Chapter 180 Xiao Huo, stand up and toast!
Director Wang looked at Academician Qian with a puzzled expression. His doubtful eyes seemed to be asking, do you want to eat dumplings?
Academician Qian took a deep breath and said: "I really admire you. In order to let Sinopharm invest in the development of mRNA vaccines, you really came up with a new gene editing technology. This is like Dip this plate in vinegar and make a special plate of dumplings!”
“Academician Qian, you mean, the mRNA vaccine is vinegar and the genetic scissors are dumplings?” Director Wang finally understood.
Academician Qian nodded, and Director Wang looked at the other two academicians to ask for their opinions.
"The metaphor of old money is very vivid. This is really a plate of dumplings specially made to soak up the vinegar." Academician Li also said.
“Is this genetic scissors so powerful?” Director Wang asked incredulously.
Academician Qian thought for a while and then asked: "Director Wang, you are a senior executive of Sinopharm. You should know what world-class scientific research achievements our country has in the field of bioscience, right?"
< br>"The artificial synthesis of bovine insulin in the 1960s, artemisinin in the 1970s, test tube goats in the 1980s, and human genome research in the 1990s." Director Wang blurted out.
“Our country is only one of the participants in the latter two scientific research results, and they cannot be regarded as independently completed. The only world-class scientific research results independently completed by the Chinese are artificially synthesized bovine insulin. And artemisinin.”
Academician Qian sighed and continued: "This genetic scissors technology is even better than the synthetic bovine insulin of the past!"
"Really?" Director Wang was shocked. He didn't expect Academician Qian's evaluation to be so high.
The artificial synthesis of bovine insulin can be regarded as one of the greatest scientific research achievements since the founding of New China. It is also the closest scientific research achievement to the Nobel Prize for the Chinese in the entire twentieth century.
It is a pity that this scientific research result was not born at the right time. After the success of artificially synthesizing bovine insulin, it soon encountered some force majeure factors and did not win the Nobel Prize.
By the time academician Qian Sanqiang presided over the Chinese Academy of Sciences during the reform and opening up, it would have been too late to start working on the Nobel Prize. Scientific research results are time-sensitive. Artificial bovine insulin will ultimately be the same as the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Missed.
Synthetic bovine insulin is already a Nobel Prize-level achievement. If it is better than that, then you can congratulate in advance on winning the Nobel Prize!
Academician Qian’s evaluation was too exaggerated, and Director Wang didn’t believe it. Before that, he had preconceived the idea that the gene editing technology developed by Tsingta University was full of water. Now he is told that parallel imports can win the Nobel Prize. How could he believe it.
So Director Wang looked at the other two academicians.
“The genetic scissors technology developed by Teacher Zhang Wei is enough to bring an epic revolution to molecular biology. This new gene editing technology has many advantages over traditional technologies. In the past, Many experiments that were impossible to do, or were too expensive, can now be done," Academician Li said first.
“We have discussed before that the difficulty in the research and development of mRNA lies in the excessive investment in early gene editing. The genetic scissors technology developed by Mr. Zhang Wei can just make up for this shortcoming and greatly reduce the cost of research and development of mRNA vaccines. . I think Sinopharm can invest in the research and development of mRNA vaccine technology,” Academician Zhang added.
Before that, all the academicians called Zhang Wei by his first name, and only Director Wang called Zhang Wei "teacher". After all, Zhang Wei is only 20 years old, so asking a distinguished academician to call a 20-year-old boy "teacher" is somewhat awkward.
But now academicians are willing to call Zhang Wei "teacher". It is obviously the influence of genetic scissors. This achievement has completely convinced them.
Gene Scissors is even better than the synthetic bovine insulin of the past, and can produce scientific research results of this level. Even academicians do not feel wronged by calling them "teacher".
When Zhang Wei made nucleoside modifications before, the three academicians only thought that Zhang Wei was a very good young man in scientific research, but they were not convinced.
Who can be elected as an academician and has not published some articles in the three major journals? Even though Zhang Wei published "Science", academicians still regarded Zhang Wei as a young junior.
This is just like Bill Gates who will not admire Musk or Zuckerberg, but will criticize them from the perspective of his predecessors. Because in the eyes of Bill Gates, Musk or Zuckerberg are just following the path he has walked before, and they are just juniors.
