by <unknown>
Chen Chen explained, "If anyone is willing to help, I can give him second authorship."
"D*mn, that's Lil Chen, the top student for you."
Zhou Jie stopped playing his game and sat up looking shocked. "Where are you going, CSSCI?"
"No, SCI."
"That's King Chen Chen alright. Bravo, bravo!" Li Bo closed his fists together and put on a solemn face.
Zhou Jie did not say anything. He only gave a big thumbs up. His thumb then slowly switched into a middle finger, right in front of Chen Chen's face.
"Coming or not, give me a confirmation."
Chen Chen did not bother playing along with their jests.
"I have to go home for the new year. I'm the only son in the family. If I don't go back for the new year, my dad will skin me alive."
Li Bo quickly gestured. "In order to still be able to see everyone next semester, I shall appoint this momentous task to Nostril!"
"No, I have school phobia. It only acts up during the break."
Right after Zhou Jie had finished his sentence, he suddenly looked like he was in pain. He grabbed his chest and collapsed on the bed. "Oh no, my phobia is acting up now! Oh no, oh no, I have to quickly head back home and enjoy the new year to recover!"
"Tsk, why don't you just admit that you don't think I can pass the draft?" Chen Chen snickered. "Just don't tell me that I didn't invite you guys when the time comes. Hope you don't cry tears of regret!"
"No way, no way!" The two of them shook their heads in unison, a mischievous smile surfaced on the corner of their lips.
Right then, thunderous noises came from the corridor.
"Oh no, it's snowing, take the clothes in!!!"
It was snowing?
The three of them instinctively looked out the window. Just as expected, the gray sky was littered with what seemed like pieces of scrap paper. What else could it be other than snowflakes?
What followed was the sound of stomping footsteps. After a moment, Wang Wei barged in with a loud "rua" as he exclaimed excitedly, "Have you guys seen it? It's snowing outside!"
"Yeah, yeah, we saw it."
Zhou Ji and Li Bo responded without a hint of enthusiasm before collapsing back in bed in the darkness.
"You… What's with the lack of reaction?" Wang Wei was in disbelief.
"Lil Bo and Nostril are from the North."
Chen Chen walked over and wrapped his arm around Wang Wei's neck. "Brother Wei, there's something I need to discuss with you."
"Get to the point. How much do you want to borrow?"
Wang Wei was initially taken aback before he became serious. "I only have five hundred left for this month. Counting out the expenses for food and the ticket back home, I can borrow you two hundred. I really can't do any more than that…"
"It's not about money."
Chen Chen pulled Wang Wei to the corridor. "I met a rich woman in the library today. She's willing to sponsor my stem cell experiment. We even have the laboratory sorted out already. All we need now is an assistant. Brother Wei, based on your exquisite skill set and talents, you're the perfect candidate for an assistant!"
Unexpectedly, Wang Wei's expression became somewhat stern after Chen Chen had finished explaining.
He patted Chen Chen on the shoulder and waited a moment before sighing. "Lil Chen, it's not that I want to judge you. I see how much effort you put into your studies. You might even turn out to be very successful in the future. But you cannot be rash. Are you sure you can handle some sugar mommy out there?"
Wang Wei kept his voice low and continued solemnly. "As if the steel ball wasn't bad enough, I've read online recently about how they even pull out the nails…."
Chen Chen: "…"
When he saw that Chen Chen fell into a deep silence, Wang Wei continued giving his counsel. "What I'm saying here is to give me the name and WeChat ID of that sugar mommy and I'll talk with her. I promise you she won't bother you in the future. Let Brother Wei handle this for you!"
At this point, Wang Wei began ferociously beating his chest, thumping loudly.
Chen Chen: "..."
…
After several minutes of Chen Chen's explanation, the two of them finally had a common understanding.
"I don't mind helping you out this one time, especially since we're going to work in a lab eventually anyway. It can't hurt to get some experience now, but… Why do I have a feeling like I'm being suckered into this?"
