This year is the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in the health system of Shanghai, there are a large number of experts and famous doctors who have grown up in the embrace of the motherland, they love the medical cause of the motherland, care for patients, study medicine assiduously, and make outstanding contributions to the medical cause of the motherland.
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, in accordance with the relevant spirit of the National Health Commission and the Shanghai Municipality's implementation of the "Carry Forward the Spirit of Patriotic Struggle and Build a New Era of Meritorious Service", jointly launched a large-scale essay collection activity of "Famous Doctors and the Republic Grow Together" with Wen Wei Po. This activity has won wide support from all walks of life, there are many contributions, this newspaper selected excellent works to publish, I hope that the growth experience of these famous doctors in the republic, patriotic struggle stories become a model for the majority of young doctors to learn, and encourage the majority of medical personnel to make contributions to a new era.
In September last year, at the 10th Congress of the Shanghai Association for Science and Technology, Professor Chen Saijuan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Ruijin Hospital, was elected as the new chairman of the Shanghai Association for Science and Technology. She became the third female president of the Shanghai Association for Science and Technology.
Chen Saijuan was born in 1951 in a Shikumen Lane on Taicang Road in Shanghai's Luwan District. She was once an ordinary textile worker and later entered the Shanghai Second Medical College.
In October 1978, the national recruitment system for graduate students was restored, and Chen Saijuan stood out from the fierce competition and studied under the famous hematologist Wang Zhenyi with the second place in the overall score. Later, she learned that the so-called "second place" was the last one, because Professor Wang, who has always been strict, only recruited two graduate students, and the other graduate student was Chen Zhu. Later, she and Chen Zhu became a well-known pair of academicians in the academic circles, and created a good story of the third academician of shimen.
Chen Saijuan and Chen Zhu did experiments together
Rise to the occasion and forge a fearless heart
In 1989, Chen Saijuan and Chen Zhu returned from their doctoral studies in France. At that time, their teacher, Professor Wang Zhenyi, then director of the Institute of Hematology, made a clinical breakthrough in the treatment of apl with all-trans tretinoin, and the patient's remission rate was significantly improved. This landmark treatment is the first clinical demonstration that tumor cells are reversible.
Dangerous tumors can get better with vitamin A derivatives, and sensational effects can be imagined. In the face of the ensuing honors, the team maintained an unusually clear mind. "All-trans retinoids have a good clinical effect, but the mechanism of action is not clear." Chen Saijuan and Chen Zhu began to study the pathogenesis of leukemia from the molecular mechanism level along the teacher's clinical findings.
In 1991, Chen Saijuan's research group first discovered the apl variant chromosome translocation t(11;17)(q23;q21) internationally, and then cloned the plzf gene and the plzf-rar fusion gene of chromosome 11, achieving a breakthrough of zero in the field of human pathogenic new gene cloning in China. This means that scientists have cracked the pathogenesis of APL from the genetic level, which lays the foundation for the search for targeted therapies.
Since the 1990s, Chen Saijuan's team has always maintained a world-leading level in her professional field, especially the team pioneered the synergistic targeting scheme of all-trans retinoic acid atra and arsenic trioxide treatment apl, so that the five-year recurrence-free survival rate of apl reached more than 90%.
All-trans tretinoin is a derivative of vitamin A, there is no side effect of chemotherapy, arsenic trioxide is often called "arsenic cream". Chen Saijuan said that arsenic trioxide was originally a traditional Chinese medicine that "attacked poison with poison", the price is not expensive, and the treatment method of combining two drugs not only obtains a good curative effect, but also reduces the economic pressure of patients.
This treatment is called the "Shanghai Plan" by peers, and today, the "Shanghai Plan" has been widely used in many hematology/oncology centers around the world, saving the lives of thousands of leukemia patients at home and abroad. At present, APL patients around the world have greatly benefited from the "Shanghai Program" pioneered by the Shanghai Institute of Hematology, and patients from the United States, Japan and other countries often fly to China for treatment in Ruijin Hospital. In Japan alone, in 2012, more than 80 percent of APL patients were cured by a program based on the "Shanghai Plan," saving nearly a billion yen a year in national health care costs.
The "Shanghai Plan" allowed Chen Saijuan's team to stand at the peak of the scientific research community in the same field, and Chen Saijuan also won various international and domestic honors, and in 2003, Chen Saijuan was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Indomitable scientific research "resilience"
Chen Saijuan's French mentor jokingly said to people: "I can't directly call her Marie Curie, but she is a very resilient woman." It is this indomitable scientific research "resilience" that pushes Chen Saijuan and Ruijin Blood People to constantly "nibble" the most difficult diseases and topics.
When Chen Saijuan and Chen Zhu returned from France in 1989 and entered the blood research institute that had just been established for two years, the conditions were very difficult. No laboratory, no basic equipment for molecular experiments, moving a large ice cube in the summer to cool down... There is a small, humble building behind the outpatient clinic of Ruijin Hospital, where their laboratory used to be. In the face of the difficult scientific research environment, this group of Chinese blood disease researchers did not flinch, starting from making crushed ice, firing distilled water, cleaning test tubes and other work, and began to create a molecular biology laboratory.
From there, the internationally renowned laboratory began to study the APL mechanism and gradually expanded to more diseases. Within a few years, they made it impossible for the world hematology field to ignore this "Shanghai group".
The doctor's original intention is to eliminate the suffering of the patient
Chen Saijuan said she can't forget the picture she saw when she was a resident: "Many young patients entered the ward by themselves when they were admitted to the hospital, but after a few weeks of chemotherapy, they were carried out horizontally. ”
Chen Saijuan firmly remembered in her heart a passage that academician Wang Zhenyi had said to their husband and wife: It is difficult to be rated as an academician, and it is even more difficult to maintain the honor of academician. Although this "hat" is lifelong, it does not mean that your contribution to the country is lifelong, and it does not mean that people's praise for you is lifelong. Scientific research cannot be slackened, and every task must be done with the best efforts...
Author: Tang Wenjia, Li Dong Editor: Jin Wanxia Responsible Editor: Tang Wenjia