godfather of surgery

Chapter 1238 Exchange
"That's right, there are six people in total, so don't worry, this is a topic that Professor Yang is focusing on."

Tang Shun also noticed the surprise on the newlyweds' faces and knew what they were worried about.

"This research group has abundant resources because Professor Yang is personally in charge, so everyone has nothing to worry about," Tang Shun repeated, reassuring the group.

If it weren't for the fact that the other PhD students were all busy with their own research projects, these newcomers wouldn't have had a chance. Since they haven't yet experienced the research projects here, they are definitely not as good as the experienced PhD students in various aspects.

However, Tang Shun had no choice. Professor Yang had made it clear that other research projects could not be affected, so he could only assign a few new people to Professor Yang to study the vaccine adjuvant project.

These PhD students wondered if this research project was just a formality, a way to fulfill the assignments from above, which explained why there were only so many people involved. Otherwise, how could there be so few people?

"Can six people do it? I participated in a similar project when I was doing my PhD. My advisor was in charge, and several pharmaceutical companies jointly invested tens of millions. When I joined, they had already been researching for three years. I spent my entire PhD on this project. It turned out they were too naive. Researching vaccine adjuvants was more difficult than they imagined, and it eventually came to nothing. I remember that project maintained more than a hundred researchers. Now we have six people who want to research vaccine adjuvants. Is there some misunderstanding?" This PhD student is named Ji Ning. After graduating from Beijing University, he stayed in the United States as a postdoctoral fellow and is now back at Sanbo Lab as a researcher.

Another PhD student said, "I think Professor Yang must have his reasons for making this arrangement, although I can't think of the reason right now."

This PhD student, He Zijian, is Yang Ping's old classmate. He has now passed the interview and started working at the Sanbo Laboratory. He saw that some people were questioning the feasibility of the project, so in order to stabilize morale, he stepped forward and said a few words.

He Zijian knew very well that in addition to his own abilities, another important reason why he was able to come to Sanbo Hospital was that he was Yang Ping's old classmate. This personal connection played a significant role. There were so many PhDs being interviewed at the time, many of whom had studied at top overseas universities, while he had no overseas study experience at all. Yang Ping must have been a reason for selecting him.

Now he must actively support his old classmate's work; if his old classmate is doing well, he will be doing well too—he understands this principle.

If morale is low, the team will be difficult to manage. Therefore, He Zijian must play a role in stabilizing morale and must not stir up trouble.

“Don’t worry too much. Professor Yang won the Nobel Prize at such a young age. His research ability is unmatched. So his plans can’t be predicted by common sense. In many cases, scientific research is not about the number of people, but about innovation. If you don’t find the right path, no matter how many people you have, it’s useless. If you find the right path, a few people may be able to leverage the entire project. What kind of projects require a large number of people? Generally, it involves transforming theory into products. This involves engineering implementation, so a large team is necessary to undertake the research tasks.” He Zijian explained to everyone, and the other four people thought it made sense.

Tang Shun immediately added, "When I first came here, the Sanbo Lab only had a few dozen people, and we still achieved Nobel Prize-level results. With just those few dozen people, we were working on several projects simultaneously: space-guided gene therapy, K-therapy, and skin cloning. Look at each of these—aren't they all world-class projects? They're all progressing smoothly now. I don't need to introduce the space-guided gene theory; it has already won the Nobel Prize. K-therapy has entered its second phase of research. You might not be familiar with skin cloning, but it's already being used clinically with excellent results. So don't worry about the number of people; many imaginative innovations are made by small teams."

The other five people felt much more at ease after hearing what Tang Shun and He Zijian said.

These people are all PhDs, and they all have their own ideas. Regardless of whether those ideas are right or wrong, that's a good thing. So sometimes, it's also important to guide their thinking.

While Tang Shun was still trying to reassure the members of the research group, Yang Ping had already begun his research on the topic.

Research on vaccine adjuvants has typical characteristics of drug research. After selecting a target, a lot of trial and error is needed to obtain information. Then, based on the trial and error, the target is changed, and so on. Through a lot of research, the target gradually emerges.

Moreover, the cumulative effect of this trial-and-error experience is very obvious. Pioneers accumulate a lot of data, and later research can stand on the shoulders of the previous research. The more advanced the research, the more obvious the cumulative effect becomes, thus gradually forming an extremely high technical threshold.

That's how basic research is; there's no shortcut to overtake others unless you switch tracks, but switching tracks is easier said than done.

