Chen Wei (medical scientist)


Chen Wei is a Chinese epidemiologist and currently researcher and doctoral supervisor at the Academy of Military Medical Sciences.

Biography

Chen was born in Lanxi, Zhejiang in 1966. She received bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the Zhejiang University in 1988. She obtained a master's degree at Tsinghua University in 1991. She attended Academy of Military Medical Sciences where she obtained her doctor's degree in 1998. She became a faculty member of the academy upon graduation.
In 2013, Chen became a delegate of the People's Liberation Army to the National People's Congress.
On 10 July 2015, she was awarded the military rank of major general by Central Military Commission chairman Xi Jinping.
She was a delegate to the 12th National People's Congress. In January 2018 she became a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

COVID-19 vaccine research

In 2020, Chen led a joint team of the Institute of Biotechnology, the Academy of Military Medical Sciences of the People's Liberation Army and CanSino Biologics. The team registered an experimental COVID-19 vaccine for Phase 1 trial on 17 March 2020 to test its safety. The vaccine was tried on 108 healthy volunteers in Wuhan. In April, the vaccine entered Phase 2 to test its effectiveness on 500 volunteers.

Honours and awards