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

Chapter 189 What does it feel like to win the same Nobel Prize twice?
The nights in Princeton are very quiet. Unlike the Bay Area in California, there is no nightlife here.

When Zhang Wei was an exchange student at the University of California, Berkeley, the nightlife was still very rich. In addition to the school arranging some activities, international students would also go to San Francisco in groups to play, and those over the age of 21 would also Go to a bar and have some fun.

But with a population of more than 300 million in the United States, there are still only a handful of American families who can live in big cities.

The nightlife of ordinary American families is actually very boring. Although many families live in large villas, they are located in suburbs dozens of kilometers away from the city, surrounded by nothing but neighbors and wild animals.

If you go out for a walk in the evening, you will hardly see any passers-by. You may encounter a few coyotes and bears.

Even if you live in a city, only big cities with a relatively large population can have nightlife.

Most of the so-called cities in the United States are like towns in the eyes of the Chinese. If they resemble counties, they are considered to be places with a large population. I believe no one would open a bar or nightclub in a rural town on the outskirts of a city.

Although this kind of city does not lack basic living facilities, it has relatively few recreational activities. A basketball game played by a middle school in the city can be regarded as a rare sports event. People from all over the city will come to watch it, mainly because there is really nothing to entertain them.

This is the case in the city of Princeton. It is called a city, but it is actually a large town. There is not a single high-rise building in the entire city.

In addition to Princeton University, it is mainly home to some research institutions, and some technology companies will locate their R&D centers here.

"Your novelty disappears so quickly! When I first came to the United States, I was excited for several days. Everything I saw at that time felt novel. It seemed like a week passed before I started to miss home."

Moreover, Princeton is very convenient to New York and Philadelphia. It only takes more than an hour to drive there. Therefore, many high-income groups will set up their homes in Princeton and then go to work in New York or Philadelphia.

This has something to do with the environment in which your generation grew up. In the past, supplies were relatively scarce, and not only food was scarce, but there was still no food available. That’s why you envy the material-rich environment abroad.

Professor Shi said, sighing, and continued: "After I graduated from college, I came to the United States. It has been fifteen years now! Speaking of these fifteen years, I have also owed a lot to my family, especially me. Big brother.

"I'm a little homesick." Zhang Wei nodded.

Professor Shi came over with a tea cup, handed a cup of black tea to Zhang Wei, and asked at the same time: "You have just arrived in the United States, are you homesick already?"

"Those who were born in your era had several children at home, unlike us who were born in the 1980s and were all only children. If I were like you and stayed in the United States, my parents would have become lonely old people. I I have to go back and support my parents in their old age.”

"Senior brother, how about you, how do you deal with homesickness?" Zhang Wei asked.

This time is different. The return date has not yet been determined, and I don’t know when I will be able to return to China, so compared to the last time I came to the United States, my mood is much more complicated. "Zhang Wei said.

Not only the United States, but all developed countries can be regarded as paradise, with everything better than at home. Therefore, many talents are struggling to go abroad, and after going abroad, they try their best to stay.

"This is not my first time coming to the United States. Last year, I went to the University of California, Berkeley, as an exchange student, but the exchange period was only for three months. I knew when I would be able to return to China, so I didn't miss home so much.

I am the youngest in my family, and I have two sisters and one brother. When I was in college, my father died in a car accident. Since then, my grandfather and my mother have been taken care of by my eldest brother. I am far away in the United States. , can't help with anything. "

"Taking care of your parents is just one of the reasons." Zhang Wei paused and then said, "In your generation's concept, the United States is a paradise. Coming to the United States means realizing your dream, and you will be a superior person in the future.

But our generation grew up in an environment where supplies were no longer in short supply. Food, clothes, various daily necessities, household appliances, and even cars were available both abroad and domestically.

"If you feel homesick, just call home! I usually stay at school all day long and wait until I get home in the evening. It happens to be morning in China, so I can just call my family."

The advantage of the United States is that the salary is higher, but what you earn in the United States is US dollars, and what you spend is US dollars. The cost of living must be taken into consideration, right? "

If you really want to find nightlife, go to New York or Philadelphia, where you can have gun fights and gun fights!

"Is that why you don't plan to stay in the United States?"

Living in a place like this, there is nothing to do except squat at home at night.

"You just need to get used to this kind of thing gradually." Professor Shi comforted.

After dinner, Zhang Wei stood by the large French window, looking up at the sky with a melancholy expression.

