Chapter 173 Black Technology of this Era
As soon as Liu Xuetai sat down with his dinner plate, two graduate students of the same level as him came over.
"Xue Tai, 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, Sinopharm came to inspect, and Zhang Wei said in front of three academicians that he wanted to develop a new gene editing method." Another spoke.
"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."
"Yes, Zhang Wei has no graduate students to dispatch. , I heard that the last project was still a temporary team. Now he wants to do a new project, and he must be short of people! "
"You mean, I have become a grass team?" Liu Xuetai looked unhappy. said.
"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 just need to sign it.”
“Yes, we don’t need any authorship, just give me a signature!” Another person also said.
"You are thinking of joining the group now? When Zhang Wei was recruiting people before, you two could sneak away faster than anyone else!" Liu Xuetai snorted coldly.
“At that time, I thought that Zhang Wei, a college student and a freshman, was not doing any research projects. We are graduate students after all, how can we listen to the instructions of a freshman!”
"Then why do you want to listen to his command now?" Liu Xuetai asked.
"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!"
"Xuetai, in Zhang Wei's paper, the one signed by you is the third author, right? With just this signature, you can probably apply for a Ph.D. in an American university, right? We are in the same class, Now that you are rich, you have to take care of your brothers!"
"Okay, I'll ask Zhang Wei for you later! But I can't control whether he lets you join the group." Liu Xuetai 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.
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.
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 been working for you for several months, am I going to be abandoned by you?
......
Liu Xuetai guessed right. Zhang Wei did not intend to let him join the project team this time.
In 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.
And the experimental level of these three graduate students is still hard to describe. When they arrive at the project team, many experiments require training before they can be performed.
Today's Zhang Wei is no longer what he used to be. After a "Science" was published, Zhang Wei was considered a top biologist, so naturally he could no longer use those half-baked experimenters.
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 to us uninvited.
Senior Brother Liu once again carried the fruit basket and came to Zhang Wei's dormitory.
"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'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, Then he said: "What do you think of me?"
"Senior Brother Liu, from what you say, do you plan to join my project team?" Zhang Wei asked.
“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 If so, you might as well consider me!" Senior Brother Liu said.
Zhang Wei smiled slightly: "Senior Brother Liu, if you have a Ph.D., if you don't do your own projects and come to my experimental group, you are overqualified, right?"
"Forget about my own project. My mentor doesn'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 follow my mentor, I usually focus on My job is also to do experiments. Since they are all experiments, who should I do it with?"
"Then ditch your tutor and come to me to do experiments. You are not afraid that your tutor will be unhappy if you turn around. Graduation for 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 Water flows from high places to low places, and 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 have a signature on the paper, right?"
"The experimenters in the project team will definitely have a signature on the paper. Yes, but let's talk about it first. Which author can be signed will depend on your performance." Zhang Wei said.
"That's natural! I understand this." Senior Brother Liu nodded, and then said: "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 actually published an article in "Science". I really regret it. If I had known that you could publish a paper in "Science", nucleoside modification. I've been so excited about that project for a long time!"
"Senior Brother Liu, you are quite honest!" 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 the superiors, Zhang Wei has gained an academic status in the field of biological sciences. Even if he wants to grab it at this time, there is no way The law started.
Zhang Wei then asked: "Senior Brother Liu, let's be honest, if you join my project team, will your supervisor have any objections? Don't really give you a shoestring then. Wear it!" "No. I have been working with my supervisor for almost five years when I was studying for my master's degree. I have been working for him for five years, but I have never complained. Of course, my supervisor also takes good care of me. < br>
I am from Shaanxi. After I get my doctorate, I plan to go back to the university in Xi’an to find a job. If I can have a paper signed by "Science", it will be very important when I submit my resume. Bonus points.
This is related to my job for the rest of my life. My mentor will definitely not put me in the shoes 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 Qingdao 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 all 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 so many talented people in the capital, but if I stay, I will be just 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 am not even a phoenix tail! To be honest, I wanted to stay in the capital before, but after seeing you, I still think about it. Forget it. Just go back to your hometown and be a chicken head!" Senior Brother Liu said with a look of helplessness.
......
After sending Brother Liu away, Zhang Wei summoned the devil and exchanged papers on genetic scissors.
""AProgrammableDual-RNA-GuidedDNAEndonucleaseinAdaptiveBacterialImmunity", a programmable dual-RNA-guided DNA endonuclease in adaptive bacterial immunity, this is the paper on genetic scissors! Remember this paper, I also got it 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 CRISPR-Cas9 and also announces the birth of a genetic scissors.
CRISPR was first discovered in E. coli in 1987 and named by Spanish scientists in 1993. This paper on genetic scissors was published in Science in June 2012, which means that it took humans 25 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.
Gene 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, then the Nobel Prize in Chemistry might be awarded to him before 2015.
Opening the paper, the names of the two original authors came into Zhang Wei's eyes.
Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna!
"Dodna? That Professor Dodna from the University of California, Berkeley! He's really an acquaintance."
Zhang Wei immediately thought that Huang Junji's acquaintance when he was an exchange student at Berkeley was not Is this Professor Dodna!
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. Paper fraud.
"We are really enemies, and we meet here. Forget it, you copy one of my papers, and I will copy one of yours, we are even!
But in this way, The authors of the papers I copied before didn’t 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.
The next step is the experimental verification process. The paper verified the cleavage activity of CRISPR-Cas9 in 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 essay has clear logic and clear levels. It is indeed an excellent paper of extremely high level.
Zhang Wei even silently rated 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 scientific research results, the writing level of the paper alone is not 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 Ph.D. Only three remained. 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. 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)