As early as when studying in medical school, Futang Zhu became interested in scientific research. When Professor Hao Ci, an American pediatrician who was then a visiting professor at Union Medical College, gave a lecture in China, Futang Zhu was very excited when he heard the importance of children's health care knowledge and prevention and treatment of children's diseases. A few months later, Professor Haoci died of chronic nephritis complicated with heart failure in Beiping. Therefore, Futang Zhu felt that life was too short to work hard.

193 1 ~ 1933, when Futang Zhu was studying at Harvard Medical School, he noticed that about 1/3 of the children died during the measles epidemic in the Portuguese island of Fallot in the Atlantic Ocean, but many women who had suffered from measles were safe and sound. He wants to know whether the antibodies in the mother with measles will be transmitted to the fetus through the placenta. He collected the placenta of healthy parturient, prepared the placenta leachate with 2% physiological saline, and precipitated it with different concentrations of magnesium sulfate solution to obtain two different globulins, namely euglobulin and pseudoglobulin. The latter is globulin containing antibodies when dissolved in physiological saline. He experimented with rabbits and proved that the physiological saline solution contained diphtheria antitoxin. He also conducted a "whitening test" in the rash area of patients with scarlet fever, which proved that the solution also contained ingredients of scarlet fever antitoxin. He got the support of Professor Maikang, and in the next few days, he studied sleepless nights. Every one or two days, he personally took the disinfection bucket and sent it to Harvard Maternity Hospital on the same street as the children's hospital where he worked, so that they could leave the placenta of healthy women and bring it back to extract pseudoglobulin. After repeated experiments and research, it finally succeeded, and a large amount of placental globulin was produced. After intramuscular injection in the early incubation period, it was observed that these children were passively immunized or their symptoms were relieved, and they would not be complicated with pneumonia and be life-threatening. Futang Zhu wrote a paper about the experimental results and sent it to American Journal of Pediatric Diseases and Journal of Infectious Diseases. The paper has not yet been published. After hearing the news, the reporter of Time magazine immediately went to interview and praised the research results as "the gospel of children". After Futang Zhu returned to China, placental globulin was widely used in measles contacts in the latent period and achieved good results. 1956, Futang Zhu represented China in the 8th International Pediatric Society. A.Karaitz, a famous American pediatrician, introduced him to the participants and said: This is Professor Futang Zhu who invented placental globulin. Xie Shaowen, an immunologist in China, said that preventing measles with placental globulin is a great discovery of applied immunology.

In the early 1960s, live attenuated measles vaccine developed rapidly all over the world, and researchers in China successively carried out vaccine, clinical application and epidemiological observation. Futang Zhu also participated in clinical research. Together with the national virus, biological products and child health care workers, he was vaccinated in nurseries, kindergartens and primary schools with China's self-made vaccine. The clinical response, immune function and epidemiological effect were observed and summarized. 1964 at the international scientific seminar held in Beijing, he gave an academic report entitled "Measles research in artificial active immunization" on behalf of seven research institutes. During the period of 1965, when he joined the rural medical team to work in Shunyi County, a suburb of Beijing, he strongly advocated vaccinating rural children with live attenuated measles vaccine. The following spring, measles was no longer prevalent in this area. Since then, the attenuated live vaccine has been extended to all parts of the country, and the incidence of measles has dropped significantly, and the mortality rate has been controlled.