Rebirth 07: Start adding points from elementary school students

Chapter 538 Are You Brave Enough to Apply for Project Funding?
The beginning of the story is very beautiful.

Li Yan attended the inauguration ceremony of the "Future Technology Life Science Research Project Award Foundation" at the end of June. At the meeting, Li Yan shocked all participants with an eye-popping amount of money.

Whether they are academic giants, school professors, or company teams at the forefront of life science research, they all opened their eyes wide.

Those young academic teams, especially the outstanding student representatives from top universities, had shining eyes.

There is no need for analysis. These young men must be thinking of using the "astonishing" research topics on hand to win a lot of bonuses, to satisfy both spiritual and material needs, and to maximize their exposure.

It couldn't be better!
Everyone was obviously attracted by the high amount of bonus, and didn't really take Li Yan's words "I will personally review all projects" seriously.

As a result, Li Yan's reputation as an "angel investor in research projects" quickly spread, making other academic fields jealous. They were thinking about quickly preparing a report to get Li Yan's attention and set up a fund.

Relatively speaking, the status of life sciences in China has always been relatively low. This time with Li Yan's support, it can be said that it has gained a lot of pride.

It even triggered a small wave of enthusiasm for college entrance examination volunteers...

This has caused many schools' admissions offices to feel frustrated.

All these years of hard work are not as good as Li Yan’s action.

I believe that at this moment, Li Yan should be radiating glory in the eyes of everyone in the field of life sciences.

Because this was not a competition to open a new topic and there were no restrictions on participants, a large number of ready-made research topics quickly came to us.

At this time, the person who submitted the article was still unsure.

Confidence is one thing, and actually investing is another.

But their concerns are more specific.

"I don't know which expert Li Yan hired. If he doesn't deal with us, then we're doomed, right?"

Unexpectedly, out of the massive first batch of project reports, 70 percent of them passed the preliminary review by Future Technology.

You should know that there are still a large number of projects that do not meet the most basic conditions. For example, some have been completed long ago and do not need any financial subsidies at all; some do not even provide the most basic materials required; some provide content that is so terrible that it is unbearable to look at; some are just amateur scientists showing off their skills...

After eliminating these, the only topics left are those that at least meet the most basic requirements, which would roughly account for 70 percent.

In other words, as long as you are doing serious research, you can pass the initial review.

When everyone received the text message that the preliminary review was passed, they cheered and Li Yan instantly turned from an angel investor into a "God of Wealth".

Some stakeholders even praised Li Yan privately, saying that he was "very ambitious," "the savior of life sciences," and "pointed out the direction of human technological development."

"Li Yan is the beacon of life science research!"

The fact that even such a slogan can be shouted out shows how dizzy everyone is with expectations.

But within a week, the atmosphere had completely changed.

The initial review qualification rate was 70%, and the second review qualification rate suddenly became 7%.

Seven percent!

Of more than 17,000 topics, only about 800 were shortlisted for the second review.

These more than 800 have not even reached Li Yan and need to go through a third review before reaching the stage of "Li Yan's personal review".

The elimination rate in the second round was too high, so naturally many teams that were complacent about passing the first round became clowns.

Not only were student assignments eliminated, but some research projects at research institutes were also killed, which is really distressing.

For a time, it was not uncommon for students' research projects to go further than their supervisors' in major universities.

As a result, Li Yan's reputation plummeted rapidly. She had just become a beacon, but in an instant she became a usurper.

But because of the money, no one dares to say anything too extreme. The most they can do is complain that "different trades mean different worlds", but they don't even dare to name anyone.

However, it can also be regarded as a way to cool down the carnival of advance payment. The project funds with units of hundreds of thousands can never be the type that cast a wide net. Several million-dollar support quotas and the "uncapped" special prize are meant to help one fight one's way out of the huge enemy.

After three reviews, there were less than a hundred projects that Li Yan could personally select and report on.

This result was difficult for many teams to accept. In just half a month, they went from being Li Yan's die-hard supporters to her enemies.

Although Li Yan did not announce the shortlisted list, this is not a very large circle and everyone knows each other's situation.

It was embarrassing enough that a student was selected but the tutor failed during the second review. In the end, less than a hundred people were selected. How could such a situation happen? How can we accept this?
The vice president of the School of Life Sciences of a certain university brought his team to the Future Life Sciences Research Company, which was responsible for the preliminary review, and expressed his desire to "discuss the issue." He was very aggressive.

As a result, the person in charge, Mr. Tan, greeted them with a smile and said, "I also highly approve of your research! So I will let you pass the third review."

Professor Guo was about to vent his anger but he held it back.

"Eh?"

"Don't thank me, you deserve it."

