godfather of surgery

Chapter 1267 Are there really only six people?
Sanbo Laboratory.

There's a vibrant, uplifting atmosphere here, but no whiskey, no floor-to-ceiling windows, only young faces busy in lab coats.

The equipment lockout only affected Yang Ping's new research project, but also his ongoing stem cell and tumor treatment projects.

However, this is nothing. Yang Ping had foreseen this day long ago, but he didn't expect it to come so suddenly. It's better to be sudden than to suffer a long pain. It's better to have a short pain than a long one, so that many people won't still have illusions.

When designing the research project and experimental tools, he had already considered compatibility with domestically produced equipment. So now that he has switched to domestically produced equipment, the original research project can continue as usual.

The laboratory layout has been redesigned, and new domestically produced equipment has replaced imported equipment.

The original imported cutting-edge equipment has been dismantled and moved into the warehouse because it is no longer usable.

These new devices come from several top domestic instrument manufacturers. Their appearance may not be as beautiful as that of top international brands, and some even have a simple industrial style. But they are devices that we can use ourselves. If top international brands don't allow us to use them, no matter how beautiful they are, they are not ours.

More importantly, their core components and control software were researched by companies in the Breaking Wall Alliance. The control software connects these devices, so they are no longer isolated high-precision instruments, but a nascent, organically linked whole. The overall performance can, to a certain extent, compensate for the shortcomings of individual devices.

"Real-time data feedback is normal. The expression level of the vector is stable within the expected range, with fluctuations of less than three percent." A young researcher stared intently at the scrolling data stream on the screen, his tone filled with barely suppressed excitement and relief.

Yang Ping stood behind him, his gaze calmly sweeping over each parameter curve, and nodded slightly. This was not the first time this new technology platform had undergone a full-process, high-load stress test, and the results of multiple tests had been very satisfactory.

The new platform integrates a series of key technologies and domestically produced core equipment, from intelligent gene sequence design and efficient vector construction to large-scale cell culture and precise functional verification.

"Compared to our previous imported system, the platform's data throughput and the efficiency of its backend analysis algorithms are indeed lagging behind. The average response time is about 15% slower, especially when dealing with large-scale parallel computing tasks, where the latency is more noticeable," Chen Zhi, chief engineer of Ruixing, frankly pointed out the shortcomings.

"It's okay." Yang Ping didn't care about these things. "Being a little slower or worse isn't scary. What's scary is being choked at a crucial moment, having the system locked, and having all the data wiped out. What we need to do now is to keep adjusting, optimizing, and iterating on this track that belongs to us, at our own pace. If we're 15% slower today, it might be 10% in the next version, and in the version after that, we might be able to catch up or even surpass them."

He walked up to a new domestically produced high-throughput sequencer, gently placing his palm on its cool metal casing, as if he could feel the pulse of its internal chips: "It's currently lagging behind, but every piece of its code and every hardware interface is completely open to us. We can delve into the underlying layers and modify and optimize it according to our specific needs. We can even sacrifice some versatility for extreme performance for specific experimental purposes. This kind of complete autonomy cannot be obtained even with the highest off-the-shelf performance parameters."

"Professor Yang, you truly have foresight. You anticipated these difficulties from the very beginning of designing these important projects, ensuring compatibility with the temporarily outdated domestic equipment. Otherwise, these projects would have been aborted."

Tang Shun now finally understands that when Yang Ping designed the project, he could have been much bolder and pushed the equipment to its limits, but he didn't. His designs only utilized 90% of the equipment's parameters, and some even only 80%. If he had pushed the equipment's parameters to their limits back then, compatibility today would likely be impossible, and all projects would have had to wait for the equipment—a wait that could have lasted for many years.

It was precisely because of this forward-thinking vision and profound sense of crisis that, when BG Group launched a technology blockade, several other important projects of Sanbo Laboratory experienced a brief period of painful transition, but miraculously, they were not seriously damaged or brought to a standstill.

When the lockdown first began, there was indeed unease and restlessness in the laboratory. Several stem cell culture and differentiation experiments that heavily relied on imported special serums, limited-type cytokines, and precision consumables were the first to run into trouble, with project progress at risk of being interrupted.

Yang Ping didn't hesitate much at the time and directly gathered all the core members of the project team to study the experimental "track change". Some difficulties arose during the process, such as data fluctuations caused by differences in equipment precision and reagent batches, which was normal. After a period of adaptation and adjustment, the experiment quickly got running on the new "track".

For some stem cell manipulation procedures that require extremely high precision, researchers quickly overcame the initial awkwardness caused by the new equipment's interface and feedback mechanism by manually fine-tuning culture environment parameters and optimizing operating techniques, thanks to their deep understanding of the experimental principles and keen observation of cell states.

In less than a week, the most critical experiment in the stem cell research project, "directed differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells into progenitor cells," was successfully replicated in a new, fully domestically produced bioreactor and a large-capacity temperature control system. The cell morphology differentiation rate observed under the microscope and the subsequent immunofluorescence identification data curves were highly consistent with the results obtained when using imported equipment, and the deviation of key indicators was controlled within the allowable range.

Meanwhile, on the tumor K-therapy project, the modules redeveloped based on the new platform's underlying database and algorithm library have even seen a slight but surprising improvement in screening efficiency and prediction accuracy compared to the original key indicators, thanks to the targeted optimization of the algorithm for the platform's data structure and computational characteristics.

Thanks to Yang Ping's foresight, this near-smooth transition greatly stabilized the morale of the laboratory and completely reversed some people's initial doubts about "domestic substitution".

Looking at the completed laboratory platform, Yang Ping took a deep breath. He could now rest easy. Let them seal it off for a few years; he would have figured out everything.

