Professor
Tsinghua University, China (People's Republic)
Professor Linqi Zhang is the Director of the Comprehensive AIDS Research Center at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh and held an Associate Professorship at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center of Rockefeller University in New York before joining Tsinghua University. Prof. Zhang's research focuses on HIV-1 pathogenesis and vaccine development, and has recently expanded to the field of emerging and re-emerging human viral pathogens such as SARS-CoV-1/2 and MERS-CoV. Using cutting-edge antibody and combinatorial antigen library techniques, Prof. Zhang’s research aims to characterize protective antibody immunity in infected humans and rational design of effective vaccines and therapies against the viral infection. Professor Zhang’s team developed an antibody combination therapy (amubarvimab/romlusevimab) that demonstrated 80% efficacy in reducing hospitalization and death among the high-risk population in a US NIH-sponsored multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. The combination therapy was the first and only approved by China National Medical Products Administration on December 9, 2021 to treat adults and pediatric COVID-19 patients. Professor Zhang has also been actively developing next generation COVID-19 vaccines capable of preventing acquisition and transmission through mucosal immunization.
