1995, Song, just graduated from the Medical College of Sun Yat-sen University, and worked in general surgery in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. Later, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the transplantation laboratory of the Medical College of Eisen University in Germany to study the mechanism of chronic rejection of organ transplantation. In 2002, Song was admitted to CBR Biomedical Research Institute of Harvard Medical School (formerly Blood Research Center of Harvard Medical School) to pursue postdoctoral studies. Under the guidance of Professor Judy Lieberman of Harvard University, he is engaged in the clinical application research of RNA interference (RNAi).

The so-called RNA interference technology is to use double-stranded RNA to interact with a substance called messenger RNA in cells that can produce protein, so that the latter can not produce protein to maintain the growth and proliferation of tumors or viruses, thus leading to the death of cancer cells and viruses. This technology has a broad application prospect in the treatment of cancer and AIDS.

For a long time in the past, people always thought that RNAi interference technology could only be applied to in vitro cells such as plants or lower insects. However, in 2003, Professor Song, a lecturer at Harvard University in the United States, successfully applied RNA gene interference technology to mouse fulminant hepatitis model for the first time, which laid the foundation for the application of this technology to human diseases. Because of its very important scientific value, this research achievement was rated as the fourth annual global 10 scientific and technological progress by Science magazine in 2003.

After two years, Professor Song took another big step in RNAi interference technology and successfully solved the problem of introducing RNA interference drugs into cells in vivo. Its advantage lies in that as a kind of gene interference of gene therapy technology, it can only act on cancer cells without interfering with the surrounding normal tissues and cells, and its effect is better than others.

In this study, Professor Song first found a specific cell marker on the surface of AIDS-infected people and cancer cells, which rarely or never appeared on normal cells. This marker on the surface of AIDS-infected cells is called gp 160, while another marker on some breast cancer cells is called HER-2. Clinically, if breast cancer cells are HER-2 or HER-2 positive, it means that the malignant degree of breast cancer is relatively high.