A SHENZHEN University research team led by a U.S. scientist has become Shenzhen’s only team to be included in China’s “1,000 Talents Plan,” Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported yesterday.

    The team, led by Dennis A. Carson, aims to establish a new therapy that attacks cancer stem cells.

    China initiated the Recruitment Program of Global Experts, known as the “1,000 Talents Plan,” at the end of 2008, under which it hopes to bring top talent from overseas to China in five to 10 years.

    Carson, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Institute of Medicine, is the inventor of Cladribine, also known as Leustatin, a drug used to treat a type of leukemia. Cladribine is the only drug that can cure a cancer within a week, according to the Daily.

    Carson also holds more than 80 U.S. patents, according to the paper. He became the dean and a distinguished professor at the Shenzhen University Cancer Research Center in 2013.

    According to Lu Desheng, a professor with the Shenzhen University Medical School and a member of the team led by Carson, cancer stem cells are capable of copying themselves and resist conventional chemical therapy.

    His team now aims to find molecular markers that are unique to cancer stem cells. These markers, once identified, will become targets for the new therapy, Lu said.

    Carson’s team will focus on common digestive system cancers that have high mortality rates. Digestive system cancers account for more than half of cancer cases in adults.

    If their research succeeds, Lu said, they will begin clinical trials for two cancer drugs and a vaccine.

    (Lin Min)