"Why wasn't that topic selected into the final list?"

"This is not something I can decide, Professor Guo. It was Mr. Li who made the choice himself."

"What's the reason?"

"I definitely don't know the reason behind Mr. Li's decision." Mr. Tan was very calm.

This calmness made the angry Professor Guo look very clownish. "Which office is Mr. Li in?"

"Well, if you want to see Mr. Li, you need to go to the front desk to apply, and then it will be reviewed by the Human Resources Department and you will be taken to the reception room to wait."

"So troublesome?"

"Of course," Mr. Tan said with a smile, "That's Mr. Li."

At this point, Professor Guo's anger had largely subsided.

But adhering to the principle of "since I'm here, I'm here", I still insisted on completing the process and waited for Li Yan in the meeting room.

What they never expected was that after waiting for twenty minutes, they received a notice saying "you can go to Li Yan's office."

"Didn't he come to the reception room?" Professor Guo was a little annoyed.

"Of course you come as requested."

"……Fine."

In the end, they were not able to enter Li Yan's office, but met Li Yan in the small meeting room next to the office.

Li Yan was eating melon seeds with Wei Yunzhi and pointing at the computer.

Upon seeing this scene, Professor Guo was a little angry, "Mr. Li, aren't you being too disrespectful?"

Li Yan glanced at him and said, "Show him away."

Two polite men in suits walked into the conference room and said, "Professor Guo, please."

"Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Li." Professor Guo said that a real man can bend and stretch. "I was abrupt and made you unhappy. I apologize."

"Please take a seat."

Wei Yunzhi obediently moved her seat a little to the side to give Li Yan room to perform.

But Li Yan pulled the chair back directly.

"It's just to show you the cases, otherwise I don't have time to see them."

He did not shy away from saying this to Professor Guo and his group.

Wei Yunzhi could only give them a beautiful, friendly and slightly apologetic look.

"Guo Yong?" Li Yan asked, "The research topic is the optimization research of mRNA vaccine technology and lipid nanoparticle delivery technology, right?"

"Yes." Guo Yong's tone was not very good.

"There's no need to be emotional, Professor Guo." Li Yan said, "You're not the first person who thinks his research topic is valuable and complains about not being selected. There are so many teams, and they all come to me one by one. Should I stop working?"

"I just want an explanation." "Why do I need to explain to you?" Li Yan said with a smile.

"This..." Professor Guo frowned, "You rejected my academic achievements. What's wrong with me arguing with you?"

"I pay for the project I like, do I need to explain why? Do I have to explain to the stall owner whether something is good or bad when I go to the market to buy something?"

"If you say so, why bother to see me?" Professor Guo's nose was steaming, "Is it just to humiliate me?!"

"I'm not someone with such vulgar tastes." Li Yan waved her hand. "Your research is quite typical, just enough to explain some things."

Professor Guo's two assistants immediately took out their notebooks.

"First of all, everyone who comes to me to express dissatisfaction probably has a common misunderstanding. They think that my judging criteria are the same as other competitions, focusing on the completion of the project itself and the results. But in fact, I look at the feasibility of the project and the necessity of 'spending money'."

"MRNA vaccine technology is currently cutting-edge technology, and optimizing a feasible technology requires a huge investment..."

"Do you think I don't know?" Li Yan interrupted.

"Ok?"

"Do you think I don't understand anything related to biological science?"

“…That’s not what I meant.”

"That's what you meant." Li Yan spoke faster, "Otherwise you wouldn't use something that already has a sufficient research basis and only requires mechanical experiments and summarizing the experiments to be considered a result to fool me."

The two assistants looked at Professor Guo at the same time, and saw that his face turned red and white, and he looked a little embarrassed.

Being denied like this, of course I had to make a few rebuttals, but Li Yan's words hit the nail on the head. "Doing experiments mechanically" is indeed the majority of the work in this topic.

"Experiments are originally biological sciences..."

"Your work can be done by undergraduates. You can get 'optimization' just by spending more time. There are already clear-cut technologies. Your research can only achieve 3% to 4% optimization at best. It is essentially an ineffective optimization."

Professor Guo has clenched his teeth.

"Of course, I don't deny the significance of experiments. Many remarkable breakthroughs are based on various boring basic experiments."

"Right!" Professor Guo relaxed a little and was about to talk about Li Yan's point of view...

"So, my money is for projects that may bring about great breakthroughs, even if it is just a naive idea of ​​an undergraduate student. As long as his experimental direction is correct, he has his own set of self-consistent logic, and needs experimental results to further advance, I will give it. But for research like this that is actually just for the sake of producing results, you can just play with it yourself."

