向近敏教授生平介绍

       向近敏，曾用英文名Chin-Min Hsiang。1914年1月28日出生于湖北省汉川县。1942年他从陆军医学院（现第二军医大学）毕业。因成绩优异被中国病毒学的先驱、陆军医学院血清疫苗研究所的李振翩教授留作助教，从事当时刚刚开展的血清疫苗的研制工作，随后被聘为中央大学医学院微生物学助教。1946 年至1954年期间，他两次到美国留学，其间曾任俄亥俄州克利夫兰医院化验室主任、副教授。1948年起受聘于湖北医学院（现武汉大学医学院），任副教授，教授，病毒研究室主任。1978年创立病毒研究所并任所长，终身教授。2006年12月31日病逝于武大中南医院，享年93岁。

        向近敏教授是我国著名的病毒学家，免疫学家和医学教育家，中国医学病毒学的奠基人之一。在长达半个多世纪的科学研究的生涯中，他对工作执着，乐观的态度以及充沛的工作精力给很多人树立了榜样。早在五六十年代，他首先开展了病毒性脑炎和中药抗病毒的研究，提出了病毒溶瘤作用的慨念，被视为中国早期的生物抗肿瘤研究的开端。他率先在湖北医学院成立了医学病毒学研究室，倡议在学生的教材中增加医学病毒学内容。亲手编写了医学病毒学教材，并亲自主教这一门课程。向近敏教授还同时开展流行性乙型脑炎病毒和脊髓灰质炎的病毒病原学、流行病学，中药单方、复方抗病毒药物的研究。终于在1960年，国家卫生部批准湖北医学院成立以向近敏为主任的医学病毒学研究室。

       向近敏教授在进行病毒学研究的同时，也深入探讨了免疫学理论。在1964年的全国微生物学免疫学会议上，他提出分子免疫学正在形成和发展的学术思想，当时，国内外的文献中尚无类似的提法。七十年代，向近敏教授开始研究疱疹病毒与宫颈癌之间的关系和流行性出血热的病毒病因。他领导的小组奔赴宫颈癌高发地区湖北省五峰县山区，收集大量患者的标本，在国内首先从宫颈癌患者的脱落细胞中分离到疱疹病毒Ⅱ型病毒。他还首次在国内的散发性脑炎患者脑脊髓液中分离到疱疹病毒。1987年，向近敏教授在安徽黄山召开的中华预防医学会微生态学学术研讨会上首次正式提出“分子生态学”的新概念。这一崭新的学术观点引起人们很大的兴趣。后来他们的发言被整理成文，发表在康白主编的中国第一本有关专著《微生态学》上，该书于1988年正式出版。这一学术观点比英国的 Terry Burkel在1992年提出的同一学术观念早了四年。由向近敏教授主编的《分子生态学》第一、二卷，共130余万字也分别于1995年和2000出版发行。

        1978年湖北医学院将1960年由卫生部批准成立的医学病毒研究室改建为医学病毒研究所，向近敏教授任第一任所长。这是中国医学院校中当时唯一的病毒研究所。在他的领导下，宫颈癌病因研究已发展到癌基因水平，流行性出血热病毒的研究首先以双份血清证明中国的出血热同朝鲜出血热的血清学关系。向近敏教授于1983年重返美国，并任美国国立卫生研究院高级访问科学家。其后他多次应邀出访美国和欧洲一些国家并做了一系列的学术报告。在担任所长期间，向近敏教授大力开展对外学术交流，在国内组织多次国际性学术会议，并邀请美国、加拿大等国的专家学者来中国讲学。以美国著名神经病毒学专家、诺贝尔奖获得者、国立卫生研究院的Daniel Carleton Gajdusek博士，美国耶鲁大学医学院美籍华人临床病毒学家熊菊贞博士，病毒生物化学专家萨马斯博士和《国际病毒学杂志》副主编拉普博士为首的近40名国际知名专家学者来湖北医学院病毒研究所讲学，交流。他还特别邀请熊菊贞教授于1982、1984和1986年一起举办了三期全国高级医学病毒学讲习班。来自全国高等医学院校，科研卫生防疫部门等单位的病毒学、微生物学和卫生学工作者共约600人参加了学习和交流。全所先后选派了近20人到国外进修深造。在很短的时间内便缩短了国内外医学病毒学研究的差距。

        在向近敏教授的不懈努力下，湖北医学院病毒研究所同美国陆军传染病研究所达成了以病毒唑治疗流行性出血热的互利协议，美方提供价值约百万元的现代化仪器设备以及研究经费。中美双方的研究人员共同参加研究，共享研究成果。这一协议经中央卫生部批准后，向近敏教授同中外专家一道制定合乎国际标准水平的病毒唑治疗流行性出血热的双盲随机对照实验方案。他作为中方的主要研究者之一，组织了湖北省7个地、市的近300个病例，取得63万个数据，经严格统计学处理得出了病毒唑确实是治疗流行性出血热的有效药物。这是一项中美协作的，有9个医院的数百名医护人员以及管理人员参加的集体工作。工作完成后，美军传染病研究所授予他友谊奖章。这种对外合作的方式多次被中央卫生部和国家教委誉为大专院校对外交流取得成功的一个典范，并获得中华人民共和国国家科学进步三等奖。