Wang Wei scratched his head. Confusion was written on his face. "Hold up, if you're making the sugar mommy the lead author and I'm the second author, then what about you?"
"I'll be the corresponding author."
Chen Chen explained, "This is my experiment after all. I'll be responsible for the reliability experiment. Also, on the topic of intellectual property, the corresponding author takes credit as well, so I won't be taking any losses."
"Alright, then it's settled."
Wang Wei agreed without a second thought. "Then I'll submit an application to stay in school!"
"Submit mine as well!"
Chen Chen quickly took out an application form and passed it to Wang Wei. After that, he headed to the library to pack his books and laptop.
[ol][li data-annotation-id="8649b892-197b-e63a-957e-4786a753d0e8"]In this instance, the author uses a different name for Yasuo, commonly used to mock bad Yasuo players[li data-annotation-id="bd13b484-879c-2588-0620-930f15d760d6"]Steel ball/nails are online slangs used to poke fun at relying on sugar mommy[/ol]
Chapter 18: Final Exam |
Two days later, the freshmen of class grade 20 took the first final exam of their university life.
Unlike high schools, the final exams in universities were usually not very difficult. It was mostly basic questions that were equivalent to giving out free points as most of them depended on the student's understanding of the curriculum.
Other than the extracurricular specialty subjects which were compulsory, students of the Institute of Biological Sciences also had examinations on principle compulsory subjects like Bioethics, Linear Algebra, Inorganic & Analytical Chemistry, Natural Science, Organic Chemistry, Advanced Mathematics, University-level Physics, and Introduction to Biology.
After a barrage of examinations, the students were left dizzy and fatigued. They could not even tell what year it was.
As for Chen Chen, it was not a big deal. While others had to resort to sneaking in tiny cheat sheets, Chen Chen had already devoured dozens of study material. At this point, he could even easily handle the postgraduate entrance examinations. The final exams were just a drop in the bucket for him.
Throughout several rounds of exams, Chen Chen had maintained his record of being the first one to hand in the examination paper. He had established a reputation of a top student in class two of biological sciences.
Besides, many people noticed that the examination papers Chen Chen had submitted were filled out completely. In addition, the invigilators who took the papers always had a surprised look on their faces. It was not an exasperated look either, therefore the error rate must be very low.
Therefore, after yet another round of examinations, Li Bo and Zhou Jie forcibly took Chen Chen back to the hostel to discuss the terms of a secret exchange.
As per Li Bo and Zhou Jie's request, Chen Chen had to let the two of them copy his answers each time he had completed a question. In exchange, the two of them had to be Chen Chen's water boy for the entire next semester.
After signing this unspeakable and unfair agreement, the two of them had mixed emotions every time they looked at Chen Chen. However, when they entered the examination room, that mixture of emotions turned into earnest respect and worship for their personal Messiah.
Amid this mixture of suffering and hope, Li Bo and Zhou Jie vowed to start studying seriously from the next semester onward. They wanted to turn a new leaf by their sophomore year.
After several dark and heavy days of examinations, the new students of Shangdu Jiao Tong University finally ushered
in the first break of their university life. Countless students who left their hometown to further their studies happily embarked on their trip back home.
Activities in the campus slowly died down as well. After Chen Chen and Wang Wei sent Li Bo and Zhou Jie on their way, they set up a meeting location with Xia Yin to prepare for the experiment.
In an empty classroom, Wang Wei looked at a thick bundle of research materials. Chen Chen opened a book that consisted of teaching material on cell biology.
Even though Chen Chen had a nonchalant expression on his face, every page he flipped through was forever imprinted in his mind, never to be forgotten.
After a short moment, light footsteps came from the corridor outside. A girl with long hair down her shoulders appeared by the doorstep.
The girl had a pair of crystal clear eyes. She smiled gently when she saw the two people in the classroom. She radiated fresh, youthful energy unique to a young lady.
