godfather of surgery

Chapter 1330 I Don't Like Socializing

After sending the first draft of his speech to Tang Shun and Song Ziming, Yang Ping shut down his computer.

The next morning, Yang Ping arrived at the research institute earlier than usual. There were still a few reporters and onlookers at the entrance, but the security guards had established a more effective access management system, so he entered the building directly from the underground parking garage.

At 7:30, the core team's meeting room was already full. In addition to familiar faces such as Tang Shun, Song Ziming, and Xu Zhiliang, there were also several new postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars who had come quickly because of the Nobel Prize in Systems Regulation Theory.

"Professor, this is today's agenda." Song Ziming pushed the tablet over. "At nine o'clock this morning, Lele's first round of in-depth detection data will be available; at ten-thirty, the Nobel Committee's advance team will arrive, mainly logistics and security personnel, to arrange the inspection route; at two o'clock this afternoon, Jiang Jitong's team will report on the follow-up experiments on the abnormal mice..."

Yang Ping nodded, his gaze sweeping over every face in the conference room. The young researchers' eyes shone with eager anticipation, a mixture of excitement and awe at the unknown. He understood this feeling, and also knew that it might be accompanied by unrealistic expectations.

“Before we begin, I’d like to say a few words.” Yang Ping’s voice was calm, yet it silenced the entire conference room. “Welcome, new colleagues. I know many of you are here because of the Nobel Prize, but I must tell you frankly: here, winning awards is the least important thing.”

He paused for a moment, letting his words settle.

“Our daily routine consists of failures, repetitions, and facing chaotic and contradictory data. It’s about spending months designing an experiment only to have it completely overturned because of a single unconsidered variable. It’s about staring at the screen late at night, trying to find signals in the noise. It’s about being overjoyed by the slightest progress of one patient, only to be frustrated by the relapse of the next patient.”

The newly arrived postdoctoral fellows looked at each other in bewilderment.

“If you’re looking for accolades and shortcuts, then you’ve come to the wrong place,” Yang Ping continued. “But if you believe that medical progress comes from respect for the complexity of life, from the patience to find certainty in uncertainty, and from the commitment to treating each patient as a unique system—then welcome to join us.”

There was a few seconds of silence in the meeting room, then some people started nodding.

Tang Shun then took over the conversation: "Alright, let's begin the formal agenda. First item: the progress of Lele's case."

……

At nine o'clock in the morning, Yang Ping was in his office reviewing Lele's preliminary in-depth test report.

The data was more complex than expected. The nine-year-old boy's immune system exhibited a rare state of division: some inflammatory pathways remained persistently underactivated, like a stuck switch; while other important regulatory pathways were almost dormant. Even more surprisingly, Lele's metabolic profile showed abnormal levels of several key amino acids and fatty acids, which may be related to the composition of his gut microbiota.

“This is not just a simple mutation of the STING gene,” Yang Ping muttered to himself, looking at the screen. “The entire system has deviated from its balance.”

He retrieved Lele's dietary records and found that due to long-term use of hormones and immunosuppressants, the child had a poor appetite, ate very little, and exhibited obvious food preferences. This was consistent with the data on metabolic abnormalities.

Yang Ping sketched out a preliminary treatment framework in his notebook: extremely low doses of specific STING pathway modulators; targeted nutritional support programs to correct metabolic imbalances; probiotic and prebiotic interventions to adjust the gut microbiota; and gentle immune training strategies to restart disordered regulatory pathways. Each part requires precise calculations and close monitoring, as any excessive intervention could trigger a chain reaction.

At 10 o'clock, Yang Ping convened the team for Lele's case, which included immunologists, metabolic experts, clinical nutritionists, and data analysts.

“We need to complete the detailed design of the treatment plan within two weeks.” Yang Ping drew a system correlation diagram on the whiteboard. “The key is to find the ‘sweet spot’ between the various interventions, so that they can produce synergistic effects while avoiding mutual interference.”

“Professor, this requires a lot of computational simulations,” the data analyst said. “Especially the interaction between metabolism and immunity, where existing models are not sophisticated enough.”

“Then let’s build a new model,” Yang Ping said. “We’ll use Lele’s data as a starting point, but we also need to refer to publicly available data from other similar cases. We need to know how the various systems communicate in this nine-year-old child’s body, or why the communication failed.”

Halfway through the meeting, Tang Shun knocked on the door and came in, saying in a low voice, "The Nobel Committee's advance team has arrived and is in the reception room. They want to take a quick look at the main laboratories and arrange the route for the formal inspection next week."

