Zhang Yongzhen

Career

Zhang is a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai and works at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. His research involves RNA sequencing, and he has discovered numerous RNA viruses with collaborator Edward C. Holmes of the University of Sydney. He has created a network of labs dedicated to monitoring novel viruses.

On 11 January, Edward C. Holmes contacted Zhang for permission to publish the virus's genome. Zhang granted permission, and Holmes published the genome on virological.org that day. Over the next three months the lab tested more than 30,000 viral samples, according to Fan Wu, another researcher involved in sequencing SARS-CoV-2.

On Monday, 27 April 2024, Zhang said that he had been evicted from the lab; the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center said that the lab was closed for safety reasons. As a protest, Zhang took up residence on a piece of cardboard outside the front door of the laboratory and remained there despite rain. On May 1, Zhang reported that he had been allowed back into the facility.