"So some of our current projects are focusing on the research of vaccines."

Many vaccine development projects have scored highly in the national "863" High-tech Projects, including the Genetically Engineered Vaccine Against Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome, Research and Development of Genetically Engineered Polyvalent Vaccine, Study of Novel Recombinant Vaccine Against Hepatitis B, and Study on Genetically Engineered Vaccine of Epstein-Barr Virus.

Vaccine development for AIDS, Hepatitis C, influenza and tuberculosis are required urgently, according to Ruan. Only when these vaccines are made available to Chinese can the work of disease control and prevention become truly effective.

Of particular urgency is the hunt for a vaccine for HIV, which is responsible for AIDS. Scientists worldwide have been working to try and develop a protective vaccine for the virus for roughly 20 years, but time and again, researchers continue running up against brick walls. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the institute has also joined the hunt for a HIV vaccine, exploring promising strategies for HIV prevention, treatment and control. It will form a unit to help deal with the rising HIV epidemic in China. The method adopted is totally different from the concept of developing traditional vaccines such as hepatitis B vaccine, because of the variable nature of HIV. Instead, they are emphasizing the minor protective antibodies in the process of natural infection, with an aim to avoid a variation of the virus. Ruan was confident about their current HIV vaccine research.

Propelled by their formerly strong research potential, they are trying to win over more projects from the national "863" High-tech Projects and National Foundation of Natural Sciences, from which they can obtain a large amount of funding support, marked at 30 million yuan (US$3.62 million) only in the last year. The fund from the scientific research, in a way, supported their work of disease control and prevention.

"As a scientist, you should have the ability to put forward good scientific projects, which cater to the nation's need. Of course, you should also be capable of completing those projects," said Ruan.

The fund for the viral disease control and prevention is still largely in want, around 5 to 10 million yuan (about US$600,000 to US$1.2 million) each year, Ruan estimated. "Though the scientific research has come to a second place now, we have combined roads so that research and prevention complement each other," said Ruan.

To survive, the institute set up some scientific research subjects to meet market demand, which can be directly applied to production, enabling a portion of funding to be obtained from pharmaceutical companies.

Nearly 50 percent of the expertise in biological medicines on the domestic market come from the institute. Ruan was confident that the government would greatly increase its investment in disease control and prevention in the coming years.

(China Daily March 21, 2003)