In May, Zhang's team and professor Zhang Zheng's team from Shenzhen Third People's Hospital in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, reported their successful isolation of 206 monoclonal antibodies from eight COVID-19 patients in the science journal Nature. They had isolated several potent neutralizing monoclonal antibodies from recovered patients, providing candidates for antibody-based prophylactic and therapeutic interventions against COVID-19.

"Professor Zhang Linqi urged us to be careful when doing the experiment because we didn't know the transmissibility and the route of transmission of the virus then," Shan says.

Shan says the team members are young. Some are around 20 years old. "They are smart and diligent, and have more creativity. They come up with many novel ideas and are bold to ask questions," Shan says.

Yang Ziqing, 23, a doctoral student on the team, says: "When I first entered the lab two years ago, I didn't know what to do. Shan basically taught me how to work in the lab."

Yang says their work in the lab usually lasts from 9 am to 11 pm. "Shan takes me to the field on campus to run a few laps to release pressure."