First Place Award
Heterologous prime-boost: breaking the protective immune response bottleneck of COVID-19 vaccine candidates
Qian He, Qunying Mao, Chaoqiang An, Jialu Zhang, Fan Gao, Lianlian Bian, Changgui Li, Zhenglun Liang, Miao Xu & Junzhi Wang
EMI comments: This is the most read EMI in 2021 due to its finding that heterologous prime-boost is a high effective approach to enhance the protective immune responses against SARS-CoV-2. This finding has been supported by many subsequent reports using the same approach in humans or using different specific COVID-19 vaccines.
Second Place Award
Emergence and spread of novel H5N8, H5N5 and H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4 highly pathogenic avian influenza in 2020
Nicola S. Lewis, Ashley C. Banyard, Elliot Whittard, Talgat Karibayev, Thamer Al Kafagi, Ilya Chvala, Alex Byrne, Saduakassova Meruyert (Akberovna), Jacqueline King, Timm Harder, Christian Grund, Steve Essen, Scott M. Reid, Adam Brouwer, Nikolay G. Zinyakov, Azimkhan Tegzhanov, Victor Irza, Anne Pohlmann, Martin Beer, Ron A. M. Fouchier, Sultanov Akhmetzhan (Akievich) & Ian H. Brown
EMI comments: The rapid and wide spread of H5 influenza viruses is a major concern of emerging infections. This report analyzed the highly pathogenic strain H5Nx clade 2.3.4.4. Heterogeneity in Eurasian of this avian influenza threatens poultry production, food security and veterinary public health.
Third Place Award – A
Genotype I African swine fever viruses emerged in domestic pigs in China and caused chronic infection
Encheng Sun, Lianyu Huang, Xianfeng Zhang, Jiwen Zhang, Dongdong Shen, Zhenjiang Zhang, Zilong Wang, Hong Huo, Wenqing Wang, Haoyue Huangfu, Wan Wang, Fang Li, Renqiang Liu, Jianhong Sun, Zhijun Tian, Wei Xia, Yuntao Guan, Xijun He, Yuanmao Zhu, Dongming Zhao & Zhigao Bu
EMI comments: The authors reported identification of Genotype I African Swine Fever Viruses (ASFV) in China while Genotype II ASFV with high virulence has been prevalent in China since 2018. This finding raised serious challenges for the control and prevention of AFSV in China and beyond.
Third Place Award – B
Trained immunity contributes to the prevention of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, a novel role of autophagy
Jie Zhou, Jingzhu Lv, Chelsea Carlson, Hui Liu, Hongtao Wang, Tao Xu, Fengjiao Wu, Chuanwang Song, Xiaojing Wang, Ting Wang & Zhongqing Qian
EMI comments: This review summarized general characteristics of enhanced innate immunity (under the name o trained immunity) in controlling TB and roles of autophagy in this process.
