A RESEARCHER who made a breakthrough in the study of leukemia was honored by the city government with the highest award at the Shanghai Science and Technology Awards yesterday.

Chen Saijuan, from Ruijin Hospital, was the leader of a team which decoded leukemia mechanism through genetic screening technology and discovered a series of new molecular targets for leukemia diagnosis and treatment, including a new therapy for acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), which can now be cured.

Chen and her colleagues began to treat APL with a combination of traditional Chinese medicine — arsenic and all-trans retinoic acid — the acid form of vitamin A and proved the effects through molecular mechanism.