AWARDEE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES PRIZE

LU DAOPEI

Abstract

Professor Lu Daopei, a hematologist and an expert in bone marrow transplantation (BMT), was born in 1931 in Shanghai. After graduating from Tongji Medical College in 1955, he dedicated his career mainly to clinical and experimental hematology at the Department of Internal Medicine of Peoples Hospital, Beijing Medical University (BMU). He was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1996. The title academician is the highest title in science or the applied sciences. Since 1981, he has served as the director of the Institute of Hematology, BMU. At present, he simultanously acts as a vice president of the Chinese Medical Association, chairman of the Society of Hematological Malignancies, Chinese Anti-Cancer Association and a member of the Advisory Committee of international Bone Marrow Transplantation Registry. In addition, he is also editor in chief, deputy editor in chief or editor for eight domestic medical journals and an editorial member of two international journals.
In his career, Dr Lu has made significant contributions to the development of Chinas hematology. Early in 1964, he was the first in Asia to successfully perform syngeneic BMT to cure severe aplastic anemia. At the end of the Cultural Revolution, he was also the first to achieve sustained engraffment of matched and mismatched allogeneic BMT (1981, 1985). Later he was the first to use peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (1996) to cure leukemia. Simultaneously, he also succeeded in the long-term cure of hereditary agamma-globulinemia with allogeneic BMT (1991) and in performing a mixed transplant with autologous bone marrow plus haploidentical bone marrow to cure leukemia (1994). The success of Dr. Lus transplant cases ranks among the bast in the world, as noted by the six scientific world records recognized in the international yearbook, “Clinical Transplant, 1992 and 1994”. Today, Professor Lu continues to be the leader in the development of BMT in China. The 12 doctors of medical science, 13 master graduates and hundreds of visiting scholars trained by Dr. Lu are now the backbone of BMT throughout China.
Besides his work in BMT, Dr Lu is also a pioneer in hemorrhagic and coagulation disorders, research and treatment of aplastic anemia and leukemia research. In these fields, he has more than seven discoveries, including most recently the discovery that a patient with acute promyelocytic leukemia treated only with realgar may achieve long-term survival (1997). All of his above accomplishments are exemplified by his 207 publications during 1962-1997.
Because of his contributions and achievments, he has received a number of distinctions including the Prize of the National Science Conference on Medicine, Pharmacy and Hygiene (1978), the National Second Prize of Promotion in Science & Technology (1985), and the Chen Jia-gen Prize for Promotion in Medicine & Pharmacy (1997).