For the next month, Chen Chen did not go anywhere. He stayed in the embassy every day, reading up on theories and papers related to biology.
From induced pluripotent stem cells to regenerative medicine, from biomaterial science to tissue engineering, from genetic engineering to cell engineering, Chen Chen progressed step by step.
When the access to knowledge was no longer a limitation, Chen Chen absorbed all the biological knowledge known to mankind at the speed of a whale swallowing the sea.
Before he knew it, it was already January 31, 2022 in the Federation. If Chen Chen was still in school at this time, it would be the end of the first semester of his sophomore year.
At the same time, it was also the most important traditional festival in Mainland China — New Year's Eve.
At two o 'clock in the afternoon, Chen Chen, who was reading up on the "Positional Effect of Human Gene Activation Based on the CRISPR/Cas9 System", suddenly felt something. He took out his phone and after a slight hesitation, he dialed a familiar number.
Namibia was in the Eastern Zone 1 time zone, six hours apart from Mainland China. At this time, it was exactly eight o 'clock in the evening in Mainland China.
"Hello, Little Chen, how come you have time to call me?"
Chen Chen's mother's voice came from the other end of the phone. "Don't worry, your dad and I are doing fine. After listening to your suggestion, your dad bought a villa and is currently renovating it.
"When you get married, you don't even have to move out. I can help you carry grandchildren...
"Still, your dad still has that bad habit of being generous to his poor relatives... Forget it, I'll stop talking about it. I get angry every time I mention it!
"Oh right, Little Chen, when are you coming back? I haven't seen you for a whole year since last year's New Year. Don't just be busy outside. Come home when you have time and bring a girlfriend back, okay?"
Listening to his mother's endless chatter, Chen Chen agreed like a bug and hung up after half an hour.
After hanging up, Chen Chen closed his eyes slightly with a lingering smile in his eyes.
When he opened his eyes again, the smile had completely vanished from his pitch-black pupils.
The further away he was from home, the more he missed the beauty of home. It was because of this that Chen Chen wanted to preserve this beauty forever.
"Mankind Anti-aging Project..."
Chen Chen murmured in a low voice. This was the plan Chen Chen had conceived after obtaining the USB flash drive. It was the ultimate plan to forcibly extend the overall lifespan of mankind.
At the root of it all, this plan was to serve Chen Chen's parents. After all, Chen Chen did not want to live alone for a long time. He hoped that his family could keep him company.
Of course, his parents must have the same thoughts. They also had relatives that they cared about the most in their generation, and they certainly hoped that they could accompany them.
Thus, the plan that Chen Chen had envisioned for all of mankind came to fruition.
In order to achieve immortality, one must first break through the Hayflick limit of the human body and obtain longevity. Only after obtaining the technology to achieve longevity would one be qualified to pursue that illusory immortality.
It could be said that everything Chen Chen had done so far was to pave the way for this plan.
Of course, Chen Chen's embryo cloning project was different from the genetically modified baby incident that occurred in Mainland China in 2019.
The genetically modified baby incident back then was a medical madman who, in violation of the law and ethics, knocked out the gene in the embryo that could be infected with the AIDS virus and implanted the embryo into a woman's body, causing her to become pregnant.
What that person used was a gene editing technology called CRISPR/Cas9. This technology modified the CCR5 gene in the embryo in an attempt to form a CCR5-Δ32 mutation.
The so-called CRISPR was actually an immune system produced by bacteria to defend against virus attacks.
To put it simply, a virus was like a robot mainly composed of nucleic acid. When attacking bacteria, it would embed itself into the nucleic acid chain of the bacteria like a parasite, then secretly dismantle the nucleic acid of the bacteria to make it identical to itself to replicate itself.
Therefore, in order to protect itself, the bacteria evolved this repetitive gene sequence called CRISPR. When the virus was embedded into the nucleic acid chain in its body, it "snipped" it out.
Cas9 was the name of a protein nuclease. Through this nuclease, CRISPR could combine two RNAs to cut double-stranded DNA. It could cut it or make other changes.
Thus, the famous CRISPR/Cas9 technology was born.
The person chose to modify the CCR5 gene because the CCR5-Δ32 formed after the mutation of CCR5 was a genetic mutation that was naturally found in 10% of European people. After research, humans who carried this mutation had the ability to resist HIV infection.
However, Chen Chen had checked the experimental data released by this person and found that this person's technology was not up to par. It was even possible that three different mutations were caused in the embryo and the effects of these mutations were unknown.
Simply put, it was very likely that this idiot had missed his target when he was shooting...
Moreover, the potential effects of the deletion of the CCR5 gene were far beyond human understanding.
The reason why the entire scientific community was reprimanding this matter was that this modified gene would be integrated into the human gene pool. In other words, after the two gene-edited babies gave birth to offspring, their children and grandchildren would also carry this gene.
Thousands of years later, if this genetic hidden danger suddenly broke out, the impact at that time was likely to affect the entire human race...
No one could afford to take such a risk.
What's more, this person's experiment didn't have any technical breakthroughs. The CRISPR/Cas9 technology wasn't invented by him. All of the technologies he used were basic operations in the scientific community. It was something that any scientist could do.
In Chen Chen's opinion, whether it was scientific design, technical implementation, or ethics, this person had done a complete mess at every step!
It was normal for this person to be sentenced to prison. The Mainland had long promulgated the corresponding law in 2003, prohibiting any human embryo gene editing activities for reproductive purposes.
This meant that if this person only used CRISPR/Cas9 technology to modify the CCR5 gene of human embryos but the embryos were not born, then he was not breaking the law.
Unfortunately, this person had reached the point of insanity for the sake of fame and fortune...
The ethical aspect of Chen Chen's plan was the human embryo cloning technology. However, pure embryo cloning was not illegal internationally. After all, in the eyes of many scientists, a newly developed human embryo did not even have a brain. It was just a lump of flesh.
Take abortion technology for example. Abortion was generally not recommended in medical and ethical terms when pregnancy was above 14 weeks. This was because 14 weeks was a critical point. After 14 weeks, the brain of a fetus would begin to develop rapidly. From this point onward, it would be considered a human.
As for whether human embryo cloning technology violated ethics, this debate had always been a major problem in the academic community.
In fact, Chen Chen also knew that this was a minor violation. However, in his opinion, if this minor violation could be exchanged for medical progress, more diseases could be cured, and more people could be saved from pain, this price was worth it.
To put it simply, the development of medicine was always a double-edged sword. Ethics and morality constantly affected technology. Without ethics and morality, medicine could only fall step by step into the abyss of destruction.
However, if the bottom line of ethics and morality was set too high, it would also hinder technological progress.
Nevertheless, Chen Chen had always believed in one thing. Obstacles in development would not stop development. The progress of human technology was always accompanied by obstacles. Many people knew that humans had to protect the earth and the natural environment.
However, they had forgotten that the motive of humans to protect the earth's environment was that humans needed to protect themselves. If the earth's environment was destroyed, humans would cease to exist.
This was the real motive of humans to protect the earth.
Of course, some grateful-type conservationists would often use this argument:
"There can't be too many of any species. Rats breed too fast, so there's the plague. Deer breed too fast, so there's the wolf pack. Nature will always balance them out. Humans are the only exception.
"Therefore, Nature is too kind to humans. We should repay Nature well!"
Chen Chen's answer to these people was:
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