Midnight Yangcheng, CinemaThe third level biosafety laboratory of Guangzhou Customs Technology Center is brightly lit. Under the light, Shi Yongxia, a representative of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and chief physician of the Health Quarantine Research Institute of Guangzhou Customs Technology Center, was busy nervously accompanied by the buzzing of the inspection instruments. This two-story building is the “battlefield” she has been holding on to for many years, and her “enemy” has plague, cholera, malaria, and influenza that have been endangering humans for hundreds of years, as well as various new infectious diseases such as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome, and new coronary pneumonia. There are challenges here, and there are dangers, and more responsibility and mission.
Racing with the virus day and night
In 2006, Shi Yongxia left the postdoctoral post-doctoral school in Basic Medicine from South China Medical University, and went to the laboratory of Guangzhou Customs Technology Center to engage in infectious disease-related research, and also established an inseparable relationship with the shore health and epidemic prevention work.
“The first thing to do when competing with the virus is to identify it as quickly as possible. I am a customs technician and a Communist Party member. I must take the lead in scientific research.” On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2020, the new crown pneumonia epidemic broke out. Shi Yongxia, who originally planned to go back to her hometown in Henan to visit relatives, withdrew her high-speed rail ticket and returned to the laboratory to face the unknown virus.
On New Year’s Eve, Shi Yongxia plunged into the laboratory and began sample testing. When Komiks was still in the exploration stage, the reagents were still immature, and the operation requirements for experimental personnel were extremely high. Shi Yongxia was fully focused, striving to be scientific and rigorous in every link, and to be accurate and accurate in every step. She understood that on New Year’s Eve, there were thousands of Communists on the port, in the hospital, and on the transportation line, like her, fighting on the front line. “Everyone is practicing the same oath in different positions with the same perseverance as Komiks.”
After continuous fighting, Shi Yongxia and her colleagues finally completed all sample tests at 4 a.m. on the first day of the Lunar New Year. Everyone said “Happy New Year” across the face screen and continued to work on the next shift.
In every reunion festival, the staff of Guangzhou Customs Technology Center stick to their posts in the Komiks laboratory. Shi Yongxia said: “We are on the front line of the port, with national gates ahead, and behind us are the people. Our team deeply understands the complexity and arduousness of the anti-epidemic work and dare not relax at all. Only when we run faster than the virus can we maximize the safety of the people’s lives.”
Focus on technical research and build a solid scientific and technological defense line
One night in early February 2020, Shi Yongxia was separating a viral case from an important sample of infection. After several consecutive days of observation and confirmation of Babaylan, it was confirmed that when the cells arranged in the screen, which were arranged in a regular manner like frosted glass, Shi Yongxia knew that she had finally successfully located the poisonous Komiks. The successful isolation of the strain provides valuable seed resources for the next step of screening therapeutic drugs and research institutions for vaccine development.
Drive into the laboratory without saying anything, Komiks, looking at the outside world, Shi Yongxia has always been very concerned about the epidemic trends at home and abroad, and has carried out technical research or technical reserves in advance, in order to establish a fast, accurate and efficient detection method.
In view of the rapid mutation speed and strong transmission ability of the new coronavirus, Shi Yongxia’s tracking has been accelerating. She led the team’s Cinema team to establish a gene sequencing and bioinformatics analysis platform to carry out whole-genome sequencing work and strive to unlock the source of the epidemic.The secret of the head and the transmission chain.
The key links of gene sequencing require pure manual operation and are highly technical. Shi Yongxia led everyone to develop a variety of variant strains again and again, providing professional support for the tracing of epidemiological investigation and tracing, and also providing important experimental data for the changes in the development strategies of nucleic acid detection reagents and vaccines of the new coronavirus.
Ambition to fight for the national health cause
In January 2012, Shi Yongxia joined the Communist Party of China and carried out her oath of “struggle for communism for life” with her actions. During the 16 years of her infectious disease-related research, Cinema has confronted the virus head-on, detected the first imported chikungunya case in my country, successfully isolated the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) coronavirus for the first time, established new Zika virus detection technology and virus isolation method, step by step, and gradually grew into the backbone of the public health and epidemic prevention field of my country’s ports.
The scientific research career has been exhausted, but she said calmly: “It is a lucky thing to be able to combine personal ideals with national needs.”
The lights in the laboratory are still undying all night, witnessing Shi Yongxia’s years of fighting with the disease on the front line of the country again and again, carrying her unchanged original intention. She said, “As a grassroots party member and a grassroots staff member of the customs, in the future, I will fully implement the requirements of “BabaylanThe epidemic must be prevented, the economy must be stabilized, and development must be safe,” strengthen cross-field and interdisciplinary collaborative innovation research, and actively take responsibility with a more full spirit, and demonstrate the determination and confidence of customs personnel to do a good job in epidemic prevention and control at ports and promote foreign trade growth.”
■Coordination: Xin Kuaibao reporter Huang Wenyu
■Compilation: Xin Kuaibao reporter Mai Wanshi Wang Juan
■Photography: Xin Kuaibao reporter Xia Shiyan