Rao Zihe gives talk at UM on African swine fever virus

The University of Macau (UM) today (20 November) held a lecture titled ‘The Architecture of African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) and the Implications for Viral Assembly and Vaccine Design’. Rao Zihe, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and a renowned biophysicist and structural biologist, was the keynote speaker. The talk attracted many UM faculty members, students, and members of the general public.

In his speech, Ge Wei, vice rector (research) of UM, said that Rao’s work provided groundbreaking insights into viral infection, replication and assembly, energy and metabolite transport, drug resistance, and cell wall synthesis in Mycobacteria tuberculosis. Rao is a professor at Tsinghua University and Nankai University. He is also a member of the presidium of the CAS and a former president of Nankai University. His main research focus are pathogenic infectious agents.

During the talk, Rao discussed the impact of African swine fever virus on China and the animal husbandry industry worldwide. He also shared with the audience the latest developments in the studies of ASFV’s architecture, the implications for viral assembly, as well as vaccine design for ASFV.

Source: Rector’s Office