For example, if our automotive industry follows the path of gasoline-powered vehicles, no matter how much we invest, we will never be able to surpass those established automotive giants in Europe, America, and Japan. They have accumulated hundreds of years of experience. If you try to follow the same path they have taken, how can you possibly catch up with them? It is impossible.

Therefore, the astute Chinese saw through this and, while striving to catch up, found a new track—new energy electric vehicles. Only by changing tracks can the automotive industry achieve a leapfrog development. This is not called overtaking on a curve, but rather changing tracks.

As long as you're on the same track, you can't overtake on a curve; overtaking on a curve is just self-deception.

Yang Ping understood this principle. If he continued to study adjuvants, even with the support of the system space and the availability of a lot of trial and error experience, he would still be just a follower. He was now thinking about whether he could change his approach and completely overturn the table.

The role of vaccine adjuvants is to enhance antigenicity. If a new technology can be developed that can also enhance immune antigens, such as using the K therapy loading technology to load a functional protein onto the vaccine, then it will achieve a better enhancement effect than adjuvants, and the adjuvant will become meaningless.

Adjuvants are like "immune boosters." Protein antigens have a very weak ability to stimulate immunity on their own, so they need adjuvants to help "wake up" the immune system. This not only makes the immune response more lasting, but also reduces the amount of antigen used.

However, adjuvants are not without their drawbacks. They have many disadvantages, such as toxicity and the potential to cause side effects.

Developing vaccines without adjuvants is not a new concept. For example, the recombinant immune complex vaccine that has emerged now has broken away from the adjuvant system and taken a different approach. It relies on the complex formed by antigen and antibody to make it easier for antigen-presenting cells to "grab" the antigen, and can stimulate a strong immune response without exogenous adjuvants.

Recombinant immune complexes are upgraded and modified natural immune complexes. They are given a makeover using molecular engineering. Through genetic modification, antigens and antibodies, or the Fc fragments of antibodies, can directly form complexes in cells. This is what recombinant immune complexes are.

Yang Ping is an expert in gene recombination. The modification of the K virus was done using gene recombination technology. Using adenovirus as a template, the K factor and various other functional factors were loaded or embedded into the structure of the adenovirus, forming the current K virus. Of course, it can no longer be called a virus, as it can no longer be classified as a virus in terms of either structure or function.

Following this line of thought, Yang Ping realized that it would lead to vaccine research, which was not his goal. Yang Ping wanted to research a universal, modular substance that could replace adjuvants. This module was equivalent to the K factor, which could be attached to or embedded in the structure of any vaccine. In this way, any vaccine that used it could enhance antigenicity and reduce side effects.

After careful consideration, Yang Ping decided to use the K therapy approach to study this topic. He will design a protein, which will be a completely new approach to vaccine design.

He believes that adjuvants are not a very good approach to begin with. The pharmaceutical giants have invested so much money and talent, yet they've only developed five adjuvants so far, and these adjuvants also have certain side effects, indicating that this approach isn't very smart. Furthermore, Yang Ping has carefully analyzed the situation and concluded that adjuvants are indeed a transitional technology. Future vaccines will definitely be products of gene recombination technology; regardless of the methods used, the ultimate solution will be to address this problem using gene recombination technology.

After giving his instructions, Tang Shun went about his business. The five people gathered in a corner of the office to discuss the matter. Two of them were not very willing to stay in this research group. At the time, they were reluctant to directly refute Tang Shun's wishes, but now that Tang Shun had left, they began to express their opinions privately.

“I feel like this research group is just a vanity project, probably just there to fulfill the tasks assigned by higher-ups. Look, no one else has been transferred to this research group; the five of us are all newcomers.” Ji Ning was very dissatisfied. He felt that they, as newcomers, were being used to do meaningless things.

He Zijian didn't think so. No matter what the task was, even if it was meaningless, as long as it was proposed by Yang Ping, he would participate wholeheartedly. He did it not for any other reason than to repay Yang Ping's appreciation. He knew in his heart that without Yang Ping's secret help, he could not have joined the Sanbo Laboratory team so easily.

“I disagree with your idea. I still maintain that your judgment is too arbitrary. Judging this project as just a perfunctory task based solely on the number of participants is contrary to your opinion. Professor Yang is personally leading this project and guiding us in doing it. It is definitely not an ordinary project. Perhaps we can learn a lot from this project. Look at other projects. Although they were all set up by Professor Yang, he only does strategic planning and never gets involved in the details.”