However, the advent of this genetic scissors technology has made it impossible for the three academicians to follow the example of their predecessors. Showing off in front of this level of achievements can only appear arrogant and arrogant.
As Academician Qian said, if the mRNA vaccine is like a plate of vinegar, then the genetic scissors are like a plate of dumplings.
The mRNA vaccine seems quite bluffing. It is a new vaccine technology, and it is indeed a Nobel Prize-level achievement. But this is still a long way from being applied. Even if it can enter the application stage, it will take a lot of time to promote it.
More importantly, compared with conventional inactivated vaccines, mRNA vaccines can only be said to have advantages, but they cannot completely replace traditional inactivated vaccine technology. Many features of inactivated vaccines are still irreplaceable by mRNA vaccines.
In this regard, this can only be a special research achievement that adds icing on the cake.
If a scientific research result lacks the urgency of application, it will probably only attract the attention of investors. In academia, world-class new results are produced every month. How many people will continue to pay attention to a technology that will not be applied for decades?
This is also true. If major public safety incidents had not occurred, the promotion of mRNA vaccines would have been delayed for decades, and this technology would probably have missed the Nobel Prize.
Maybe in twenty or thirty years, human science will have major developments and breakthroughs, and there will be more powerful vaccine technology, or more effective means of epidemic prevention, who will pay attention to the mRNA vaccine? !
This is like Akio Toyoda announcing that Toyota will build hydrogen energy vehicles! This will be the trend of the future! When the news first came out, it attracted the attention of the world.
All kinds of big V’s are boasting, look at how awesome Toyota is, Japan’s car manufacturing technology will lead the world in the next century, China’s auto industry is lagging behind again, and it’s a pill, why don’t you reflect on it quickly!
As a result, Toyota has been shouting for almost ten years, and it keeps shouting every year, but the car cannot be seen every year. The so-called commercialization of hydrogen energy vehicles was delayed from 2020 to 2023, then to 2025, and now it has become the commercialization of hydrogen energy vehicles in 2030.
As a result, the big Vs stopped bragging, and the media didn’t bother to hype it up. Toyoda’s words were purely regarded as farts, and no one would take them seriously.
There are so many pieces of cake that even ordinary people can’t be fooled, not to mention that scholars all have top-notch IQs.
In their view, it is good to understand the big pie of mRNA vaccines. It will not be too late to take it seriously when they can really eat this piece of pie.
But genetic scissors technology is completely different. This new technology does not need to take decades to promote, but can be directly put into application.
If the technology can be applied immediately, the attention of the academic community will be full, and many scholars will be eager to experiment with this new technology.
The most important thing is that genetic scissors are more efficient and cheaper, and can completely replace zinc finger nuclease technology.
If a new technology can replace the original technology, its value will be completely different.
This is equivalent to Akio Toyoda still clamoring for hydrogen energy, but it turns out that Mr. Lei of Xiaomi has already built a car with driverless driving. If it were you, would you admire Akio Toyoda’s rhetoric or Mr. Lei of Xiaomi’s hard work? ……
At this time, Director Wang also noticed that the three academicians’ title for Zhang Wei had become “Teacher Zhang Wei.”
Having the academician call "teacher" represents great recognition of Zhang Wei and also means that genetic scissors are extraordinary.
So Director Wang asked: "Since the genetic scissors technology of the three academicians has been rated so highly, our Sinopharm is also willing to introduce this technology. If the genetic scissors technology can really achieve the expected results, the mRNA vaccine We can also invest in research and development.”
“That’s good! The patent for the genetic scissors is under application. If Sinopharm is interested in it, we can sign a technology transfer agreement first!” Principal Gu said happily! Said hehe.
"What about the paper? Is the paper finished for such an important scientific research result? Where do you plan to publish it this time?" Academician Qian looked at Zhang Wei.
"The paper has been written and is waiting for the reviewers' comments. As for where to publish it, let's publish it in Science! After all, I am familiar with the editor there." Zhang Wei replied.
"It doesn't have to be published in Science. If other journals can be faster, it may be published in other journals." Principal Gu said and winked at Zhang Wei.
Zhang Wei noticed Principal Gu's eyes and was slightly startled. He suddenly realized that he might have said the wrong thing.
“Such a major scientific research achievement will have to be published in three major journals in the beginning!” Academician Qian said cheerfully. He had already got the answer he wanted.
...
