godfather of surgery

Chapter 1242 Retirement Group
As soon as the meeting ended, the five of them seemed to have been injected with concentrated chicken blood, and they floated out of the meeting room as if they were walking on clouds.

"Everyone! This way! We have our own office now!" Jiang Jitong shouted, pointing to a bright and spacious room next to him. His tone was just like an NPC in a game issuing a hidden quest with the reward of a luxurious villa in the beginner's village.

Professor Yang Ping had mentioned to Tang Shun the idea of ​​setting up a research group, and Tang Shun immediately set up the office overnight, complete with computers and desks, just waiting for the players to move in.

Chu Xiaoxiao almost stumbled to her workstation with her name on it, carefully placing the stack of documents on the table as if they were fragile treasures rather than paper.

She took off her glasses, rubbed her throbbing temples, and her mind was still replaying the gleaming words "Five Small Goals" and "In Vitro Immunological Functional Validation and High-Throughput Screening." In her past understanding, projects of this caliber could only be glimpsed in the acknowledgments of top journals or in interviews with leading experts. Now, she was a part of it, responsible for such a core section? Now? She, Chu Xiaoxiao, was not only a participant, but also in charge of a core section?

This feels like a level 1 character who just left the starting village being given a full set of god-tier gear by the system and thrown into the boss room of the ultimate dungeon.

Outrageous, but really exciting! My heart is still pounding like a rabbit's.

"What's wrong? Xiaoxiao, were you stunned by the professor's domineering aura?" He Zijian, who was at the next workstation, noticed her absent-minded appearance and asked in a low voice.

Chu Xiaoxiao put her glasses back on, took a deep breath, and tried to look like a seasoned player: "It's a bit... no, it's quite dizzying! He Zijian, don't you think this start is too magical? We've only just created our accounts on the first day!"

A knowing, wry smile appeared on He Zijian's usually quiet face. He pointed to the same "mission scroll" on his desk: "Who says otherwise? If my doctoral thesis had even one percent of the funding and cutting-edge nature of this, my dissertation would have been a masterpiece. Now, I've been airdropped into the endless depths of the ocean, and Professor Yang even said, 'Can't swim? Learn on the spot!'"

"Haha, that's a perfect analogy!" Wang Chao leaned over, seemingly the most excited of the group, his eyes sparkling behind his black-rimmed glasses. "But I love this style! I've had enough of the drawn-out project proposals, endless review meetings, and sluggish approvals. This is what scientific research should be like: aim at the target, concentrate your firepower, and unleash a saturation attack! Just imagine, if we actually succeed..." He didn't finish his sentence, but his eyes said it all—it would be a textbook-worthy breakthrough.

Liu Yang sat a little further away. He didn't join the discussion, but had already turned on his computer, brought up the interface of the molecular cloning software, his brows furrowed, and his fingers unconsciously tapping on the desktop.

Jiang Jitong walked over and patted Liu Yang on the shoulder:

"A lot of pressure?"

His voice was as steady as ever.

Liu Yang looked up, a helpless smile on his face: "Senior Brother Jiang, to be honest, the pressure is immense. The professor's 'efficient and rapid molecular cloning platform' sounds simple, but supporting the rapid iteration of de novo designed proteins means we need to establish a standardized, almost automated process. From primer design, gene synthesis, vector construction to mutant library establishment, every step must be flawless. Moreover, the structures of many functional domains may be unstable, making expression and purification major challenges."

Liu Yang didn't know why he suddenly felt so confident about such a grand topic and dared to say these things.

“Problems are meant to be solved.” Jiang Jitong pulled up a chair and sat down.

"You are not alone in this fight. Chu Xiaoxiao and He Zijian will provide you with advice on functional domain design from an immunological perspective to prevent you from making some obviously ineffective constructions."

“All the high-end experimental equipment is open 24 hours a day. If we need any special enzymes or reagents, we can submit a report. No, we can just tell the professor in the group chat and he will take care of it. No!! Just tell me directly. The professor has already given me the authority.”

"What you need to do now is not to be anxious, but to take immediate action. First, thoroughly study the professor's materials and recommended papers, then draw up a detailed platform building plan, including what equipment, consumables, and software support are needed, and give me a list."

Jiang Jitong's words were like a reassuring pill. Liu Yang nodded, his eyes regaining focus: "I understand, Senior Brother Jiang. I'll start working on it tonight."

"Don't stay up all night and overwork yourself! This is what the professor specifically told us. Remember to balance work and rest; this is a long-term battle." Jiang Jitong gave a word of advice, then looked at the others. "We're all in the same boat. I know your minds might be a mess right now, but that's okay. Let's start by thoroughly understanding the materials. First, get the framework and basic concepts clear. We're a team. If you encounter any problems, feel free to discuss them in the group chat or come directly to me."

