PREFACE

First of all, I would like to introduce the predecessor of 'Virologica Sinica (to be published in English) and its history of development. I was honored to participate in it. ' Acta Virologica Sinica' (in Chinese with English abstract), which was first published in 1980, was the first virological journal issued in China. The editor in chief was Prof. Dr. Shangyin Gao (1909-1989), who was a famous virologist. He was the director

First of all, I would like to introduce the predecessor of ＂Virologica Sinica＂ （to be published in English） and its history of development. I was honored to participate in it. ＂Acta Virologica Sinica＂ （in Chinese with English abstract）, which was first published in 1980, was the first virological journal issued in China. The editor in chief was Prof. Dr. Shangyin Gao （1909-1989）, who was a famous virologist. He was the director of Wuhan Institute of Virology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the head of the Department of Virology of Wuhan University, and Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences. I was honored to be invited as a member of the editorial board. In 1986, ＂Virologica Sinica＂ was renamed of＂Acta Virologica Sinica＂, subsequently in 1991, the Chinese title of ＂Virologica Sinica＂ was named to ＂Zhong Guo Bing Du Xue＇. I was engaged as the honored editor in chief of the journal. The achievements of virology has greatly advanced life science both in the basic research of molecular biology and in the application within biotechnology. Virology is still now an extremely active and important research field. The discovery of nosogeneSis of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and creutzfeldt-Jacob disease induced by conformational changes ofprion protein has led to the development in studying a series of conformational diseases closely related to nervous pathologic changes. With the modernization of human society and changes in the environmental conditions as well as evolution of virus pathogenesis, emerging viruses have appeared at times and have become the new area in virus studies.