As a physician-scientist, Prof Bin Cao is a leader of respiratory medicine in China and worldwide. Prof Cao’s research focused on respiratory infections, especially emerging respiratory viruses. He established the first nationwide pneumonia research network in China (CAP-China) and first revealed that viral pneumonia accounts for 39.2% of adult hospitalized pneumonia cases in China. He was the first in the world to reveal the clinical characteristics of COVID-19, providing valuable references for global physicians. He established internationally recognized indicators for evaluating the efficacy of interventions in viral pneumonia: the “7-level scale” and “11 core symptoms” endpoint indicators, addressing the global issue of the lack of standardized evaluation criteria for antiviral drug efficacy. Prof Cao led the first COVID-19 clinical trial in the world and confirmed that the treatment of COVID-19 with lopinavir/ritonavir was ineffective, avoiding rewriting the global COVID-19 guidelines. His research confirmed the clinical efficacy of the simnotrelvir in treating COVID-19, providing globally affordable antiviral medications for COVID-19. He pioneered the original concept of “Respiratory Viral Sepsis”, which extended the theory of sepsis. He discovered four recovery patterns of long COVID biological processes, providing targets for early identification and intervention of long COVID.

Prof Cao has published over 220 original peer reviewed articles and reviews, including 11 landmark original research articles in top journals such as Lancet, NEJM and Nat Med, with over 140,000 citations (Google Scholar). He was also elected as “Highly Cited Chinese Researchers” by Elsevier for seven consecutive years. He has also led or contributed to the development of 11 national guidelines or consensus documents and edited 7 authoritative medical monographs.