Actually, Professor Liu didn't have to suck up to Lu Zhou.
Being able to have his own laboratory and do his own research was better than working for someone else.
However, Lu Zhou couldn't help but praise him.
Lu Zhou only said one sentence, and Professor Liu immediately packed his things …
"I can't help you this time, but next time, in two years, I promise you that you will become an academician."
Professor Liu didn't have many connections outside of the cryobiology community, so this promise was more than enough for him …
Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.
Inside the Institute of Biochemistry, there was a laboratory in the corner.
Some of the equipment here was ordered by Lu Zhou from Germany and the Netherlands. Some of the equipment was borrowed from the PLA General Hospital's Institute of Basic Medical Research.
Although this wasn't quite right from a procedural point of view, everything could be changed. Especially since this research project was listed as a key project of the Lunar Orbit Committee, no leader would reject this kind of free political achievement.
Lu Zhou just had to sign the contract and he would be supporting a national key project. This was no different from free money.
Lu Zhou stood in the laboratory and stared at the samples in the incubator for a while. He then spoke.
He then asked, "What is this?"
Professor Liu Zuobing: "Ancient nematode cell samples! The St. Petersburg University research team collected them from the tundra of the Alazeya River. I have a good relationship with the professors there, so I bought them from them. "
Lu Zhou asked casually.
"How much?"
"Not expensive, just US $100,000."
Just US $100,000 …
That's not cheap to buy these samples.
If Lu Zhou remembered correctly, this thing wasn't an endangered species. It was mainly found in the feces of ancient creatures. As long as they found the migration route of ancient creatures on the tundra or ancient riverbeds, they could get a bunch of samples with a shovel of soil.
Spending a hundred thousand USD on this thing was probably enough to cover all the expenses of other people's scientific research activities.
Professor Liu Zuobing seemed to understand Lu Zhou's sympathy, so he coughed and explained.
"US $100,000 isn't expensive! As the saying goes, the rarer something is, the greater its value. According to the carbon isotope analysis, it was about 40,000 years old. If we want to get this kind of thing ourselves, we might have to go to the plateau to get it. We might not even be able to find such a complete one … "
Lu Zhou said, "Get to the point. I don't know much about paleontology."
Professor Liu Zuobing nodded and spoke with a serious expression.
"This is probably the earliest living biological sample we can get so far. After getting samples containing frozen nematodes from the St. Petersburg University research team, we took out some of the complete nematode cells and transplanted them into a special petri dish for enrichment and culture. We found a very magical phenomenon."
Professor Zhang Jiafu, who was listening carefully next to Lu Zhou, couldn't help but ask.
"What phenomenon?"
Professor Liu Zuobing said in a serious tone, "Of the 173 petri dishes, two of them have observed the recovery of nematode cells and the resumption of normal life activities!"
Hearing this, Professor Zhang Jiafu's expression suddenly became interesting.
"Are you sure it's not contaminated? Is there a problem with the samples given to you by St. Petersburg University? "
Professor Liu Zuobing continued in a positive tone, "I'm sure, because my students were there when they went to the tundra."
"It was me." Song Siyuan, who was standing next to Professor Liu Zuobing, raised his hand. After looking at his supervisor, he said nervously, "I personally took these samples, and the photos are all here."
Lu Zhou asked, "… Then why do we have to pay US $100,000?"
Why do we have to pay if we dig it ourselves?
Professor Liu Zuobing's expression instantly became a little awkward.
Fortunately, Professor Zhang Jiafu understood. He coughed and said, "This is how working with Mao Zi works. Their lives are relatively poor, so it's normal for them to be a little stingy … Can I see the samples?"
Professor Liu Zuobing looked at him gratefully and nodded.
"Of course you can."
After taking samples from the petri dish with a special liquid extractor, Professor Liu Zuobing's assistant quickly made the samples into slides and placed them on a microscope in the laboratory.
Seeing that the specimen was done, Professor Zhang Jiafu couldn't wait to walk forward and carefully observe it under the microscope.
These precious tiny creatures floated in agar and special nutrient solutions, slowly wriggling with E. coli as food.