He paused, his tone becoming more serious: "Professor Yang trusts us and has given us unprecedented resources and freedom, and we must live up to that trust."

Everyone nodded solemnly. After the initial shock and elation, a heavy sense of responsibility had taken hold.

But Jiang Jitong immediately added, "There is no need to feel any pressure. Scientific research must be relaxed and passionate, not burdensome."

The following are Yang Ping's original words, which Jiang Jitong is now repeating to his junior brothers and sisters.

Over the next few days, everyone began to pore over materials, monographs, and papers, almost to the point of neglecting to eat or sleep.

The materials provided by Yang Ping were extremely rich in information, covering not only the latest advancements in basic immunology, protein engineering, and chemical biology linking technologies, but also a large number of introductions to computer-aided design and bioinformatics analysis tools.

While intensively studying the relationship between protein structure and function, Chu Xiaoxiao began planning her cell experiment platform. She listed a long list of necessary cell lines, antibodies, ELISA kits, flow cytometer setup times, and so on. When she encountered unfamiliar techniques, she immediately asked questions in the group chat, often receiving prompt answers from Jiang Jitong or direct answers from Yang Ping.

While gaining a deeper understanding of the design logic of "enhancers", He Zijian and Wang Chao began to sort out the known immune regulatory functional domains.

He Zijian focused more on internalization signals and co-stimulatory molecules, while Wang Chao focused on receptors and pathways related to viral antigen presentation. They shared their preliminary findings in a group document for Liu Yang's reference.

Liu Yang was the most efficient. After thoroughly studying the core parts of the materials, he quickly came up with a relatively simple and rudimentary plan for building a molecular cloning platform. This included using high-throughput cloning technologies such as Golden Gate assembly, utilizing automated workstations in the laboratory for some operations, and establishing a standardized plasmid construction and verification process.

The plan wasn't very mature, even a bit naive, but it received Yang Ping's approval. Yang Ping's philosophy was clear: don't wait until everything is perfect before starting, but start first, and then gradually revise and upgrade later. Even if it's wrong, it's okay, you can always start over. How do you know it's wrong if you don't try? Scientific research itself is a process of trial and error.

Jiang Jitong was the busiest of them all. He not only had to digest the data and conduct in-depth research on the connection technology, but also coordinate the daily operations of the entire team and resolve all sorts of trivial matters they encountered—from the allocation of laboratory workbenches to the ordering of special reagents, and communication with other departments in the institute. He demonstrated outstanding management and interpersonal skills, managing everything in an orderly manner so that Yang Ping could think about strategic issues without any interference.

He also frequently consulted Tang Shun on how to manage scientific research. Tang Shun was impressed by him. This guy was usually a bit carefree, but now he was so attentive to his work. It seemed that he really loved immunology.

A week later, at 4 p.m., the second group meeting began on time.

This time, the atmosphere in the meeting room was noticeably different. There was less restraint and more focus and urgency. Everyone had a notebook or laptop open in front of them, filled with questions to be discussed. "Tell me about the progress and problems you've encountered," Yang Ping said, getting straight to the point without any preamble.

Liu Yang eagerly grabbed the microphone to speak first. He pulled up his PowerPoint presentation and showed the flowchart of his molecular cloning platform: "The core architecture of the platform has been designed. I will continue to make some revisions. Based on the preliminary list of functional domains provided by Chu Xiaoxiao and He Zijian, I used software to preliminarily screen a batch of possible amino acid sequences and optimized the codons. Currently, the first batch of gene fragments of 15 'enhancer' candidate molecules has been synthesized, and it is expected to be available the day after tomorrow. After receiving them, I will immediately start the vector construction work."

Yang Ping nodded: "Very good. Make sure to reserve tag sequence sites on the vector for subsequent bridging operations, such as the commonly used AviTag, SpyTag, etc. Which one to use depends on the technical route determined by Jiang Jitong's side."

“Understood. I have already reserved insertion interfaces for multiple cloning sites and several common tags,” Liu Yang replied.

Next was Chu Xiaoxiao, who looked somewhat tired but had bright eyes: "Most of the cell lines I needed have been obtained and are currently being revived and expanded. The calibration and protocol design for the flow cytometer have been completed. The detection panel for dendritic cell and macrophage activation markers is also ready. Once Liu Yang expresses the first batch of candidate proteins, I can complete the preliminary activation screening within 48 hours. In addition, I have also reviewed a large number of documents and preliminarily established a cytokine storm risk assessment model based on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, but it still needs further optimization."

Yang Ping praised, "You are very efficient. The risk assessment model is very important and needs to be continuously improved. Remember, safety is the bottom line."

When it was He Zijian and Wang Chao's turn, they reported on their thoughts on the selection of functional domains and some initial concerns, such as the potential autoimmune risks that certain strong co-stimulatory signaling domains might bring, and the possibility that the special structure of viral antigens might cause spatial steric hindrance to mounting.

