On the morning of March 30, 2012, the 2011 Shanghai Science and Technology Awards Conference was held at the Friendship Hall of Shanghai Exhibition Center. Yu Zhengsheng, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, delivered a speech. The meeting was presided over by Han Zheng, deputy secretary of the municipal party committee and mayor of the People's Republic of China. Vice Mayor Xiaoming Shen announced the award. The "Atrial Fibrillation Mechanism" project led by Professor Chen Yihan in our school won the first prize of 2011 Shanghai Natural Science Award. Professor Peng Luying and Li Li, associate professor in our institute, also completed the award. This is the first Shanghai Medical Science Prize in this year's Shanghai Medical Science Award. In 2004 and 2005, Prof. Chen Yihan and others professors once won the First Prize of Natural Science Prize of the Ministry of Education and the Second Prize of National Natural Science Prize. It’s the third time that Prof. Chen Yihan won the prize for our university.

Atrial fibrillation is a rapid arousal disorder and ineffective atrial contraction, is the most common clinical arrhythmias. The prevalence rate is 2.3% over the age of 40 and 6% above the age of 65. There are about 10 million patients with atrial fibrillation in China and tens of millions of patients worldwide. Atrial fibrillation can lead to stroke. One out of five people in the stroke is caused by stroke, and one third of the stroke in the elderly population is caused by this. Atrial fibrillation can also cause heart failure. In the history of more than a century of long atrial fibrillation mechanism studies, a variety of theories have been born. However, none of these theories systematically explain atrial fibrillation. To date, atrial fibrillation remains one of "two unidentified icebergs" in the field of heart disease. According to media reports, the project led by Prof. Chen Yihan revealed in some directions the electrical and molecular origins of atrial fibrillation. They found in the study that the increase of potassium channel current KCNQ1-KCNE2 in human heart background can lead to the occurrence of human atrial fibrillation. The enhancement of IK1 in the inward rectifier potassium channel in human heart can activate or maintain human atrial fibrillation, Shortening is a potential electrophysiological basis of atrial fibrillation. The effective refractory period of vena cava sleeve is the underlying electrophysiological basis. M2-type cholinergic receptors are associated with the occurrence of atrial fibrillation. The vestibule of the pulmonary veins and the posterior wall of the left atrium are rich M2 cholinergic receptors may be related to the occurrence of neurogenic atrial fibrillation. The study also revealed that KCNQ1 molecular defects are associated not only with the initiation of atrial fibrillation but also with atrioventricular block associated with atrial fibrillation. The research work is widely quoted and evaluated by "Nature" and other publications, and is considered as an important finding in the field of atrial fibrillation and arrhythmia in the world. The scientific discoveries covered by this award were included in more than 20 foreign textbooks or monographs and also introduced into international guidelines on treatment. Multiple hereditary atrial fibrillation findings from this award-winning program were included in the new genetic classification of atrial fibrillation.

The project's past work and current contribution have laid China's important position in the field of arrhythmias and marked the Chinese scientist's recognition as one of the major contributors to molecular genetics of arrhythmia and a major contributor to molecular genetics of atrial fibrillation one.