After observing for five or six minutes, he finally moved his face away from the microscope and sighed.
"This discovery is incredible … St. Petersburg University just gave the research results to you?"
"Of course not, they wrote all the theses, but I didn't continue to cooperate with them on follow-up research." Professor Liu Zuobing smiled and said, "For example, the retrieval of nematode DNA fragments … I guess they've been doing it, but they haven't seen any results yet."
Upon hearing this, Professor Zhang immediately perked up and asked.
"What did you find?"
"Through the study of the DNA of the nematode sample, we found that the 18S-rDNA gene fragment may store a factor that allows them to actively hibernate in an extremely cold environment!"
This time, it wasn't just Zhang Jiafu. Even Lu Zhou had a surprised expression on his face.
DNA fragments related to frozen dormancy!
This was an incredible discovery.
Lu Zhou immediately asked, "Did you publish it in the journal?"
"Not yet." Professor Liu Zuobing shook his head and said, "This is just an in-progress result. We are sure that the Russians didn't discover this, so we didn't publish it."
This was a common practice in academia.
Lu Zhou had done this himself, so he nodded in understanding.
"I understand the situation, now I want to hear your experimental ideas. Can you explain it to me?"
Professor Liu Zuobing nodded and spoke.
"The 18S-rDNA gene fragment may be the key to solving the frozen dormancy technology. So far, we have speculated two possibilities. One is that this 18S-rDNA gene fragment synthesizes a special protein through transcription of RNA, allowing cells to suspend life activities under extreme weather conditions and maintaining the normal basic structure of the cell body!"
This sounded exciting.
However, Lu Zhou didn't show any obvious excitement on his face. He thought for a moment and said, "But there are still a lot of cells dying."
Professor Liu nodded and spoke.
"Yes, not every individual can survive because they don't just experience the cold on the frozen soil … Of course, this isn't the point. The point is that we have two ideas."
He paused for a second and walked to the whiteboard in the laboratory. He drew two lines on it and wrote next to one of them.
"One is to use a gene editing method to modify the gene fragment and insert it into the gene fragment of the organism, thus achieving dormancy in a frozen environment!"
Lu Zhou thought for a second and asked, "What about the other experimental idea?"
Professor Liu Zuobing pointed to the other line and said, "The other is to use a similar research idea to Professor Grange's. Through drug induction, the human body is completely immersed in a slow-release agent containing the protein!"
Professor Zhang Jiafu: "Like formalin?"
Professor Liu Zuobing nodded and said, "You could say that, but it's definitely different than formalin …"
Lu Zhou stood next to the whiteboard and stared at the two lines for a long time.
After around five minutes, he spoke.
"This sounds crazy, but I think we can give it a try."
Professor Liu Zuobing nodded.
"I think so too, genetic modification … Regardless of whether it works or not, the cost is too high."
Most importantly, research involving the modification of human DNA was not allowed by morality and ethics.
Also, unlike the controversial frozen dormancy technology, there was no doubt that it was unethical. Anyone who did it would be committing crimes against humanity …
Forget about him, even Professor Lu didn't dare to let him try this kind of extreme research.
Suddenly, he heard a knock on the door.
After receiving permission, Lu Zhou's assistant opened the door and walked in.
"Professor, someone is looking for you."
Me?
Lu Zhou thought about it carefully, but he couldn't remember who he had an appointment with, so he asked.
"Who?"
The young female assistant spoke with a subtle expression on her face.
"The visitor claims to be Professor Angus Deaton from Princeton … Looks like he's in a hurry?"
Angus Deaton?
Lu Zhou vaguely remembered this name. He vaguely remembered that he was from the economics department.
Even though Princeton didn't have a business school, they did have an economics department, and it was quite influential. Theoretical economics, in particular, was ranked quite high in the United States, and it even stood at the top of many lists.
However, Lu Zhou hadn't studied economics before, so he didn't pay much attention to economics.
Therefore, he couldn't think of a reason why Professor Angus would visit him.
Lu Zhou thought for a bit and spoke.
"I understand, tell him to wait for me in the reception room."
The female assistant nodded.
"Okay, professor."
With that, she turned around and walked out of the corridor.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