Yang Ping listened attentively, occasionally interjecting to guide them to think more deeply, or pointing out literature evidence they might have overlooked, thus providing guidance to them unintentionally.

"These are excellent questions. We should record them and use them as important references in subsequent design iterations. Don't be afraid of having many questions; the more questions we have, the clearer our path to solving them will become."

Finally, Jiang Jitong presented a detailed research report on coupling technologies, systematically comparing the advantages and disadvantages of gene fusion, biotin-avidin, various enzymatic coupling systems, and several novel chemical coupling methods.

"...In summary, enzymatic ligation, especially the seamless ligation system based on short peptide tag pairing, has the greatest advantages in terms of specificity, mildness, and flexibility. I suggest that we initially focus on the SpyTag/SpyCatcher and SnoopTag/SnoopCatcher systems. They have mild reaction conditions, high efficiency, and are already relatively mature, with a large number of commercial vectors and successful cases available for reference. We can first construct these tags onto 'enhancers' and 'model antigens' respectively to verify ligation efficiency and function."

He then shifted his focus to a more radical idea: "At the same time, I support our efforts to explore entirely new connection methods. I have noticed in recent years a split-intein system based on the principle of 'protein splicing,' which theoretically can achieve seamless connection between the C-terminus and N-terminus of a protein. If we can modify its recognition sequence and reaction conditions to make it usable for connecting two independent proteins, that would be a revolutionary breakthrough. But this requires a lot of protein engineering work, which is extremely difficult."

Yang Ping tapped his fingers lightly on the table, pondered for a moment, and said, "The idea is very clear. We'll do as you said, focusing on the SpyTag/SnoopTag system for now to ensure we get proof-of-concept data as soon as possible. At the same time, you follow up on the exploration of split-intein and other possible new methods. If you need any special expert support in this regard, just let me know."

"Yes, Professor!" Jiang Jitong felt a surge of excitement. This feeling of being completely trusted and given the authority to explore was wonderful.

“Wang Chao,” Yang Ping looked at him, “you work with Jiang Jitong to select several representative viral antigen models as soon as possible and start constructing plasmids with corresponding tags. We need actual data to verify the ligation effect and its impact on the antigen itself.”

“No problem!” Wang Chao nodded vigorously.

Most people have no idea how much potential they have. Due to the lack of suitable conditions for stimulation, these young PhDs never imagined that they could undertake such research work, and actually took the first step.

Once you take the first step, things become much easier.

The meeting lasted an hour and a half, with a very lively discussion. In the end, Yang Ping reminded everyone: "We must not pursue efficiency for its own sake. Scientific research has its own natural rhythm. We should follow its rhythm, rather than relying on working overtime all night to advance the work. This is counterproductive and does not benefit scientific research."

Meanwhile, Ji Ning secretly observed the progress of this new research group, and the more he looked, the more something seemed off. What happened to the "retirement group" they were promised? These people were so busy they barely had time to breathe; how could they be a retirement group?

He wandered around outside the office intentionally or unintentionally, waiting for a moment when Chu Xiaoxiao seemed to be free, then slipped into the office to gather information.

"Xiaoxiao? What are you all busy with?" Ji Ning leaned closer and glanced at her computer screen.

Chu Xiaoxiao didn't hide anything: "Busy with the new project, huh? Weren't you a member too? Why did you desert at the last minute?"

Ji Ning didn't respond, staring at the content on the screen, her eyes almost popping out of their sockets: "This...this is your part? Impossible! You must be doing some miscellaneous work like text organization for Professor Yang, right?"

"Professor Yang only handles the strategy; we do the technical work. This is my responsibility: in vitro immunological functional validation and high-throughput screening. We'll learn as we go, there's no rush," Chu Xiaoxiao said nonchalantly.

Ji Ning was bewildered: "Wait a minute, aren't people saying you guys are a retirement group? How come you have such a hardcore mission?"

Chu Xiaoxiao immediately flew into a rage: "Retirement group? Who told you that? Five hundred million yuan in funding, and you call that a retirement group? You're the retirement group, your whole family is a retirement group! Get out!"

Ji Ning's words successfully ignited Chu Xiaoxiao's anger, and she stood up abruptly, ready to kick him out.

"What are you doing? What are you doing?..."

Swish! The other four boys in the office stood up instantly, staring at Ji Ning with hostile eyes, as if their guild's only female priest had been bullied.

Ji Ning was so frightened that he backed away repeatedly, waving his hands frantically: "I just said it offhand, that's what everyone's saying... I didn't say it..."

He explained as he hastily left the office, fearing he would be beaten up by the mob if he left too late.

The regret in his heart was like bleeding wounds: Five hundred million! Even Chu Xiaoxiao was in charge of such a core section! Is this some kind of retirement team???

What went wrong?!

Who leaked the information about the retirement group?

My head hurts!!!