They’re all reborn, what’s wrong with being a little more almighty?

Chapter 173 The black technology of this era
As soon as Liu Xuetai sat down with his dinner plate, two graduate students of the same grade as him came over.

"Xuetai, Teacher Zhang Wei is working on a new project. You must have heard about it, right?" one of them said mysteriously.

"Zhang Wei wants to do a new project? I don't know! I haven't heard him talk about it." Liu Xuetai shook his head.

"Are you still pretending to be confused with us? We have all heard about it. The day before yesterday, when Sinopharm came to inspect, Zhang Wei said in front of three academicians that he wanted to develop a new gene editing method." Another said.

"Is there such a thing? I've been in the library these two days, and this is the first time I've heard of this!" Liu Xuetai said.

The two classmates looked at each other, not knowing whether what Liu Xuetai said was true or false.

"Xuetai, Zhang Wei is going to start a new project, can you tell him and let us join in?"

"Yeah, Zhang Wei doesn't have any graduate students to work with. I heard that the last project was just a makeshift team. Now that he wants to do a new project, he must be short of people!"

"Grass team? What do you mean, I have become a grass team?" Liu Xuetai said with a look of displeasure.

"Don't mind the adjectives." The other party laughed and said, "You can give me a recommendation. You know my experimental level. I can definitely handle ordinary experiments. When the paper is published, just give me a recommendation." I’ll just sign my name too.”

"Xuetai, on Zhang Wei's paper, you were signed by the third author, right? Just with this signature, you can probably apply for a doctorate in an American university, right? We are in the same class, and now you are rich, but You have to take care of your brothers!”

"I'm just here for your new project. I heard that you want to do gene editing? The project should have just been established, right? The staff must not have been gathered yet, right?" Senior Brother Liu put down the fruit basket and continued: "What do you think? How am I doing?"

For the last project, Zhang Wei really had no one available, so he finally offered the signatures of three papers as a temptation, and only then did he recruit three graduate students.

"Okay, I'll ask Zhang Wei for you later! But I can't control whether he lets you join the group." Liu Xuetai said.

After seeing off the two classmates, Liu Xuetai's expression gradually became serious, and there was a hint of worry in his eyes.

Just because Zhang Wei wanted to do a new scientific research project, he really didn't know about it.

"At that time, I thought it was ridiculous for Zhang Wei, a college student and a freshman, to engage in any scientific research project! We are graduate students after all, how can we listen to the instructions of a freshman!"

Liu Xuetai's guess was right. Zhang Wei did not intend to let him join the project team this time.

"At that time, I never thought that he could really produce scientific research results and even publish "Science"! That was "Science". Being able to sign his name on it would make the previous twenty years of hard study worthwhile!"

Today's Zhang Wei is no longer what he used to be. When a "Science" article is published, Zhang Wei can be regarded as a top biologist. Naturally, he can no longer use those half-baked experimenters.

"Then why do you want to listen to his command now?" Liu Xuetai asked.

"Senior Brother Liu, what do you mean, do you plan to join my project team?" Zhang Wei asked.

Moreover, the experimental level of these three graduate students is somewhat difficult to describe. When they arrive at the project team, many experiments require training before they can be performed.

"When it comes to doing experiments, my level is pretty good. I am very proficient in performing general experiments, and I can also handle complex experiments. If your project team is short of people, you might as well consider me. !" Senior Brother Liu said.

"He can even let you be the third author. You must be familiar with him. If you come forward, it will be no problem!" The other party quickly flattered.

"Yes, we don't want any authorship, just a signature!" Another person also said.

Senior Brother Liu once again carried the fruit basket and came to Zhang Wei's dormitory.

"Have you thought about joining the group now? When Zhang Wei was recruiting people, you two could sneak away faster than anyone else!" Liu Xuetai snorted coldly.

Tsinghua University has no shortage of top experimental experts. Following the lessons learned from the previous paper, this time as long as Zhang Wei has not extended an olive branch, many talents will come uninvited.

"Senior Brother Liu, what are you doing? Didn't I make it clear to you last time? I really can't give you the one hundred thousand yuan you want. And I still have use for the remaining funds. I plan to Work on a new project!" Zhang Wei explained.

I want to do a new project, but I don’t call myself. This is a rhythm that I don’t plan to take him to play!
I have worked for you front and back for several months, am I going to be abandoned by you?
……

Zhang Wei smiled slightly: "Senior Brother Liu, if a Ph.D. of yours doesn't do his own projects and comes to my experimental group, he is overqualified, isn't he?"