Professor Shi nodded with deep understanding: "That's right. If your sister-in-law hadn't been working in Johnson & Johnson and her income was very high, my life would have been tight with my small salary. I might not have had a loan to buy a house yet!

But even if your sister-in-law has a high income, I still have to do many things myself and don’t dare to hire anyone. Did you know that now I can not only simply repair cars, but also have good carpentry skills?

I thought that if I stopped being a professor and engaged in decoration, I could support my family. The salary for being a decoration worker in the United States is quite good. Although it is not as good as that of a university professor, it is higher than that of a public school teacher. "

Compared with American income, the price of goods in the United States is not high, but the price of services is really ridiculously expensive, and wherever people are used, service fees will be charged.

The most well-known is the tip in the restaurant. Others, such as plumbers, maintenance workers, couriers, food delivery people, etc., have very high service charges.

In order to save money, I had to learn how to drain sewers, repair cars, and carpentry. So every American is a pretty good craftsman.

The United States is a country rich in forest resources, and many houses in the United States are made of wood. Even after reinforced concrete has become popular, many Americans are still keen on building houses with wood.

So there is often news about a fire destroying a town in the United States. Everyone's houses are made of wood. Once a big fire breaks out, the wind will help the fire spread and it will not be stopped at all.

It is also because most American houses are made of wood, so carpentry is an essential survival skill for American men. If you learn carpentry well, you can repair your house at any time. Especially those who live in big villas, they must have two sets of tools in their warehouse, one is car repair tools, and the other is carpentry tools.

……

After drinking a cup of tea, the two returned to the sofa in the living room and started talking about business.

"Principal Gu told me on the phone that you came with a project?" Professor Shi asked.

"I brought a project." Zhang Wei nodded: "Principal Gu should have told you about my situation in China. Because I refused other people's signatures, I offended others, so I couldn't get scientific research funds in China. "

"Principal Gu also told me. To be honest, if it were me, I probably wouldn't accept those miscellaneous people to sign my paper."

Teacher Shi paused for a moment, then continued: "Let me tell you the truth first. I can get about 800 to 10 million US dollars in funding here every year. All these funds are at my disposal. Of course, they must be earmarked for special purposes. All have to be used in experimental projects.

If you want to do a project, you don’t have to worry about funding. My scientific research project team can directly allocate it to you. But the scientific research results will be kept with me.

Of course, your personal interests are definitely protected. The laws in the United States are relatively sound, especially when it comes to intellectual property rights, the divisions are relatively clear."

"I understand this." Zhang Wei nodded. "Then what project are you planning to do? Is it related to nucleoside modification or gene editing? Let's agree in advance that if it is too mediocre, I will not grant you funding. But just because you can make nucleoside modification The projects that can be produced with these two top scientific research achievements, and genetic scissors, will definitely be amazing!" Professor Shi said with anticipation!

"Brother, how much research have you done on embryonic stem cells?" Zhang Wei asked.

"Embryonic stem cells? I really haven't done very in-depth research in this area. My research areas include apoptosis, the regulation mechanism of TGF- by Smad, and the structural biology of phosphatase PP2A.

The main direction of my research is cancer. The topics I have done in these years are all related to the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis and cancer. This has little to do with embryonic stem cells. Professor Shi said.

Zhang Wei said: "In the early 1980s, British scientist Evans isolated embryonic stem cells from mice for the first time, and then started the application research of embryonic stem cells.

In 1998, American scientist Thomson isolated embryonic stem cells from the human body for the first time. However, due to medical ethical restrictions, many subsequent studies could not be carried out smoothly.

Since then, many scientists have begun to study alternatives, hoping to bypass the restrictions of medical ethics. It was not until 2004 that Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk announced that he had successfully cloned human embryonic stem cells. "

"I've heard about Huang Yuxi. Aren't his research results suspected of fraud? The journal Science has already retracted the manuscript. I also know a piece of gossip about this matter." Professor Shi said mysteriously .

"What gossip?" Zhang Wei asked immediately.

"I heard that he came to the United States to give a speech last summer, probably at the University of California, Berkeley. It was during the speech that he was exposed on the spot as having fabricated his paper! It is said that he was quite embarrassed at the time."

"I know this."

"You know? How did you know? This matter is only spread on a small scale in the American academic circle!" Professor Shi was slightly startled, remembering what Zhang Wei had just said, that he was an exchange student at Berkeley last year things.

