Xinhua News Agency, Hangzhou, January 8th Title: Solving the "World Problem" of Infectious Diseases with "China Plan": Academician Couple Behind the Special Prize for Progress of National Science and Technology Award
Xinhua News Agency reporters Zhu Han and Hu Zhe
At the 2017 National Science and Technology Awards Conference held on the 8th, Li Lanjuan, an academician of China Academy of Engineering, took the stage on behalf of 11 units to receive the certificate of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. Under the stage, Zheng Shusen, an academician of China Academy of Engineering, applauded his wife with a positive smile.
One is the project leader and the other is one of the main completers. The academician and his wife participated in the project "A major innovation and technological breakthrough in the prevention and control system of emerging infectious diseases represented by H7N9 avian influenza", which solved the "world problem" of infectious diseases with the "China Plan".
Academician couples take the lead in eating chicken and fighting side by side to lead the prevention and treatment of new infectious diseases.
In the spring of 2013, it coincided with the tenth year of SARS epidemic elimination. In the Yangtze River Delta region of China, respiratory infectious diseases of unknown causes suddenly broke out, and the patients were in a dangerous condition, with a mortality rate of over 30%. Just when people "smell chicken" because of bird flu, a video of a female academician eating chicken herself in front of media cameras to show safety spread all over the Internet.
The female academician is Li Lanjuan. She answered the public’s doubts at the first time with professional knowledge and scientific methods, and stabilized people’s hearts at a critical moment to fight the threat of infectious diseases.
At that time, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou admitted many patients, and the State Key Laboratory of Infectious Diseases Diagnosis and Treatment of Zhejiang University was urgently deploying prevention and treatment research.
Zheng Shusen was then the president of the First Hospital of Zhejiang University, and Li Lanjuan was the director of the State Key Laboratory of Infectious Diseases Diagnosis and Treatment of Zhejiang University. "When the epidemic was the most urgent, a ward in the First Hospital of Zhejiang University admitted forty or fifty patients." Li Lanjuan said.
At present, Zheng Shusen dispatches the medical team of the whole hospital to fight alongside Li Lanjuan, organizes case discussions of difficult and critical patients every day, and takes command in the town together, struggling day and night to fight the epidemic. Within five days, the team confirmed the new H7N9 virus and announced the gene sequence to the world. Two days later, the research team successfully developed the detection reagent, which was promoted to 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China three days later, to neighboring countries five days later, and to the world health organization seven days later.
Li Lanjuan said, if you know the sequence of the virus gene, you will know how to treat the symptoms, what drugs to use and how to treat the symptoms. On this basis, the team created a treatment strategy of "four resistances and two balances", which significantly reduced the mortality rate of patients.
A series of major innovations and technological breakthroughs in the prevention and treatment of H7N9 avian influenza have also been highly praised by the international community. The World Health Organization commented in its Joint Investigation Report on the Prevention and Control of Human Infection with H7N9 Avian Influenza: "The risk assessment and evidence-based response to the H7N9 avian influenza epidemic in China can serve as a model for emergency response to similar incidents in the future."
Only after breakfast can we meet once a day: saving lives is a common ideal.
Speaking of Li Lanjuan and Zheng Shusen, the academician couple, others’ evaluation is: medical madman. It is common to arrive at the hospital on time at 8 o’clock every morning and go home at one or two o’clock in the middle of the night. Often, one is operating on the stage and the other is discussing problems in the laboratory. Although they are in the same hospital, breakfast is the only meal they have together in a day.
They seldom discuss family trifles, but more talk about patients and work. Their main research fields are related, one inside and one outside, which can be said to be the upstream and downstream of a chain. When she meets patients with liver failure who can’t be treated by the artificial liver technology she pioneered, she will introduce the patients to Zheng Shusen and ask him to consider liver transplantation. When Zheng Shusen treats some patients with severe liver diseases, she will also suggest patients to try artificial liver treatment according to their illness and find a more reasonable and symptomatic treatment plan.
This similar "enthusiasm" for work also comes from the similar experiences of Li Lanjuan and Zheng Shusen in their early years: they both had the career of "barefoot doctors" who went door to door. Zheng Shusen said that without that experience, they wouldn’t have realized how poor the medical conditions were in the countryside at that time. When they were lucky enough to step into the door of medical university, they all secretly made up their minds to be good doctors.
"Everything is for the patient, and our goal is always the same. Therefore, they all try their best to save patients and reduce the mortality rate of patients from different angles and different aspects. " Li Lanjuan said.
Being praised but not satisfied: initiating the study of human microecology
One is a leading figure in the field of infectious diseases, and the other is a pioneer in the joint transplantation of multiple organs. Li Lanjuan and Zheng Shusen, a couple of academicians, have worked together for decades to overcome one scientific problem after another. An innovative team for comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of end-stage liver disease, led by Zheng Shusen and Li Lanjuan, has been formed. This innovative team was naturally formed in the process of overcoming end-stage liver disease, including interdisciplinary talents in clinical and basic, surgical and internal medicine.
Since the 1990s, the team has made many breakthroughs in the field of liver disease treatment, and began to study the relationship between intestinal flora and the development of liver disease. The latest results confirmed the previous conjecture of Li Lanjuan and Zheng Shusen.
"The number of beneficial bacteria in the intestines of normal people exceeds that of harmful bacteria, while the number of patients with severe hepatitis is the opposite, that is, if ‘ Bad bacteria ’ Much more than ‘ Good bacteria ’ , it may be fatal to the liver. " Li Lanjuan said.
Led by Li Lanjuan, the team made a new breakthrough in the research on the pathogenesis of end-stage liver disease, and found for the first time that intestinal microecological disorder is closely related to the occurrence and development of severe liver disease, and took the lead in revealing the change law of intestinal microecological metagenome of liver disease.
Li Lanjuan focuses on the research of intestinal microecology, and Zheng Shusen also applies microecological techniques and concepts in liver transplantation. They give each other scientific inspiration and achieve each other. In just 20 years, their research has made China’s microecological research run from follow to lead. In March 2015, Li Lanjuan became the president of the International Microecology Alliance, which was the first time that Chinese and even Asians were elected as the president in this field.