Author: Zeng Dejun, Tong Ouhui

Translated by: Wu Xia

Since the outbreak of COVID19 epidemic, scientific researchers in the School of Medicine have actively summarized and developed the diagnosis and treatment methods of the virus. They endeavored to use more hard-core scientific research results, and continue to inject scientific and technological strength into the prevention and control of the epidemic.

On February 7, JAMA, an international top medical journal, published an article on "Clinical characteristics of patients infected by COVID19". Professor Peng Zhiyong, Director of the Department of Intensive Medicine, Zhongnan Hospital, conducted the paper in collaboration with the Department of Infectious Diseases and Emergency Medicine. This paper for the first time comprehensively summarizes the patient's course characteristics, clinical manifestations, and treatment effects, differences between severe patients and non-severe patients, and prognosis for the first time through the large number of cases.

On February 12, Professor Zhang Yuanzhen of Zhongnan Hospital, Professor Hou Wei of School of Basic Medical Sciences and Professor Yang Huixia of Peking University published an article Clinical characteristics and intrauterine vertical transmission potential of COVID-19 infection in nine in the international top medical journal Lancet. A research paper on pregnant women: a retrospective review of medical records, on Lancet. It reveals that SARS-CoV-2 does not occur in vertical transmission, and the results provide a feasible help for the development of obstetric treatment principles for pregnant women with COVID-19 infection.

On February 14, Zhang Zhijiang's team of professors published a research paper titled Novel Coronavirus Infection in Hospitalized Infants Under 1 Year of Age in China in JAMA, an international top medical journal, revealing that COVID-19 may be more susceptible to infecting baby girls. The paper suggests that given that infants under the age of 1 cannot wear a mask and that all infected infants have family clustering, special protective measures need to be taken when caring for infants.

On March 3, a joint team of professors Liu Tiangang from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Li Yan and Yu Lilei from Renmin Hospital, and the head of Wuhan Zhenxi Medical Laboratory Laboratories Co., Ltd., Dr. Fu Aisi presented a research paper on the preprinted platform medRxiv. The paper Nanopore Targeted Sequencing for Accurate and Comprehensive Detection of New Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses innovatively introduced a nanopore targeted sequencing detection method, which greatly improved the positive detection rate of the virus, and could simultaneously detect the COVID-19 and other 10 major categories, 40 common respiratory viruses and monitor virus mutations. Accuracy, high speed and ease of operation are of great significance for the prompt diagnosis of suspected cases and for the prevention and control of epidemics.

On March 4, Professor Yang Zhanqiu of the Institute of Medical Virology of the Basic Medical School was interviewed by a reporter from the Global Times. This is his second special interview with the newspaper. From the perspective of a local virus research expert in Wuhan, he expounded the doubts in his eyes about the new coronavirus, and put forward his own views on the mutation of the virus: "The mutation of the virus really helps to track the transmission path and source. It is of great significance to vaccine design and is valuable for the diagnosis of epidemics, which will make vaccines and diagnostic reagents more accurate in design. "

In this major "anti-epidemic" struggle, scientific researchers raced against time, concentrated their efforts on emergency scientific research, and achieved staged results. It is reported that in view of the key and difficult issues of basic research such as vaccines, drugs, pathogenicity and prevention, and public health, many units of the Medical School are actively carrying out the application and research of related scientific research projects to make greater efforts to safeguard people's lives.