Yang Ping glanced at the time: "Go accompany them, I'll come over after I'm done here."

"Okay." Tang Shun left the conference room.

Inside the reception room, three staff members from the Nobel Foundation were waiting. The one in the lead was a Swedish woman in her fifties who introduced herself as Elsa Lindqvist, in charge of the award ceremony and laureate affairs.

"Professor Yang is in a meeting, and I will accompany you on the tour," Tang Shun said in fluent English. "I am Tang Shun, Professor Yang's research assistant."

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Elsa smiled. “We don’t want to disrupt your normal work, we just need to understand your routine. Also, Professor Carlson, the chairman of the committee, specifically requested that we see the actual research environment, not a specially prepared presentation.”

“That’s exactly what our professor requires.” Tang Shun nodded. “Please follow me.”

They first went to Jiang Jitong's team's laboratory. Through the glass wall, they could see experiments being conducted inside. Chu Xiaoxiao was focused on operating the flow cytometer, completely unaware that someone was outside.

"What kind of research are they doing?" Elsa asked.

"Regarding the optimization of vaccine enhancers," Tang Shun explained, "we have recently discovered some interesting anomalous reactions that may be related to the microbiome, and the team is conducting in-depth analysis."

"Abnormal reaction? Isn't that a problem?"

“In scientific research, anomalies are often the starting point for new discoveries,” Tang Shun said. “Our Professor Yang often says that data never lies; it’s just that sometimes we use the wrong language to interpret it.”

Elsa nodded thoughtfully.

They then passed through the molecular biology lab, the tumor lab, the animal facility, and the data center. At each location, Tang Shun briefly introduced the ongoing projects, making no attempt to hide the challenges and failures. When discussing an experiment that had been repeated seven times without yielding consistent results, Elsa raised an eyebrow: "Isn't that frustrating?"

"Yes!" Tang Shun said frankly, "But every failure eliminates a possibility, bringing us one step closer to the truth. That's how medical research works; ninety-nine percent of the time we're groping in the dark, just for that one percent glimmer of light."

At the end of the visit, Elsa said, "Professor Carlson would be very pleased to hear this. He specifically emphasized that the Nobel Prize recognizes not only achievements, but also the process of achieving them, the courage and perseverance in the face of the unknown."

At this moment, Yang Ping finished his meeting and rushed over.

"Sorry to keep you all waiting." Yang Ping shook hands with Elsa. "I am Yang Ping."

“Professor Yang, I’ve heard so much about you.” Elsa looked at him earnestly. “Dr. Tang just gave us a tour, and we saw a real research environment, which is very rare.”

“Science should be truthful,” Yang Ping said. “When the committee visits next week, we won’t prepare anything special. We’ll conduct the experiments as usual, and hold the meetings as usual. If you want to understand the theory of system regulation, the best way is to see how it’s applied in daily work.” Elsa smiled: “That’s exactly what the committee expects. Also, regarding the awards ceremony…”

“I will have Tang Shun and Song Ziming represent me,” Yang Ping said calmly. “I have an important case here that is at a critical stage, and I cannot leave.”

The three staff members exchanged surprised glances. Refusing to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony in person is extremely rare in Nobel Prize history.

"Professor, are you sure?" Elsa asked cautiously. "This is an extremely high honor; members of the royal family will also be attending..."

“I’m sure.” Yang Ping’s tone was gentle but firm. “The honor belongs to the entire team, to the patients and families who support us. Tang Shun and Song Ziming represent all of us. And my place is here.”

After a brief silence, Elsa nodded. "I will convey your wishes to the committee. However, according to the rules, the winners are required to give a speech at the awards ceremony. If you cannot attend in person, could you record a video?"

“Sure,” Yang Ping said. “Actually, I’ve already started preparing my speech.”

“That’s great.” Elsa visibly relaxed. “Then we won’t bother you any longer. We look forward to having in-depth discussions with your team next week.”

After seeing off the committee's advance team, Tang Shun turned to Yang Ping: "Professor, are you really not going to Stockholm?"

“I’m not going.” Yang Ping looked out the window. “Lele’s treatment plan needs to be started as soon as possible; the time window is very important. Besides…” He paused for a moment, “As you know, I don’t really like socializing.”

At 2 p.m., Jiang Jitong's team reported the follow-up experimental results of the abnormal mice.

“We isolated that rare strain,” Jiang Jitong said, showing the data. “It belongs to a poorly studied subgroup of Clostridium. Crucially, this bacterium can metabolize dietary fiber to produce a special short-chain fatty acid, which has an unexpected interaction with the enhancer component in our vaccine.”

