Siheyuan: The prosperous era starting from being a doctor

Chapter 405 The Human Genome Project and Dissonant Voices
Beijing Gene Research Institute.

In a conference room.

Director Feng chairs the institute's daily meetings.

In addition to Wang Mengde, the nominal deputy director, there are several other deputy directors and a dozen project leaders.

After a brief chat with Wang Mengde, Director Feng went straight to the point:
“Next, there is a question that needs to be discussed.

That is, our institute has just received a large sum of money from the national treasury, how should this money be allocated? "

Starting from October every year, various scientific research institutions in China begin to apply for projects.

Once approved, the project funds will be deposited into the unit’s account in February of the following year.

Of course, this is the conventional way. There are also a few special cases where you can apply and get approval at any time.

For example, many of the projects proposed by Wang Mengde, whether at the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine or the Institute of Genetics, were spur-of-the-moment ideas.

In this situation, the superiors are not unhappy at all. On the contrary, they are very happy to see it.

Because every time a project is applied for, the investment is basically small and the returns are huge.

As long as the higher authorities have approved it, the higher-ups will directly agree to it.

The department that manages money, or other departments, will also cooperate happily.

As for other people or other research institutions, they do not encounter this kind of temporary declaration situation very often.

Because not everyone is called Wang Mengde.

Therefore, each scientific research unit follows the procedures step by step, establishes the project in the previous year, and then applies to the higher-level department.

If the higher authorities approve it, everyone will be happy. They will just wait for the funds to be allocated in February of next year and then start the research work on the project.

But if the project is killed, it will be sad.

This situation is not impossible to happen. After all, the country's finances have been in difficulty in recent years and funds are needed in all aspects.

In this case, priority is naturally given to important and high-quality projects.

As for ordinary projects, once they are considered to be put aside or unimportant, they may be eliminated.

There is also an extremely special situation that may occur.

That is, the country suddenly has money, and then it will take care of key units and invest the newly acquired money into these units.

Thanks to Wang Mengde, the country has earned a large amount of foreign exchange with the help of the "Rejuvenation Pill" in the past two months.

Fifteen thousand dollars a pill is extremely expensive, but even so, the thousands of pills released every month are still in short supply.

Especially after taking this medicine, the effect is particularly obvious for those who are old.

Then, these people went crazy.

No one wants to die. Even ants try to survive, let alone these powerful people in foreign countries.

They have money and power, but they can't live a carefree life at all. There are so many better things in life.

How could I be willing to die like this?

Therefore, when there is a drug that can delay aging and enhance physical fitness, everyone who knows about it will want to stock up a large amount and take it slowly for themselves.

But unfortunately, China has been controlling the production, with only more than a thousand pills per month.

Moreover, medicines have a shelf life. According to Hua Guo, the shelf life of this "rejuvenation pill" is only half a year. After this time, the efficacy of the medicine will drop significantly.

The medicine is most effective when it is just produced.

Therefore, every month those foreign dignitaries would send people to buy thirty pills, which would be enough for one month.

The sudden increase of nearly 20 million US dollars in foreign exchange income every month has also made China's finances much more comfortable.

Of course, foreign exchange is reserved for purchasing much-needed industrial equipment and large quantities of materials from abroad.

But correspondingly, some of the funds previously reserved have been increased.

Therefore, the higher authorities allocated this part of the funds to some key units.

Although the Beijing Gene Research Institute was established not long ago, it has achieved many achievements.

Moreover, many of the achievements are at the world's leading level, and many of them are in fields that have not been explored abroad.

For example, gene editing technology.

Because Wang Mengde had the memories of his previous life and with the help of the space, he single-handedly supported this subject.

After several years of teaching and continuous research by scientific researchers, the institute is now strong and powerful.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the future importance of this research institute is immeasurable.

After receiving a large amount of additional funding from the state, Director Feng, who had just taken office, felt both happy and distressed.

The good news is that the institute he leads has been recognized and become a national key scientific research institution.

As the head of the unit, he will have real benefits, whether it is having face in the future, being valued by his superiors, or having a smoother career.

But it is not without troubles.

After several years of development, we have continued to introduce top talents and also provide internal training.

The Beijing Gene Research Institute is no longer the vaccine team with only a dozen people, supported entirely by Wang Mengde.

So far, the institute has hundreds of full-time scientific researchers, dozens of interns, and hundreds of other personnel.

As the number of personnel increases, the number of projects will naturally increase as well.

Starting from October every year, each project begins to be established based on personnel.

Everyone's schedule is fully scheduled.

The higher authorities approved all the projects applied for by the institute.

This means that the staff is at full capacity.

After the state allocated an additional batch of funds a few days ago, it fell into an awkward situation where there was no one available and no specific projects to spend the money.

This made Director Feng very worried.

If the superiors could approve more money, all units would definitely be delighted.

Due to financial constraints, most units cannot provide as much as you apply for.

This way, superiors will weigh the pros and cons.

More money means that the unit is valued by the higher authorities and can do more.

But the genetic research institute is different, as it has sufficient funds.

Suddenly there is a large amount of money, and you need to plan carefully how to spend it.

It won't do if you spend it randomly.

First of all, these are collective properties, and waste is unacceptable. Not only will the superiors not allow it, but even the people in the unit will not agree to it.

Many people of this era are very pure.

Secondly, if the money is spent without any results, it will be a serious loss of points in front of the higher authorities, which is not advisable.

Therefore, Director Feng called together all the leaders of the institute to hold a meeting to conduct research.

“Director, our staff is already quite tight this year, and everyone has already made arrangements. It’s not easy to start a new project.

Moreover, the research funds for each project are sufficient and no additional funds are needed.”

