AT a laboratory in Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in Pudong New Area, a molecular diagnosis machine is working. Scientists have put the samples drawn from blood into a thin slide, which is then put into the machine. The machine sequences the DNA and a computer analyzes the data.

Doctors can use it to detect cancer earlier, giving patients a higher chance of survival due to better treatment.

“It is an ideal scenario that with molecular diagnosis technology and its clinical application to big data, in the future, we won’t need doctors,” Xu Cheng, vice president of Shanghai Biotecan Medical Diagnostic Center, tells Shanghai Daily. “When patients go to a hospital, they merely have to do some blood tests or extract little tissue samples. And then run the tests in the computer. It will tell you what the illness is and how to treat it.”

Xu, 36, has dedicated himself to human genome studies and developing molecular diagnosis technology in China. Recently, the young scientist was selected as an excellent talent and awarded a 1-million-yuan (US$159,600) bonus by the district government, an initiative to inspire and motivate talented individuals to stay in Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park.

It is hard to imagine the tall, well-mannered scientist was once a martial arts apprentice at Shaolin Temple.

At the age of six, a national sports training team went to his school seeking potential kung fu athletes. After a series of balance, flexibility and explosive force tests, Xu was selected.

“At the time I thought it would be fun,” he recalls.

The training was arduous. Xu had to run 16 laps around the 400-meter playground everyday. Martial arts moves were not event taught during the first year. They were all basic, repetitive practice — maintaining the horse stance, kicking legs and jogging.

“It was boring. Plus some of the teachers were really tough,” he adds. Yelling and punishing were, he says, fairly common.

It wasn’t until the second year that they started to learn some comprehensive routines. Compared with other children his age, Xu had almost no leisure time. During the daytime he studied and after school he practiced martial arts. He stayed for six years.

“Although it was difficult it was a great experience as it cultivated my character in enduring hardship and being capable of hard work,” he says.

Influenced by his family, which has several doctors, Xu majored in biology at Shandong University and did a master’s degree and PhD at the University of Maryland with full scholarship. After graduation, Xu was hired by Princeton University and then Stanford University, working in the neurology department for five years.

“I studied and worked in America for 13 years, but I never applied for a green card. I always knew I would come back to my country one day and contribute what I have learned,” he says.

In 2012, Xu came to Shanghai. “By then I didn’t have a hukou (permanent residence permit), car, or apartment,” he says. Officials from the hi-tech park then provided him with a flat and solved his hukou problem.

“The district thinks highly of professionals and takes very good care of us,” he says.

The young man from Shandong Province gradually settled down in this city, getting married. He and his wife now have a daughter.

Pursuing his dream

“It is sad when I hear the rich people in China go abroad to do molecular diagnosis tests rather than trusting their own country,” he says. “The clinical databases in Western countries are largely based on white and black people, which is quite different from what we have here. The results can actually not be very accurate.”

He acknowledges that in terms of instruments and equipment, China lags behind, but that the country competes at the highest level when it comes to human resources.

“Once we import the machine here in China, our ability in designing software and analyzing data is very advanced, even better than some Western countries,” he adds.

In 2013, Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie generated headlines around the world when she announced she had a double mastectomy after learning she carries a gene that puts her at high risk of getting breast cancer.

“If a family member has this disease at a similar age, for some diseases, it is highly possible that you might inherit it,” Xu says. “It is important to do a test in advance so that you can prevent and lower the risk in the future.”

And with data from more patients, doctors have a better understanding of which treatments will work best.

Xu and his team have set up 24 diagnostic labs with major hospitals nationwide to establish a medical big data collection network with an annual outpatients number of 37 million.

“Sometimes people die due to inappropriate treatment, not the wrong diagnosis,” he says. “Some medicine doesn’t work for a particular group of people. So if we get more data hopefully it will lead to more efficiency when prescribing and suggesting treatments.”