Associate Professor Yunlong Richard Cao is an immunologist at the Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center (BIOPIC), Peking University, and his work focuses on B-cell adaptive immune responses, antibody drugs, and vaccine design. His research has been published in several prestigious journals including Nature, Cell, and The Lancet Infectious Diseases. He was awarded "35 Innovators Under 35" (China) in 2022 by the MIT Technology Review and listed in “Ten people who helped shape science in 2022” by Nature (Nature’s 10) due to his contribution to the understanding of SARS-CoV-2 evolution.
Hosted by Professor Sir Andrew McMichael and Professor Tao Dong, Professor Cao first delivered an interesting seminar on “Broad-spectrum SARS-CoV-2 prophylactics designed based on viral evolution prediction” at the Centre for Human Genetics. After this Yunlong was accompanied by Dr Ricardo A. Fernandes & Dr Chang Liu while he went on to meet with several COI Group Leaders. He discussed genomics & big data research with Professor Julian Knight and the study on the function of HLA-E with Professor Sir Andrew McMichael. He also met Professor Sir David Stuart and Professor Gavin Screaton’s group to talk about novel technologies to further understand antibody functions. With Professor Teresa Lambe, they shared mutual interest on developing vaccines using different platforms against emerging viruses.
Professor Cao’s visit highlights the close relationship and joint effort built by COI and Chinese researchers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The visit was vital for setting up future opportunities for collaborations. At the end of his visit, COI director Professor Tao Dong sent her best wishes. We look forward to welcoming Professor Cao back to Oxford again soon.
News item written by Dr Chang Liu, edited by Dr Dannielle Wellington.