……

At this moment, the atmosphere at BG's headquarters in Switzerland was extremely oppressive, so oppressive that it could drive one to the brink of madness.

Only six! Is there really only six members on the R&D team?

The X-2, which had left him and the entire BG top team helpless and could even have been the target of a technological trap, actually originated from this team of six. Dr. Walker's fingers began to tremble uncontrollably, the paper making a soft rustling sound at his fingertips.

He couldn't believe it! He flipped the file to the back, eagerly searching for more information about the supporting R&D team, outsourcing partners, and international advisory group.

However, the intelligence department's supplementary explanation, in calm language, told him that all the core theoretical breakthroughs, disruptive technological path designs, and decisive key experimental verifications were led and completed by this core team of six. The other teams or personnel mentioned in the file were primarily responsible for operating and executing tasks according to their standardized procedures and for providing administrative and logistical support.

In fact, every intelligence report indicated that the team consisted of only six people. At the time, he didn't pay attention, and neither did anyone else. He believed that the intelligence reports must be wrong, and that these six people should be the decision-makers, not the team of six. But today's intelligence report has made this clear: the entire team consists of only six people.

"Six people... This... This is impossible... Absolutely impossible..." he muttered to himself, his voice dry and hoarse, the color draining from his face at a visible speed, turning it completely pale.

Dr. Walker, leading a massive R&D team under the BG Group—comprising hundreds of PhDs from top universities worldwide and equipped with billions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art automated equipment and analytical instruments—spended months of time and invested enormous sums of money and resources that he himself was unwilling to calculate in detail. Yet, he failed to even fully replicate the opponent's technology. In fact, it was highly likely that he was tricked from the very beginning by a meticulously prepared and tailor-made "technical trap," wasting countless hours and money in the wrong direction.

And the opposing team, the one that made him and Karl so embarrassed and put BG in such a passive position, actually only had six people at its core!
At that moment, Karl Muller's arrogant and unquestionable face uncontrollably appeared in his mind, as did Gan Fengyi's calm, almost cold, and all-knowing analysis. He also saw the talented researchers in his laboratory who were overwhelmed by this matter, repeatedly failing, their eyes shifting from confidence to confusion... All the anger, grievances, self-doubt, and the humiliation of having their dignity as scientists trampled upon were completely crushed and shattered by the simple, cold words "six people."

This is no longer a simple technological gap; it's a gap in cognitive dimension and a generational difference in innovation!

“Hahaha…hahaha…” Dr. Walker suddenly chuckled. The laughter was initially suppressed, but then became hoarse and desolate, echoing in the empty office, filled with despair and self-mockery.

He grabbed the heavy file on the table and slammed it to the ground with all his might, scattering the papers everywhere. Then he clutched his head tightly with both hands, digging his fingers deep into his gray hair, as if trying to pry the devastating information out of his mind.

"This war has already been lost."

At this moment, he was more certain of this than ever before. Faced with such an opponent, all of BG's traditional and proud competitive methods—capital, patents, public opinion, and even unscrupulous theft—were merely scratching the surface, even exposing their own stupidity and clumsiness, and hastening their complete defeat.

He slumped into the soft, high-backed leather chair, staring blankly at the ceiling, his eyes unfocused.

Deep within him, a thought that he had deliberately suppressed for a long time burst forth like a wild beast breaking free of its cage: perhaps the true future, the next fertile ground for science, does not lie in BG, this seemingly impregnable and magnificent ancient fortress that has long been corrupted by power struggles, short-sighted commercial interests, and bureaucratic atmosphere; but rather in the laboratory across the ocean, a laboratory that appears simple and harsh, yet is full of wild vitality, infinite possibilities, and pure scientific passion?
This thought filled him with an instinctive fear and a sense of betrayal, but strangely, beneath this fear, there was also a faint sense of relief, a feeling he hadn't experienced in a long time.

As a scientist, shouldn't he be happy?

Yang Ping accomplished what he had not accomplished, he obtained what he had not obtained, and he realized his former dream.

……

Meanwhile, on the other side of the earth.

In Yang Ping's office, the monitor in front of him displays complex gene sequences and protein structure simulations.

Huang Jiacai sat on the sofa opposite him, an open encrypted laptop on his lap, his expression more serious than usual.

“Our partner law firms in Europe and the United States sent warnings almost simultaneously. People close to us within the FDA and EMA also revealed that powerful industry forces are actively lobbying to impose the strictest review standards on pharmaceutical products based on new, unproven technology platforms, especially technologies such as vaccines involving gene regulation and novel enhancer gene recombination. Some have even proposed holding special expert hearings and enacting relevant laws to restrict the market launch of such high-risk drugs and vaccines. We are still in the clinical trial stage, and they are already making such a big show of preparation to prevent us from being launched overseas.”

Yang Ping shifted his gaze from the screen to Huang Jiacai: "It's a good thing to be able to go global, but it's not something we can completely control. All we can do is launch the best technology. If they don't let us list in Europe and America in the future, it's their loss, not ours. The huge domestic market is enough to support the future development of this new technology. You must remember, valuable things are never begged for." His tone was unreadable, only his fingers tapped lightly and rhythmically on the table.

"I understand, Professor!"

Huang Jiacai nodded.

“They’re not just focusing on public opinion and regulation,” Huang Jiacai continued. “Our international market team reports that their crackdown has expanded beyond our new technologies and products; it’s now targeting all products from our Ruixingji Alliance companies. In several key target markets in Southeast Asia and Latin America, previously smooth business negotiations have suddenly stalled. Influential local agents or partners have begun to postpone signing contracts under various pretexts, suggesting pressure from higher levels.”

"While stabilizing the domestic market, we will also learn how to compete with them. One day, we will also go global. We will take this as a learning experience."

Yang Ping agreed: "It's good that you have this idea. International markets are won, not begged for."