健康研究全球论坛> 重大健康新闻
访谈
中国神经学家“脚踏两只船”
中国已开始鼓励顶级前爱国科学家回国。从美国带回100万美元设备的肖传国就是首批回国人员中的一位。而他仍然保持在西方的职务。
作者：高洁（2005年3月5日）
中国武汉：现任同济医学院泌尿研究所主任的肖传国，其职业生涯始于一场灾难。
1976年7月28日3时42分，一场7.8级地震袭击了沉睡中的华北唐山市。肖作为一名刚从湖北医学院毕业的年轻医生参加了唐山地震营救工作。他目击了许多地震幸存者脊髓损伤而截瘫后陷入不能排尿的痛苦中。此事给肖留下了难以忘怀的记忆，激励他解决这个问题。
他先后移居英美两国，在动物实验中研究了这个问题，展示了建立人工-自主反射弧的潜力，病人有可能通过搔抓皮肤而排尿。
后来，肖从到美国访问的中国泌尿专家们那里听说很多中国矿工在矿山事故中截瘫。他开始意识到要回国。
1995年，在非常有限的条件下，肖开始在平顶山矿为截瘫矿工做手术。他们成功了，并且到现在为止，超过170名各行各业的病人在接受肖的神经再生手术后，重新获得了膀胱控制能力，
肖的手术连接人工与自主神经系统，可能具有深远的生物和临床意义。
1997年，肖正式回到中国。时任卫生部长的陈敏章邀请他回国，提供了50万元人民币（合62500美元）做为研究启动资金。经美国国立卫生研究院批准，他用一个集装箱运回了价值100万美元的完整实验室，并且自己付了运费。
受聘为同济医学院泌尿系教授和主任后，他被医学院鼓励同时在国外任职。这样，肖就继续在纽约大学医学院泌尿和神经外科担任首席科学家。
这个允许海外科学家同时“脚踏两只船”（中国习语）的政策，使得肖能够保持他在国际研究中的地位。他频繁来回旅行，在中美两国都是个广受欢迎的研究人员和外科医生。
肖告诉RealHealthNews：中国的研究设施与美国相比仍然简陋。但肖最终实现了利用自己的知识为他的国家作贡献的梦想。而且，在象他这样的科学家的帮助下，中国的科研正迅速发展。
原文：
http://www.globalforumhealth.org/realhealthnews/interviews/mar05_chinese%20neurologist.phpGlobal Forum for Health Research> RealHealthNews
RealHealthNews
INTERVIEWS
Chinese neurologist "straddles two boats"
China has begun to encourage top ex-patriot scientists to come home. Bringing US$1 million of equipment with him from the US, Chuanguo Xiao was one of the first. But he keeps a post in the West.
by Jie Gao (March 05)
WUHAN, CHINA : The career of Chuanguo Xiao, now Director of the Institute of Urology at Tongji Medical College , Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, was made in a disaster.
At 3:42 am on July 28, 1976, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the sleeping city of Tangshan, in northeastern China. As a young doctor who just graduated from Hubei Medical College, Xiao participated in the Tangshan earthquake rescue work. And he witnessed many earthquake survivors, paraplegic after spinal cord injury and in agony at being unable to micturate (pass urine). This incident left Xiao with unforgettable memories - which motivated him to solve the problem.
Moving to the UK and then the US, he worked on the problem in animal experiments, and showed the potential to create a somatic-autonomic reflex arc, so patients might be able to micturate by scratching.
Then Xiao heard from Chinese urology experts visiting the US about the many Chinese miners left paraplegic by the frequent mine accidents in China. He began to feel the call to come home.
In 1995, in very restricted conditions, Xiao began operations on paraplegic miners at the Pingding Mountain Mine. They succeeded, and by now over 170 patients in all walks of life have regained bladder control after receiving Xiao’s nerve regeneration surgery.
Xiao’s surgery connects the somatic and autonomic nervous systems, and may have broad biological and clinical significance.
Xiao formally returned to China in 1997. Mingzhang Chen, then Minister of Health, invited him back, offering RMB 500 000 (US$ 62 500) as a research start-up fund. And with the approval of the US National Institutes of Health, he also took along with him his complete laboratory, worth US$1 million, in a shipping container - and paid the shipment fee himself.
Appointed Professor and Chairman of the Urology Department Tongji Medical College, he was encouraged by the College to take concurrent posts abroad. So Xiao has continued to serve as a Principal Investigator at the Departments of Urology and Neurosurgery of the New York University School of Medicine.
This policy, allowing expatriate scientists to “straddle two boats at the same time” (in the Chinese idiom) helps Xiao retain his place in international research. He travels back and forth frequently, and is a sought-after researcher and surgeon in both countries.
Compared with research facilities in the US, those in China are still inferior, Xiao told RealHealthNews. But Xiao has finally realized his dream of using his own knowledge to make contributions to his country – and with the help of scientists like him Chinese research is improving fast.