In collaboration with Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry and Shanghai Institute of Hematology, Professor Zihe Rao’s research group developed a wide-spectrum inhibitor using a structure-based drug design strategy and resolved the 3D structure of an inhibitor-targeting protein complex with X-ray crystallography. Low cell toxicity of this inhibitor makes it possible to obtain potential lead compounds for clinical trial. 

This work was published on PLoS Biol (2005 ,3(10):e324). Nature, in an article entitled “Virology: Crowning Achievement” in its Research Highlights section, evaluated this piece of research work very highly. In view of the international influence of results obtained by Prof. Rao’s laboratory in SARS research, Current Opinion in Structural Biology and Current Pharmaceutical Design separately invited academician Rao to write review articles on SARS protein structure, function and drug design.