"You are…"
When Wang Wei saw a girl entering the class, he quickly got up and asked in bewilderment, "Miss, you must be Xia Yin, right?"
"Hi there, that's me."
Even though she swapped out her thick-framed black glasses with contact lenses and even had makeup on, all these minor details might as well be nonexistent in Chen Chen's mind.
In Chen Chen's mind, even if the lady before him had been stripped naked, it was still "so early".
"What's with the get-up?" Chen Chen pretended to be surprised.
"It's the holidays anyway. It's only right to take some time to put myself together, right?" Xia Yin pretended to be angry. "Do I not look good?"
"Quite pretty, I was expecting some kind of sugar mo… Ahem, ahem!"
Wang Wei seemed to have realized something once he opened his mouth and began to cough violently.
After introducing the two to each other, Chen Chen shifted the topic back to the main subject at hand. "For now, I have planned three categories of the experiment, all related to autologous stem cells."
Arriving at this point, Chen Chen retrieved a thick booklet of printed information from his bag and passed it to Xia Yin. "Stem cells. These are cells in the human body that are capable of infinite self-renewal. Also, it can differentiate into at least one type of progeny cell.
"For example, hematopoietic stem cells can differentiate into red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and others while bone mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into bone cells, chondrocytes, muscle cells, fat cells, and many others.
"Stem cells are always developing in the human body. Our hair and fingernails grow continuously. Every day, old cells are replaced by new cells. The root of all these new cells is the various kinds of stem cells in the human body.
"The first experiment I want to conduct concerns the reparative effect of the neural stem cell on a damaged brain."
Chen Chen went on. "The function of the neural stem cells is as its name implies, it's a class of adult stem cells able to repair neural ends. This is the initial theory of the experiment. After the neural stem cells are injected into the human body, they are able to stimulate the stem cells in the body to automatically secrete cell growth factors – a type of small molecule protein that can promote biological activity, in turn repairing the cranial nerves.
"Stem cells are classified into 'autologous' and 'allogeneic'. As the name suggests, 'autologous' refers to stem cells that originate from your own body. By extracting autologous stem cells and enhancing them via external influences and then reinjecting it into the same body, there will not be any incompatibility issues as it originates from the same body. This is the best option as it negates the possibility of transplant rejection.
"For this experiment, we'll need to create a brain damage model. It's better to use SD rats as opposed to Kunming mice since it's more optimal to work with slightly larger subjects."
Arriving at this point, Chen Chen gradually became more serious. "As for the autologous neural stem cells required for the experiment, I will use two methods to obtain them. One, artificial cultivation. Two, extracting it from a cloned body via cloning method."
"Clone?"
Wang Wei jolted. He raised his head and asked, "You're saying you want to carry out two batches of experiment and compare the neural stem cells to see which one is more effective?"
"Correct, that's exactly it."
Chen Chen snapped his fingers. "Stem cells are always exalted by the outside world, known to be able to infinitely reproduce, immune to aging, and such. But realistically, if stem cells were able to reproduce infinitely, then why do humans still age and die? What I want to figure out is whether there'll be any difference in effectiveness between artificially developed stem cells and new stem cells from a clone. They are both autologous stem cells after all."
"Why not apply an induction method?"
Xia Yin sat in front of Chen Chen and cupped her chin with her palm. "Ultimately, the experiment model is based on humans. Since the goal is to compare the differences between stem cells, wouldn't it be more optimal to use stem cells developed using directional induced differentiation technique?"
"The preparation needed for directional induced differentiation technique is too complex and the cost is high as well."
Chen Chen explained, "Additionally, this technique isn't well developed yet. An induced stem cell has a risk of tumor formation and immunity rejection."
"We can also try to clone other animals such as house rabbits," Wang Wei suggested.
"We can certainly try house rabbits, but you can't forget about the time and cost factor. A pregnancy cycle of a SD rat is about twenty days. A house rabbit will need double that. Just the time factor alone constrains our experiment resources."
