Dejean, de The and Chen Zhu Win $1.2 Million Shaw Prize for Leukaemia Therapy Breakthrough
Updated
Updated · The Star Online · May 29
Dejean, de The and Chen Zhu Win $1.2 Million Shaw Prize for Leukaemia Therapy Breakthrough
1 articles · Updated · The Star Online · May 29
Three scientists from France and mainland China will share the Shaw Prize’s $1.2 million life sciences and medicine award for work that made acute promyelocytic leukaemia widely curable.
Their research uncovered the cancer’s molecular and cellular basis, identified a key genetic mutation and led to a targeted retinoic acid-and-arsenic treatment that replaced traditional chemotherapy.
The therapy reversed a disease that once could kill three in four patients, with discoveries built progressively from the 1980s onward.
Hong Kong’s Shaw Prize, founded in 2004 and often called the “Nobel Prize of the East,” also honored Ken’ichi Nomoto, Stanford Woosley, Emmanuel Candes and Camillo De Lellis in this year’s other categories.
Arsenic is a notorious poison. How did scientists turn it into a precision 'magic bullet' that now cures a deadly blood cancer?
This arsenic therapy has a 90% cure rate for one leukemia. Why can't this 'magic bullet' be used to treat other cancers?
The 2026 Shaw Prize: How Targeted Therapy Achieved a 98% Cure Rate in Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia
Overview
In May 2026, the Shaw Prize—established by a Hong Kong media tycoon and now in its twenty-third year—continued its tradition of honoring groundbreaking research that profoundly reshapes human knowledge and well-being. Having already recognized over 60 individuals for contributions that altered the course of history, the Prize covers fields such as astronomy, life science, medicine, and mathematics. This year’s announcement also introduced a new Computer Science Prize, with its first award set for 2027, highlighting the Prize’s ongoing commitment to celebrating transformative achievements across an expanding range of scientific disciplines.