The fifteenth “challenge cup”, the national extracurricular academic and scientific competition for college students, was held in Shanghai University from 14 to 19 November, 2017. More than 600 thousand scientific and technological innovation projects were enrolled and more than two thousands universities participated the “challenge cup”. Due to the outstanding work on the project ‘Develop a Highly Water Soluble Nucleolin Aptamer Paclitaxel Conjugate with a Cathepsin Labile Linker for Tumor Specific Targeting in breast Cancer’, Mr. LU Jun from Law Sau Fai Institute for Advancing Translational Medicine in Bone & Joint Disease (TMBJ) won the first prize at the National Final Competition. He indicated the prepared conjugate contained a cathepsin labile linker that linked paclitaxel (PTX) to nucleolin aptamer (NucA). This conjugate exhibited great water solubility, homogeneity and storage stability. The NucA modification facilitated the selective accumulation of the conjugated PTX in tumor tissue, and subsequently resulting in notably improved antitumor activity and reduced toxicity. This work establishes an innovative technology platform for aptamer-drug conjugate (ApDC) development.