focused his main efforts on the study of viruses and pathogens of infectious diseases related to viruses.

Rao Zihe was interviewed

In 2019, when the African swine fever epidemic hit, Rao Zihe's team successfully analyzed the structure of the most complex and largest virus, the African swine fever virus, after nearly a year of research, providing important basis for exploring the pathogenic mechanism of the virus and vaccine development.

In 2003, SARS virus suddenly broke out. Rao Zihe, then director of the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was appointed to lead a combat-ready "SARS research team". In just one month, they successfully expressed 29 important proteins and functional fragments of SARS virus, laying a scientific foundation for SARS virus research and prevention.

The SARS virus came with great force, but it was fleeting. Although the epidemic has passed, Rao Zihe has not let down his guard and continues to study the coronavirus.

The new coronavirus broke the peace in early 2020. The sudden outbreak and the lack of related virus research caught many countries in the world off guard.

Fortunately, Academician Rao Zihe has been persisting in the research of coronavirus since 2003. Although the number of team members has been decreasing, he still gritted his teeth and never disbanded, and continued to persist in the research of coronavirus. After 17 years of unremitting efforts, he and his team were the first to discover the key drug targets of the new coronavirus at the beginning of the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, and achieved systematic results in the research of antiviral drugs, antibodies and vaccines, making important contributions to the research and prevention of the new coronavirus in my country and even the world. He used his personal experience to vividly interpret the love of scientific researchers for science, and the perseverance and determination of a virologist to fight the epidemic without fear of difficulties.

Doing science is a way to explore the unknown

Fighting against major infectious diseases has never been an easy task, let alone a protracted war. Rao Zihe also has his own determination to face the challenge and focus on the research of virus structure.

Rao Zihe delivered a keynote speech at the conference

"Doing science is a way of exploring the unknown. It is a very meaningful and great thing." Rao Zihe used plain words to talk about his persistence and love for science. In his opinion, doing virus science research itself is full of a sense of accomplishment and mission.

"The country has given you such an opportunity and such conditions to do what you want to do. We should produce good research results and give back to society." It is with this sincere heart for scientific research and his dedication to repaying society with scientific research results that Rao Zihe has achieved the various achievements we see today: studying many emerging and re-emerging human disease pathogens, successfully analyzing the structures of more than 50 important proteins, and publishing his research results on African swine fever in the top international academic journal Science.

Talent cultivation is the only way to become a strong country

This technology dreamer with clear goals not only focuses on scientific research, but also attaches great importance to the cultivation of talents.

Rao Zihe interprets African swine fever virus

"A country with strong science and technology is the only way to become a strong country. The most crucial thing is to start with children and young people. Therefore, in addition to scientific research, one of the most important tasks of our generation of scientific researchers is to cultivate young people." To achieve this goal, he has visited colleges and primary and secondary school classrooms many times, using vivid explanations to popularize science and let young people understand and love science.

Support and encouragement are the words most frequently used by "disciples of Rao" to evaluate Professor Rao Zihe. He is willing to enlighten students, participate in some cultural and entertainment activities organized by students, and appreciate and support students to show their talents other than scientific research. In the office of Academician Rao Zihe, there is a hanging scroll with eight characters written by him: "The teacher's virtue is respected, and the learning style is good."

From undergraduate to postdoctoral, Academician Rao Zihe has been "working hard" in the field of biophysics and has never been away from it. In May 2023, Academician Rao Zihe and other virus experts jointly published a study on the high-resolution electron microscopy structure of the human mitochondrial respiratory chain complex, which laid an important foundation for the understanding of its functional mechanism and related diseases and the development of targeted drugs.

In October 2022, the Small Body Nomenclature Committee of the International Astronomical Union announced that the asteroid with the international permanent number 505906 was named "Rao Zihe Star" to commend Academician Rao Zihe for his outstanding contributions in research fields such as viral pathogenic mechanisms and tuberculosis-causing bacteria.

Review expert: Zhang Kai, professor at Communication University of China

Producer: Zhan Zhao

Planning: Cai Lin, Lin Jiaxin, Jiao Ziyuan

Director: Liu Zimo (internship) Wang Jiawei (internship)

Broadcaster: Lin Jiaxin

Produced by: Zhang Liuyan