At this time, another deputy director spoke up. "Deputy Director Cheng is right. The projects are progressing steadily now. Recruiting more people may affect the progress of the projects.

If this money is a small amount, we can divide it equally among various projects and spend it all.

But the amount is too large to be spread over other projects.”

"Yes, it's just September now, and the timing is rather awkward. The project has been underway for more than half a year, so it's too late to make temporary adjustments."

"The main reason is that I didn't get the news in advance. A sum of money was suddenly allocated and needed to be spent in a short period of time. It was too difficult."

Someone started speaking, and other leaders followed suit and expressed their opinions.

No one had a solution for the moment and could only express their embarrassment.

Director Feng was very dissatisfied when he saw that everyone was just complaining.

However, since I just arrived, it is not a good idea to offend most people directly.

So, he looked at everyone present quietly with an expressionless face and did not express any opinion.

After a few minutes, most of the leaders said a few words, but nothing constructive, and the scene suddenly became quiet.

"Well, does anyone have any suggestions or opinions?"

Director Feng asked.

For a moment, except for Wang Mengde, everyone else lowered their heads slightly, fearing that they would be called out.

Wang Mengde already had a speech in his mind, but just as he was about to speak, he saw Director Feng gently shaking his head at him, so he stopped.

Just when the atmosphere was awkward, a leader suddenly had an idea under the gaze of Director Feng and said:
“Director, since we don’t have any new staff for the project, why don’t we deposit the money into the unit’s account first?

By October, a new project will be launched, and by February next year, the money will have a place to go.”

After saying this, he looked somewhat proud, and secretly praised himself for his cleverness in his heart.

Just as he was waiting to be praised by Director Feng, the other leaders present, including Director Feng, were so angry that they laughed.

I really don't know how this person managed to get the leadership position of the research institute.

The words he said were not thought through at all.

If we really do as he says, it will be difficult for the Beijing Gene Research Institute to apply for more research funds in the future!

After all, you can't spend the money I gave you this time. It seems that your funds are really saturated.

Next time when you apply for more scientific research funding, even if it is a key unit valued by the state, the funding will definitely be reduced.

Therefore, basically all units will try their best to spend all the money they apply for.

This way, applying for funding in the future will be much smoother.

What made Director Feng happy was that the person who just spoke was not a scientific researcher, which made him feel much better.

Just as everyone was looking at each other and thinking hard, Director Feng finally called Wang Mengde's name:

"Comrade Meng De, do you have any good suggestions?"

Director Feng is not afraid that this young, promising and capable nominal subordinate will threaten his position.

If Wang Mengde wanted to be the director of a genetic research institute, he would probably have become one long ago.

Before he came to work, the leader of the higher-level department had a talk with him and made it clear.

At that time, the first choice for the director of the institute was not him, but Comrade Wang Mengde.

It was only because I was turned down that I finally chose him.

On the other hand, Director Feng also knew that given the other party's status in the Chinese Medical Research Institute, the next director of the institute would be none other than Wang Mengde.

This is a better unit and a better platform than the Institute of Genetics.

Therefore, the two people are not in a competitive relationship.

On the contrary, Director Feng particularly hopes that Wang Mengde can come to the institute to provide guidance in the future.

In addition to the results and the honor of the research team, he, as the main leader, also has the credit.

After a few years, it will not be a luxury for him to take a further step forward and move up.

"Director, I have an immature idea.

The most powerful technology in our research institute is gene editing technology.

This technology is far ahead of others in the world.

Even other countries have no idea yet.”

Seeing that Director Feng and other leaders were listening carefully, Wang Mengde paused and continued:
"The reason why China's technology is leading the world is not only due to the unremitting efforts of all employees, but also due to the leading scientific concepts.

When this technology was proposed, there was no reference at all, only a concept.

Everyone knows what happened later. This technology has brought endless benefits to China.

That’s the benefit of being ahead.”

"Since then, I have been thinking about what the next research direction of genetic technology should be."

“Then one day it hit me, and that was the Human Genome Project.”

When Wang Mengde said the words "Human Genome Project", more than a dozen project leaders present were all stunned.

Then, their faces turned red.

Although they didn't know the specific plan, just by hearing the name, they understood that this was a huge plan that would affect the future of all mankind.

“The Human Genome Project?”

Director Feng also looked very interested and said, "Comrade Wang Mengde, please tell us in detail."

"Director, the purpose of the Human Genome Project is to determine the nucleotide sequence of the billions of base pairs contained in human haploid chromosomes.

This will allow us to map the human genome and identify the genes and sequences it contains, achieving the ultimate goal of deciphering human genetic information. . . . "

Wang Mengde thought for a moment and then briefly introduced some of the knowledge from his previous life that he had learned in the space.

In fact, research on the human genome already had some initial stages as early as the 70s.

In the 80s, it had already formed a certain scale in many countries.

It was officially launched in 90.

But these are all done by developed Western countries. China started very late, coupled with some special reasons.

Our technology and achievements lag far behind those countries.

Wang Mengde already had a plan in mind. Since he had traveled through time, he naturally needed to change this situation.

He had originally planned to propose this plan a few years later when the time was right, but he didn't expect the situation to change, so he spoke it out in advance.

After listening to his story, everyone present looked incredulous.

They didn't expect that Wang Mengde would come up with such a huge plan.

To be honest, we are no longer young, but after hearing this plan, we were all excited.

“Comrade Wang Mengde, I didn’t expect your plan to be so big, it’s amazing.

I think this plan is very feasible and particularly suitable for our institute.”

Director Feng said excitedly.

Just when everyone wanted to agree, a discordant voice appeared again!
(End of this chapter)