When the COVID-19 epidemic broke out, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences quickly set up a special team to develop a vaccine against it.

Over 20 Communist Party of China members from the academy volunteered to take part in the research. "We are very proud to be a part of the vaccine development," said Xie Zhongping, deputy director of the Institute of Medical Biology with the academy.

Li Qihan, director of the institute, has designed a number of research plans along with the team members and assigned them various tasks, such as testing the potency of the vaccine and maintaining the laboratory equipment.

For over two months, the researchers have been working at top speed at the biosafety laboratory, the main battlefield of the project, where they take risks and study the virus closely each day.

The heavy protective clothing and the negative pressure in the laboratory make it difficult for the researchers to work for long periods of time. Normally, they work for three hours before taking a break.

But with over 30 years of vaccine research experience, Xie usually spends at least five hours in the laboratory at a time. "I want to make full use of the protective clothing and race against the epidemic and develop the vaccine as soon as possible," Xie said.

When they complete their experiments at night, Xie and the other team members will also summarize the results for the day. "We are trying to speed up, but we will never compromise on the standards," he said.