A senior scientist based in Shanghai Monday said the Shanghai Academy of Life Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) was developing a cure for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Pei Gang, a CAS academician and president of the Shanghai academy, said his academy had set up a special team dedicated to research the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
He made the remarks at Monday's conference marking the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA by James Watson, an American, and Francis Crick, a British biophysicist. They shared the Nobel Prize for the work.
He said the research would help pinpoint the cause of the disease, variations of the virus and the immune process after being infected.
Successful research had already showed ways to stop the expression of SARS virus protein, he said, adding that the research on immunological treatment would help find an effective antibody to cure the disease.
He said his academy was trying to find an effective medicine from existing antivirus treatments and meanwhile develop a new cure.
(Xinhua News Agency April 22, 2003)