Ji Ning, quick-witted as ever, glanced around mysteriously and said, “I have some news for you. I heard that our big boss in charge of the medical and health industry came to our hospital yesterday and even met with Professor Yang. Think about it, the big boss must have secretly given Professor Yang some task yesterday. Only one day later, Professor Yang is organizing a team to set up a new research project. This project only requires five people. You really have no concept of vaccine adjuvants. I know this stuff very well. Let alone five people, even five hundred people might not be able to develop it. Since the first adjuvant in 1926, do you know how many adjuvants have been developed worldwide? Five, only five. What does that mean? Look at those pharmaceutical giants, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, etc., are they just sitting idly by? They have such great strength and they can't even develop a few adjuvants. We, five people, are going to work on adjuvants? Isn't that a joke? Professors are human too. We seriously suspect that this is just something the professor is using to appease his superiors. He has to do the task they give him, but he can't let it affect his existing research, so he has to do it this way.”

He Zijian disagreed with Ji Ning's opinion: "You're overthinking it. Professor Yang is a scholar, he doesn't have so many hidden agendas. He doesn't need to deal with anything, and we don't need to worry about these things either. We just need to do our job well. Professor Yang is leading us on research projects, which is an excellent learning opportunity."

“I don’t think so. Who knows how long this project will last? If it’s a year or two, that’s fine, but if it lasts for several years, don’t you think we’ll just be wasting several years of our time? Others will be producing results and papers by then, and we’ll just be bystanders.” Ji Ning still disagreed.

Of the other three, one agreed with Ji Ning's opinion, while the other two PhDs were not interested in thinking about these things. They were all doing research in the lab anyway, and all the research topics were the same. As long as they could do scientific research quietly, that was a good thing.

"Hey, classmate?" someone interrupted the conversation.

Ji Ning immediately stopped chatting and asked, "Were you calling me?"

"Yes, I was calling you. There are so many new people in this batch that I couldn't remember your name for a moment. I'm really sorry." The senior PhD immediately apologized.

"My name is Ji Ning, I'm new here," Ji Ning introduced himself to his "senior."

The "senior" immediately slid his chair over and said, "My name is Jiang Jitong. I heard your conversation just now."

"What do you want to do?" Ji Ning instinctively dodged.

Jiang Jitong smiled and said, "Don't worry, no one reports on us here. Even if the professor were here, it's no big deal for you to chat like this. You can say whatever you want to us face to face. It's okay. I heard you just say that you don't want to join Professor Yang's newly established research group?"

"I didn't say that. We just chatted casually for a bit," Ji Ning denied.

Jiang Jitong smirked: "Don't try to hide it. I've said it before, no one reports on us here. What are you afraid of? If you don't want to join this research group, we can switch."

"Mutual?" Ji Ning asked suspiciously, wondering what he was up to.

Jiang Jitong nodded: "Yes, we can switch. I just heard your analysis, and it makes a lot of sense. This research group only has a few people, so it might be just going through the motions. They probably don't have much to do, so they're quite idle. I've been so busy lately that I can't stand it anymore. I want to take a break for a while. How about we switch?"

Will someone really replace him? As a newcomer, Ji Ning isn't afraid of being busy, but he's afraid of being left in a corner and not being valued.

“Really, you newcomers should come to our large group to get some experience. If you agree, you can just ask Dr. Tang directly, and then you can say that I’m willing to replace you.” Jiang Jitong looked exhausted.

"Okay, you'll keep your word?" Ji Ning didn't expect this person to want to join the "retirement" research group.

A research group of just a few people was hastily created in a rush. What can possibly happen? It's just for show; it's practically a retirement group.

“Everyone here can testify. I really like immunology. I heard you guys are researching adjuvants, which is right up my alley. So it’s settled. Go and bring it up with Dr. Tang later. As long as you stick to your guns, Dr. Tang can’t do anything about it. I’ll offer to replace you then. Everyone gets what they want, isn’t that great?” Jiang Jitong encouraged Ji Ning.

"What about you? Do any of you want to change? If you don't say so now, it will be too late later."

Ji Ning asked everyone.

Everyone shook their heads, their willingness not very strong.

“If you want to switch, someone has to be willing, right? You’ve hit the jackpot. After all, there are only a few people like me who have retirement plans in advance. Even if they want to switch, they can’t. Who would switch with them, right?” Jiang Jitong said.

“Remember, don’t make a fuss about this. It won’t be good for me if word gets out. Think about it, Dr. Tang arranged the research team members for the professor. What do we mean by secretly changing them like this? If it gets out and causes a bad influence, we won’t be able to change them even if we want to.”

Jiang Jitong gave Ji Ning some mysterious instructions, and Ji Ning, being quite clever, immediately nodded.