Hou Yunde

chinacdc.cn | Updated: 2022-01-05

Title: Molecular Virologist, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Researcher of the National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

After graduating from Tongji University School of Medicine in 1955, he went to work in the Virus Section of the Microbiology Department of the Central Institute of Health in Beijing. In 1958, he went to the Ivanovsky Institute of Virology of the former USSR Academy of Medical Sciences for a Candidate of Sciences degree. Since returning to China in 1962 he has been engaged in virus research at the Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine. He was promoted to researcher in 1983, and was awarded the title of a young scientist with outstanding contributions to the country in 1984, and became the deputy director of the Institute of Virology in 1984 and the director of the Institute in 1985. In 1986, he was appointed as the Chief Scientist in Biotechnology Field of the National High-tech R&D Program (863 Program). In 1990, he was included in Who's Who in the World, published by the Cambridge, England and American Biographical Institute.

Main achievements and contributions

Hou has been engaged in medical virology research for more than 60 years, and has made great achievements in the research of interferon and virus gene structure and function, and has made important contributions to the establishment and development of the discipline of molecular virology and genetic engineering in medicine in China.

He has published more than 500 papers in domestic and international journals, as well as 8 major publications, and has obtained 35 provincial- and ministerial-level awards. In 1981, he edited the book Interferon and its Clinical Application, which was the first treatise on interferon research in China. In 1985, he edited the book Principles and Methods of Viral Genetic Engineering, which was the first monograph on genetic engineering technology written by Chinese scholars based on domestic experience and played an important role in promoting the application of genetic engineering technology in the medical virology field in China. In 1990, he edited the book Molecular Virology, which is the most comprehensive and systematic monograph in the field of virology in China.

In October 1994, the 3rd Asia Pacific Medical Virology Congress awarded him an honorary prize in recognition of his outstanding contributions to medical virology.