"Forget about my own project. My mentor won't give me funding, and I can't raise the money. The project has been cancelled."

Senior Brother Liu paused and then said: "Now that I am following my mentor, my main job is to do experiments. Since they are all experiments, who should I do it with?"

"Then you ditch your mentor and come to me to do experiments. Aren't you afraid that your mentor will be unhappy and refuse to graduate you?" Zhang Wei then asked.

"I think your project is more promising. Gene editing technology. If it is completed, it will definitely be a revolutionary breakthrough in biological science. It will be much better than the project of my mentor. People go up and water goes down. "Chu Liu, I don't want to waste my time, I want to participate in some big projects that will leave a lasting name in history," Senior Brother Liu said.

Zhang Wei pondered for a moment and nodded: "My project team is indeed short of people, and we are indeed looking for senior brothers and sisters who are proficient in experiments. Since Senior Brother Liu wants to come, of course I welcome him with both hands."

Senior Brother Liu looked overjoyed, and then asked: "If we produce results, I should be able to have a signature on the paper, right?"

"The experimenters in the project team will definitely have papers signed, but let's talk about it first. How many authors can be signed will depend on your performance." Zhang Wei said.

"That's natural! I understand this." Senior Brother Liu nodded, and continued: "If I can publish another "Science", as long as there is a signature on the paper, I will be satisfied.

You don’t know. I heard that you really published an article in "Science" before. I really regret it. If I had known that you could publish a paper in "Science", I would have given up on the nucleoside modification project. Come here like crazy! "

"Senior Brother Liu, you are quite honest in what you say!" Zhang Wei said with a smile.

"It's not just me. Many of the graduate students in the Department of Biology regret it! I heard that even several professors regret not cooperating with you earlier." Senior Brother Liu continued.

"Senior Brother Liu, you are just flattering me. Our professors at Tsingta University, all of whom have high standards, are still cooperating with me? If they don't take away my project and do it themselves, it would be a thank you!" Zhang Wei said.

Senior Brother Liu smiled awkwardly. There were indeed people who wanted to steal Zhang Wei's project, but Zhang Wei was protected by Principal Gu and Meng Heming, so those people really didn't dare to take action.

Now that the paper on nucleoside modification has been published in Science, and has alarmed his superiors, Zhang Wei has gained an academic status in the field of biological sciences, and now he can no longer take advantage of it even if he wants to.

Zhang Wei then asked: "Senior Brother Liu, let's be honest, if you join my project team, will your instructor have any objections? Don't really give you little shoes to wear!" "No. Yes. When I was studying for my master's degree, I followed my supervisor for almost five years. During these five years, I worked for my supervisor, but I never complained. Of course, my supervisor also took good care of me.

I'm from Shaanxi. After I get my doctorate, I plan to go back to a university in Xi'an to find a job. If I can have a paper signed by "Science", it will be a very important bonus when I submit my resume.

This is related to my job for the rest of my life. My mentor will definitely not give me a small shoe because of this kind of thing. Maybe he will also support me to join your project team! "Senior Brother Liu said slowly.

"Senior Brother Liu, don't you plan to stay in the capital after graduation? You are a doctor from Tsinghua University. It is not easy to stay in the capital! There are so many pharmaceutical companies in the capital, and their R&D departments are short of talents like you. Even if you don’t want to engage in research and want to teach at a university, there are many universities in Beijing. With your academic qualifications, you can definitely find a good school.”

"There is a saying that it is better to be a chicken head than a phoenix tail!" Senior Brother Liu sighed, and then said: "There are many talents in the capital, but if I stay, I will only be a phoenix tail at best!"

"That's not true. Our PhD students from Tsinghua University are not considered leaders. Then what are those who graduated from other schools?" Zhang Wei said with a smile.

"Dragon head? That must be you. Compared with you, I can't even count as a phoenix tail! To be honest, I wanted to stay in the capital before, but after seeing you, I gave it up after thinking about it. I'm still honest. Go back to your hometown and become a chicken head!" Senior Brother Liu said helplessly.

……

After sending Brother Liu away, Zhang Wei summoned the devil and exchanged papers on genetic scissors.

""A Programmable Dual-RNA-Guided DNA Endonuclease in Adaptive Bacterial Immunity", a programmable dual-RNA-guided DNA endonuclease in adaptive bacterial immunity, this is the paper about genetic scissors! Remember this paper, too Winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.”

Biology and chemistry have always been inseparable. It can even be said that the essence of biology is actually chemistry.

Many of the Nobel Prizes in Chemistry in history were related to research on proteins, hormones, biological enzymes, and DNA. There were not many Nobel Prizes actually related to inorganic chemistry.

