Chinese virologist who was first to share COVID-19 genome sleeps on street after lab shuts

Zhang Yongzhen shared the genomic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 with the world, speeding up the development of vaccines.
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  1. Smriti Mallapaty
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Zhang Yongzhen, the first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus, looks at a presentation on his laptop in a coffeeshop in Shanghai, China on Dec. 13, 2020.

Zhang Yongzhen, the first person to publicly release the genome sequence of the virus that causes COVID-19, was camping outside his laboratory. Credit: Dake Kang/AP via Alamy

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The first person to publicly release the genome sequence of the virus that causes COVID-19 — virologist Zhang Yongzhen — seems to have resolved a public dispute with the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center (SPHCC), Fudan University, China, which erupted last week.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01293-0

Updates & Corrections

  • Update 03 May 2024: The text was altered to reflect the fact that Zhang's social media posts have been removed

  • Correction 03 May 2024: Zhang's social media post regarding the agreement with SPHCC was posted after midnight on Tuesday night. The text has been corrected for accuracy.

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