"Alright, I didn't think of that." Wang Wei looked sorry.
Chen Chen went on. "For the second experiment, I'll destroy the spinal nerves of several rats. This will render them with high paraplegia without endangering their lives. After that, cultivate the stem cells and see if we can restore the rat's mobility using this method."
"And then, the final experiment. It's also the experiment which I think is the most important…"
Chen Chen's expression was solemn. "The two previous experiments aren't a big deal as they have been done throughout the world. But the third one is different. It has to do with rebuilding the immune system."
Chapter 19: Rebuilding the Immune System |
"Rebuild the immune system?" Wang Wei was dumbfounded.
"Do you know about the most effective clinical treatment for leukemia currently?" Chen Chen asked.
"Uh, never really paid attention. This is probably more in the department of biomedical science." Wang Wei scratched his head.
"Simply put, leukemia is a type of hematopoietic stem cell disease. Due to certain factors, a harmful proliferation phenomenon occurs in the hematopoietic stem cells in the body. It causes a disruption to the regular hematopoietic function of the human body. It shares a similar principle with cancer, therefore it's also known as 'blood cancer'."
Chen Chen continued explaining, "In the current day and age in the medical world, the most effective method for treating leukemia is by pairing bone marrows. This is done by selecting a donor with genetics as close as possible with the patient. The patient will then receive chemotherapy and radiotherapy, effectively killing the hematopoietic stem cell in the bone marrow.
"After that, the donor will be injected with a drug known as a 'mobilizer' to stimulate rapid growth of hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow which is then spread into the blood. Then, the hospital will extract these stem cells and inject them into the patient.
"Since the hematopoietic stem cells previously in the patient have been killed, there's now a niche in the patient's body. The newly injected hematopoietic stem cells will create a reaction known as 'nesting'. The immune system will be rebuilt in one to two months starting from the time of the injection into the patient's bone marrow."
Chen Chen concluded.
"This is known as the bone marrow transplant by using healthy hematopoietic stem cells in the donor to replace the diseased stem cells in the patient's body. In truth, it doesn't refer to the bone marrow despite what the name implies as it's only a transplant of hematopoietic stem cells."
"What does that have to do with your experiment?" Xia Yin quickly asked.
"The third experiment is to select a group of elderly large rats and clone them. After that, extract the hematopoietic stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells from the cloned bodies.
"Just like how leukemia is treated, kill the hematopoietic stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells in this group of rats and replace them with the cloned stem cells."
Chen Chen pondered. "If successful, will these old rats be restored to their youth?"
"Pro… Probably not?" Xia Yin looked surprised.
"Why not?"
The corner of Chen Chen's lips curled up a little. "Mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into hepatocytes, osteoblasts, fat cells, chondrocytes, stromal cells, and many other cells.
"Why does the human body age? It's due to functional decline of human muscles, bones, and internal organs. But why do the functions of human muscles, bones, and internal organs age in the first place? That's because of the aging of the stem cells.
"The stem cells in a young person can continuously replicate and replace aged muscle cells, bone cells, and visceral cells. Therefore, the metabolism of a young man is faster than that of an adult, but after around thirty-years-old, the stem cells will begin to age. The speed of replication slowly fails to keep up with the speed at which the cells age, which results in the human body aging…"
Chen Chen claimed. "In that case, if the mesenchymal stem cells and hematopoietic stem cells in the human body can be restored to their youth, will the human body subsequently be restored to its youth as well? Even if the organs cannot be revitalized, the muscles, bones, hematopoietic function, and other functionalities of the body could be revitalized. Surely this is something that many people can only dream of attaining?"
When Xia Yin heard this, she appeared to be deep in thought. Since she was in her senior year, she was slightly more knowledgeable than Wang Wei. She understood more than Wang Wei about the implications of the impact of this experiment on the medical world if it was successful.