This paper officially reveals the detailed mechanism of action of CRISPR-Cas9 and also announces the birth of a kind of genetic scissors.

Humans first discovered CRISPR in E. coli in 1987 and named it in 1993 by Spanish scientists. This paper on genetic scissors was published in Science in June 2012, which means that it took humans 6 years to successfully use CRISPR to develop genetic scissors.

Eight years after the advent of genetic scissors technology, it won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In terms of the speed of winning the award, it is absolutely extremely fast. This also illustrates the gold content of the achievement of genetic scissors.

The Nobel Prize is often linked to application. The faster and more widely the application is, the faster the Nobel Prize will be won. There are not many achievements that can win the Nobel Prize within ten years. Basically, they are the kind of research that will be completed immediately. Scientific research results that can be put into application.

Genetic scissors are the kind of results that are immediately put into application fields after research.

Zhang Wei thought that if he could develop genetic scissors in 2005, he might win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry before 2015.

Opening the paper, the names of the two original authors came into Zhang Wei's eyes.

Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna!
"Dodner? That Professor Dodner from the University of California, Berkeley! He's really an acquaintance."

Zhang Wei immediately thought that when he was an exchange student at Berkeley, Huang Junji's acquaintance was none other than Professor Doudna!

The two of them copied Zhang Wei's idea about desorption electrospray ionization technology and wrote a paper. Huang Junji showed off the paper in front of him, which led Zhang Wei to expose Huang Yuxi's paper for fraud.

"We are really enemies, and we meet here. It doesn't matter, you copy one of my papers, and I will copy one of yours, so we are even!"
But if you think about it this way, the authors of the papers I copied before did not offend me! Hey, I'm such a double standard dog! "

Then Zhang Wei began to read the content of the paper carefully.

The paper first introduces the natural functions of CRISPR and Cas proteins in bacteria, and then describes the working principle of CRISPR-Cas9, that is, CRISPR-Cas9 can cut gene sequences. Then it was said that the CRISPR-Cas9 system could become a gene editing tool.

Next is the experimental verification process. The paper verified the cleavage activity of CRISPR-Cas9 on gene sequences in vivo and in vitro. At the same time, gene editing experiments were conducted on mouse cells and human cells.

This part will be Zhang Wei's next work. Zhang Wei needs to lead his team to replicate the above experiment and enrich his data into the paper.

The next part of the paper discusses the potential application of genetic scissors technology in gene editing and gene therapy, proposing that this technology can be used to create precise gene knockouts, insertions or repairs to study gene function and treat genetic diseases.

The last part is a summary, pointing out the future research directions of genetic scissors technology, including improving efficiency, specificity and safety.

The whole paper has clear logic and clear levels. It is indeed an excellent paper of extremely high level.

Zhang Wei even silently graded the paper in his mind. He found that among the Nobel Prize-level papers he had copied, this one was definitely of the highest quality.

The paper on graphene is actually very average in level, but the content of the paper is just hand-tearing tape. There is not much introduction at the academic level, and no advanced language is used.

Although the paper on nucleoside modification has a lot of academic content, if it does not mention the scientific research results, the writing level of the paper will not be as good as this one on genetic scissors.

Therefore, the paper on nucleoside modification was only published in Immunity and not in the three major journals.

This paper by Gene Scissors was actually published in Science, and once it was published, it caused a sensation in the entire biological science community. In addition to genetic scissors being a revolutionary breakthrough, well-written papers are also an important reason.

……

In the next few days, Zhang Wei interviewed two more PhDs and eight masters. In the end, Zhang Wei stayed on both of the two PhDs, but only three of the eight masters were retained. These five people are all experimental experts.

In addition, among the three graduate students from the last project, the senior sister Liu Qian was retained by Zhang Wei. Zhang Wei did not want the other two graduate students, Liu Xuetai and Ma Jijun.

Although Senior Sister Liu Qian's experimental talent is not first-rate, she is very careful and does things step by step. Moreover, she has a somewhat introverted personality, does not ask questions, and has a strict mouth.

Strict mouth is also the main reason why Zhang Wei likes her.

This time, the gene editing technology Zhang Wei brought out was too advanced. Other countries are still researching the second generation of gene editing technology, but he has already brought out the third generation of genetic scissors.

If it is after 2024, genetic scissors technology will be nothing, and scientific research institutes in various countries will use it. But in 2005, genetic scissors really felt like a black technology.

This kind of technology that transcends the times is best kept as secret as possible until the results are released.

(End of this chapter)