China’s “inviting in and going global” policy supports Sino-Netherlands collaboration in the construction of high-level research platform of animal virology

Abstract:

China’s policy of reform and opening up has created opportunities for the vast number of scientific and technological personnel to learn the advanced theories and technologies from other countries. The author and his team are witnesses and beneficiaries of the policy. This article first introduces the author’s experience of going to Utrecht University in the Netherlands to study advanced theories and techniques of virology in his early career, then introduces the process of leading the team to exchange and cooperate with Netherlands scientists for building a high-level scientific research platform. Through cooperative research with Dutch scientists, the author’s team established the world’s first reverse genetic manipulation platform of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV). Leveraging this platform, extensive and in-depth research has been carried out, yielding fruitful results. Finally, this article reviews the recent research progress in PEDV and makes an outlook on the future of the research field.