"And the result?" Yang Ping asked.

"The result is that, under certain genetic backgrounds, this interaction can overactivate dendritic cells, triggering a strong immune response," Chu Xiaoxiao continued, her eyes shining with excitement. "But interestingly, if the chemical structure of the enhancer is adjusted, or the gut microbiota is pre-regulated, this overreaction can be avoided, or even transformed into a stronger protective immunity."

"So this is not a defect, but a feature," Yang Ping summarized. "A feature we didn't know about before. If we understand it, we can use it."

“Yes!” Jiang Jitong nodded. “We are designing new experiments to explore how to safely apply this ‘overreaction’ to scenarios that require strong immune protection, such as certain refractory chronic infections or tumor immunotherapy.”

Yang Ping pondered for a moment: "But this discovery also reminds us that any intervention must take into account the overall state of the host—genes, microbiome, metabolism, immune history... System regulation is not a slogan, but a principle that must be practiced."

The meeting lasted for over an hour, during which the team discussed their next research directions. At the end, Chu Xiaoxiao hesitated for a moment, then raised her hand: "Professor, I have a question."

"explain."

"Regarding the Nobel Prize... you don't seem to care much. But we young people, to be honest, care a lot. Not because of vanity, but because..." She carefully chose her words, "In this era, doing basic research, doing this kind of research that requires long-term investment, can sometimes feel very lonely. Winning the award is like a confirmation, a confirmation that this path is worth taking."

The meeting room quieted down, and several young researchers nodded in agreement.

Looking at these young faces, Yang Ping was reminded of himself many years ago, when he also doubted whether such persistence was worthwhile.

“I understand,” he said slowly. “But what I want to tell you is that external confirmation will come and go. What can truly support you through the long road of scientific research is internal confirmation, the joy when you solve a small mystery, the satisfaction when your discovery may help a patient, and the sense of connection with like-minded people exploring the unknown together.”

He stood up, walked to the whiteboard, and drew a simple diagram: “The Nobel Prize is like this dot.” He pointed to the top of the diagram. “It’s bright and eye-catching. But what’s really important is this line—” he drew a winding upward curve, “that represents the daily research work, the countless ordinary days, the failures and retrying. This line may not be seen by others, but it is the true progress of science.”

“Don’t let that one point obscure the whole picture.” Yang Ping put down his pen. “Because when the halo fades, you will still face every challenge along this line. And what truly advances science are those who are willing to continue walking along this line.”

The young researchers listened quietly, some taking notes, others deep in thought.

In the evening, when Yang Ping left the research institute, he made a special trip to the clinical ward. Lele had just finished his check-up for the day and was sitting on the bed drawing. This time, he was drawing a huge space station with countless interconnected modules.

“Dr. Yang!” Lele’s eyes lit up when she saw Yang Ping. “Look, this is my new design. Each cabin has a different function, but they are all connected and share air and water.”

“Great idea.” Yang Ping sat down on the edge of the bed. “You know, your body is like this space station. It has many different systems, but they are all closely connected.”

Lele nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite: "Then which of my 'cabins' are malfunctioning?"

“We are inspecting it carefully,” Yang Ping said gently. “It’s like you need to draw up detailed blueprints of the space station before you know where repairs are needed.”

"Will my illness be cured once it's fixed?" Lele asked. "Mom said that because I was sick, I grew slower than my classmates."

Yang Ping felt a pang in his heart: "We will do everything we can to ensure your healthy growth."

When Yang Ping left the ward, Lele's mother was waiting for him in the corridor.

“Professor, thank you.” Her eyes were a little red. “Today, Lele asked about growing up. He hasn’t asked about the future in a long time. He used to live in the present because he was afraid to think about tomorrow.”

"This is our common goal," Yang Ping said. "The design of the treatment plan is progressing smoothly, and there will be a more detailed plan next week."

"Thank you, thank you so much." The mother clenched her hands. "No matter the outcome, at least now we have hope again."

On his way home, Yang Ping was sorting out his thoughts.

A message came in on his phone from Professor Mainstein: "Professor, the advance team from the committee gave me feedback on today's visit. They were very impressed with the atmosphere at the institute. Professor Carlson specifically mentioned that he had read your article about medicine being a 'dialogue with life' and resonated deeply with it. They look forward to seeing more of this reality during next week's visit. Also, regarding your decision not to attend the awards ceremony... although it's regrettable, I understand. Scientists should indeed be in the laboratory and with patients."

Yang Ping replied: "Thank you for your understanding. Please convey my regards to Professor Carlson."