"You came to the United States as an exchange student last year. Was it during the summer?"

"Isn't it summer!"

"Huang Yuxi happened to be giving a speech at Berkeley at that time. Did you go to listen to it?"

"Not only did I attend the speech on site, I was the one who exposed the falsification of his paper on the spot!"

"Did you reveal that Huang Yuxi had falsified his thesis?" Professor Shi's eyes widened and he looked at Zhang Wei in disbelief: "Junior brother, I really underestimated you! What happened at that time?"

Zhang Wei had no choice but to explain the situation at that time, including Huang Yuxi's initial refusal to admit it and questioning the authenticity of Zhang Wei's evidence. It was not until Zhang Wei showed his sign of the Berkeley Computer Department that the dust settled.

"Junior Brother Zhang, you are such a storyteller! I have been doing scientific research for more than ten years, but I have never experienced such a wonderful thing!" Professor Shi couldn't help but sigh.

Zhang Weize continued: "It was also from that time that I began to pay attention to embryonic stem cells. During the process of developing genetic scissors, I thought of a research direction that, if successful, should be able to replace human embryonic stem cells."

"In other words, you plan to research alternatives to human embryonic stem cells?"

"Yes. But the method I use is not cloning, but transgenic induction."

"Transgenic induction? This is impossible! In living organisms, stem cells have always differentiated into cells with other functions."

"What I mean is that genetically modified cells are used to induce somatic cells so that they also possess stem cell characteristics. As long as they possess the characteristics of stem cells, they can be used as a substitute for embryonic stem cells for use in experiments."

"Is this possible? Let me think about it." Professor Shi frowned and started thinking.

"Don't think too hastily. Listen to me first. The reason why I have this idea is mainly based on a hypothetical possibility."

"What hypothesis?"

"I believe that factors that can induce somatic cells should be factors necessary for the maintenance of stem cells. If this hypothesis is true, then my idea should have a chance to be realized!"

Professor Shi nodded silently and then fell into deep thought.

Zhang Wei didn't bother him anymore. He picked up the tea cup and continued to sip the black tea, waiting for Professor Shi to think.

After a while, Professor Shi finally came to his senses, but there was an expression of surprise on his face.

"No wonder you can create genetic scissors! Your thinking is really out of the ordinary. You can think of these things."

"So, you approved this project?"

"Of course approved! Everyone who studies biology understands the significance of human embryonic stem cells. If an alternative to human embryonic stem cells can be developed, the entire biomedical field will take a big step forward. Of course I will support such a project !" Professor Shi said without hesitation.

……

The project proposed by Zhang Wei is the "induced pluripotent stem cells", or IPS cells, which won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

This refers to the reprogramming of terminally differentiated somatic cells into pluripotent stem cells by introducing specific transcription factors. This type of cells is very similar to embryonic stem cells in terms of morphology, gene expression, epigenetic modification status, and differentiation ability. Can be used as an alternative to embryonic stem cells.

Since IPS cells are induced through genetic modification, they only have the characteristics of embryonic stem cells and are not real human embryonic stem cells, so they can bypass many medical ethical issues.

For example, in medical research, disease modeling requires simulating the occurrence and development of various diseases to provide scientists with an experimental platform to study disease mechanisms and test new drugs.

Or drug screening and poison testing to improve the apparent safety of drugs. If human embryonic stem cells are used at these times, medical ethics issues will inevitably arise.

The emergence of IPS cells can solve this problem. Help scientists complete disease modeling experiments, drug screening experiments and poison testing, which greatly facilitates the development of new drugs.

This result first appeared in 2006, and was only a news report at the time. It was not until 2007 that the paper was officially published. Just five years later, in 2012, it won the Nobel Prize, one year faster than graphene.

Mainly because this technology brings great convenience to the pharmaceutical industry.

As mentioned before, whether a scientific research result can win a Nobel Prize is related to the degree of application. The more widely used it is, the faster it will win a Nobel Prize. Such as graphene.

As I said before, if a scientific research result is related to human life, as long as it can save my dog's life, it will be easier to win the Nobel Prize. Such as mRNA vaccines.

And this IPS cell meets these two points at the same time. It is widely used and is also used in the pharmaceutical industry. It can save my life. Naturally, you can win the Nobel Prize in a very short period of time.

At this time, Zhang Wei had already begun to wonder what it would be like to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine twice!
(End of this chapter)