Professor Guo then made a decision that made him extremely regretful and discussed the content of the research topic itself with Li Yan.

Let’s discuss the value of this topic.

The result was that until the return flight, the assistant was still comforting the distraught Professor Guo.

Li Yan's method of defeating them was very simple. He provided several routes to optimize the data and make it look better. He also predicted the possible data for their subsequent experiments. He had this data in his hands, so he knew how accurate Li Yan was. It could be said that he was defeated in every aspect.

But what really made Li Yan become the "devil's judge" was the "interview" that followed.

No matter you are an academic master or a young college student, once you come to the lecture hall of Future Technology, you will leave in a sweat.

For example, the project under the supervision of He Xiaogang, the head of the BGI Bioscience Research Center, is led by An Shan, a doctoral senior of Liu Zimei, an executive of Future Biotech, to study the adaptive nano-symbiotic drug platform.

It is also a highly anticipated research topic. He Xiaogang provided his disciple with very excellent experimental conditions, hoping that he could achieve some results in this field that sounds a bit advanced.

It can be said that it perfectly meets Li Yan's requirements. Liu Zimei himself is also involved in it, and He Xiaogang has a good relationship with Li Yan. In the eyes of many people, this project should be the designated "no upper limit" award.

Dr. An thinks so too.

So even though all the speakers who faced Li Yan walked out of the conference room with unhappy expressions that day, he was still full of confidence.

Liu Zimei also specifically reminded him, "Brother An, Mr. Li has very high requirements. You must have a clear mind and talk less nonsense."

"no problem."

"This is not a normal defense..."

"Don't worry, Junior Sister." An Shan adjusted his glasses with a smile, "Even Teacher He said that my understanding of this project is impeccable."

Unexpectedly, there were only Li Yan and Wei Yunzhi in the meeting room.

Dr. An didn't know Wei Yunzhi, but judging by the way she was frantically taking notes, she was probably a meeting recorder.

That means I only have to face Li Yan, which is much easier.

I never expected that Li Yan interrupted me after I had just said four or five sentences.

"I have read all the contents, so there is no need to repeat them. Please answer me, what is the core of your research?"

Wow? Is this the difficulty that Liu Zimei emphasized?

But I, Anshan, am well prepared!
The two of them went back and forth over four questions, and Li Yan did not express any dissatisfaction, and Anshan's self-confidence grew stronger.

"You have your own ideas about the shell, the powertrain, and the core loading, which is great. But what is your basis for 'using the extracellular ATP gradient to drive rotation'?"

"I think……"

"Don't worry about what you think." Li Yan interrupted.

At this moment, Anshan suddenly felt a very strong pressure.

It's not obvious, but it happens again and again, and you can't escape it even a little bit.

"Based on current research, we..."

"What research?"

"...Wait, let me see."

Li Yan remained silent.

In this silence, Anshan's hands were shaking slightly as he was looking for information. He had indeed seen relevant literature and came up with this idea to solve the problem of "promoting nanoparticles to cross tissue barriers", but so far it was just a feasibility and he hadn't really thought about it in depth.

The less Li Yan spoke, the more nervous he became.

About a minute later, An Shan found a similar paper and was still nervously recalling which one he had read when he heard Li Yan suddenly say, "ATP-driven nanomotors, a joint study from Nature, Lighthouse."

"……Yes, it is."

"You give directions based on other people's research, but don't even provide a reference?"

"No, Mr. Li, let me explain, because this is just an idea at the moment, not a finalized paper..."

"Then how do you know what experiment to do next?"

An Shan began to sweat, "It's mainly to verify..."

"How do you verify this? Let me start with your power system. You can use CRISPR to interfere with mitochondrial genes to locally increase ATP concentration. What is the experimental basis?"

"Here," Anshan pulled up a page of data, "according to..."

"I've seen that others have used experiments to prove that ATP concentration can be increased through interference. Then what? How do you plan to conduct experiments to determine what the ATP concentration should be?"

"Well...I think it's okay..."

"Don't think so." Li Yan interrupted again, "You can't just do an experiment based on what you think might happen. You need to use data to speak based on sufficient research. Use data and logic to block out useless ideas. I don't even know how to 'interfere with mitochondrial genes through Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats'."

"Yes, we currently lack the conditions to conduct relevant research..."

"If I give you money, you have conditions?"

"Uh……"

"CRISPR gene editing is very efficient, especially when it comes to simply removing genes, but even the most advanced experiments currently have the potential to cause accidental injuries. It is currently used more to correct genetic errors that cause disease. If you want to achieve targeted interference directly through this technology, can you at least tell me how to do it?"

Anshan was also sweating profusely.

(End of this chapter)