        向近敏教授还参加了一些国家医学科学技术的规划工作，先后担任过中央卫生部科学委员会病毒和病毒性疾病专门委员会委员，中华医学会微生物学免疫学与免疫学会委员，中华预防医学会副主任委员，中华预防医学会微生态学会分子生态学专业委员会主任委员，湖北省微生物学会常务理事，中华医学会湖北分会常务理事、湖北省暨武汉市微生物学免疫学会常务理事、中华医学会武汉病毒学会理事长，中国微生物学会病毒学专题委员会常务委员，中国科学院武汉病毒研究所特聘研究员，《病毒学报》、《中华微生物学和免疫学杂志》、《免疫学杂志》、《肿瘤防治研究》、《国外医学生物化学临床检验学分册》、《中国微生态学杂志》等的编委，《湖北医学院学报》主编。

         让我们用向近敏教授的一句惯用语共勉：生命不息，奋斗不止。

      Dr. Chin-Min Hsiang passed away on Sunday, Dec. 31, 2006, at the Second 
Teaching Hospital, after a long illness. Dr. Hsiang was Professor emeritus and honorary Director of Virus Research Institute at Wuhan University School of Medicine (formerly Hubei Medical University) and a world-renowned virologist and teacher. He was 94. 

      Dr. Hsiang was born in 1913 in Hubei and graduated from Army Medical School in Guiyang in 1942 during World War II. He worked at China Central Institute of Serology and Bacteriology and then was recruited to National Central University Medical School in Nanjing as an assistant professor by Dr. C.P. Li right after World War II. In 1946, Dr. Hsiang was recommended by Dr. C.P. Li to study microbiology in the United States. It took him almost a month by boat to arrive University of Texas where he continued to seek efficient antibiotic treatment of bacterial infection and to investigate how antibiotics could inhibit bacterial growth. Later he joined with Dr. Morris Pollard at University of Texas   Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas to focus on poliovirus biology and transmission when tissue (organ) cultures became the new technique at the time, and virology as a new discipline was emerging. This eventually brought him to virology for the rest of his life, including his time in Cleveland Clinic from 1952-1954 and in The People's Republic of China after 1954. Over the past 60 years, Dr. Hsiang research had covered on Japanese encephalitis B virus, herpes simplex virus, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome virus (Hantaan virus), and many aspects of immunology, and produced over 200 publications. 

       Dr. Hsiang came to the United States for microbiology training just before 
       China Civil War and Dr. C.P. Li was hoping his return by training to China to establish a best medical microbiology program in National Central University Medical School. Unfortunately, China had a three-year Civil War, and Dr. C.P. Li had to leave China for the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 shed the light for many Chinese scholars then in the United States to rebuild the new China with their scientific expertise. Dr. Hsiang was one of them with this ambition and was seeking for the opportunity to return to his homeland. Unfortunately, China had Korean War with the United States. Dr. Hsiang's attempts were blocked by the US Immigration Office. His homing dream went through after Korean War. He went back to China in 1954 and came to Hubei Medical University to repay his personal admiration to Dr. ZHU Yubi, then the President of Hubei Medical College, who took care of his parent during his absence from China. Since then, he spent his entire professional life at Hubei Medical University. As a teacher for more than 50 years, Dr. Hsiang has trained countless number of students and fellows all over the country and was remembered by many of world-class scientists. His persistence, good cheer, and boundless energy had set as model for all of us. As he always said even in his 90s that "learning goes on as life is continuing". 

      Dr. Hsiang received many awards. He was honored in 1978 by Central government at Great Hall and was a recipient of a Class III National Science Advance Award. He was also honored a Friendship Award by US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

向近敏教育基金会介绍

        Chin-Min Hsiang Education Foundation (CMHEF) is a non-profit organization, established in memory of Chin-Min Hsiang, formerly Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at Wuhan University School of Medicine.  The purpose of CMHEF is to promote values of higher education, particularly to encourage and support advanced studies in biomedical sciences in China.  This will be achieved by annual selection and rewarding of students who meet the criteria of the “Search for Excellence” program set by the Foundation, and to facilitate academic and research exchange between scholars in China and US.

Currently, the Foundation has two programs to support students and researchers each year.

• “Search for Excellence” Award

Two students, one from college and one from graduate school, will be selected to receive an award of 5000 RMB.

• Junior Faculty Award

A junior faculty who is engaged in research in the area of medical microbiology, immunology or virology will be awarded 5000 RMB for his/her outstanding research, as demonstrated either by the research proposal or a published paper. 

The success of this highly significant program depends on generous contributions from all, which are not limited to alumni of Wuhan University.  All donations may qualify for exemption from federal and/or state income tax.

向近敏教育基金会(CMHEF)是为了纪念向近敏教授, 由他的学生及亲属成立的一个非营利组织。 向近敏教育基金会的成立目的是奖励符合本会“追求卓越计划“条件的学生和年青科研人员。同时也积极促进中美相关领域的学术交流。