After seeing off the three academicians, Zhang Wei approached Principal Gu and asked in a low voice: "Principal, did I just say something I shouldn't have said?"
Principal Gu sighed: "You shouldn't go into such detail about the thesis."
"I don't quite understand." Zhang Wei looked at Principal Gu in confusion.
Principal Gu replied: "When Lao Qian asks you about your paper, you can be vague and don't go into details; you can also lie and say it will be published soon.
But you told Lao Qian that he had finished writing the paper and was waiting for the reviewers' comments. This was equivalent to telling him that it was still early for the paper to be officially published, which would cause a lot of trouble! "
"Principal, please stop being so secretive. What trouble can you cause? Just say it! Is it possible that someone else could come to steal my scientific research results? "Zhang Wei asked.
"It won't be possible to snatch it openly, but what about secretly snatching it? "
"What kind of secret method? Steal my paper and publish it first? "
Zhang Wei shook his head as he spoke: "Impossible, I have all the experimental data, and I also recorded the process of repeating the experiment. If they really steal the paper and publish it first, I can determine that the other party's paper is fake as long as I publish the experimental data. ”
"Then if someone wants to be co-signed as the first author with you, or asks to be signed as the corresponding author, can you accept it? To be more serious, there will be several people asking to be signed as the first author, and your name will be ranked last. Can you accept it?" Principal Gu said with a gloomy face.
"What are you thinking? Of course I can't accept it!" Zhang Wei shook his head decisively and continued: "Principal, if it were you, I would accept it as the corresponding author. If it were someone else, right? If you don’t make any contribution to the project, you just want to be signed as the corresponding author. There is no way!”
Zhang Wei would not let go of the signature of the corresponding author, let alone the co-signed first author!
Principal Gu said: "What if the person who requested the signature has contributed to the project? Apart from other things, does the financial support from superiors count as a contribution to the project? They will approve it for you. For scientific research funds, it’s not too much to ask for a corresponding author!”
Zhang Wei suddenly fell into silence, and he already understood what Principal Gu meant.
The corresponding author is usually the organizer and coordinator of the team. This does not mean that they must be the leader of the research group or a senior researcher. One of the most important tasks is that the corresponding author is responsible for the project funding.
Even if the father who gave the money is not involved in the project at all, it is not too much to ask for the title of the corresponding author's book, right?
There are many situations like this abroad. The corresponding author of the paper is the person in charge of the scientific research institution, or even the sponsor of the scientific research project. Especially for those commercial scientific research institutions, if you don’t give your name, the sponsor dad will not give you money!
Foreign high-impact factor journals often require that the corresponding author must be one of the authors of the article, but there is no way to verify this.
The corresponding author only needs to remember one sentence in the paper, and then say that this sentence was written by me. Can you say that he is not one of the authors?
Therefore, for Zhang Wei, there is nothing wrong with how the above-mentioned institution responsible for funding recommends a person and hopes to be signed as a corresponding author. This is in line with the unspoken rules of the scientific research field.
Taking people's money to eliminate disasters for others, and giving you funds to do research is equivalent to helping you bear the financial risk. If you have achieved good results, it is reasonable and only natural to give someone a big piece of pie in return when you divide the pie!
This kind of real deal is not what Zhang Wei is worried about. When it comes to dividing the pie, you should give what is due, otherwise it will be unfair to the funder's father.
What worries Zhang Wei the most are those half-hearted things, such as the care of leaders at all levels or the help of brother units!
Similar to the kind of senior brother who helps you prepare food when you are doing experiments, the senior sister who makes you a cup of coffee when you are tired, and the guard dog who watches for you 24 hours a day, do they all count? Contribute to the project? Is there a reason for everyone to have a signature?
This kind of thing is easier to refuse. What if it is a superior leader who has always cared for and supported you? What if it's a brother unit that has been helping you silently? If someone asks you to sign, how can you refuse?
Without the careful care and support of your leaders, can your project be successful? The reason why your project can be successful is first of all thanks to the care and support of the leader. Then the leader has also made a significant contribution to the project. It is not too much to have a first author, right?
Dare you give it? From now on, you will be able to wear all kinds of shoes!
As for the silent help from brothers and units, they are all silent. I don’t know whether it helps or not! But people just say that they have helped, and they use this as a reason to sign. How dare you refuse to give it?
If you don’t give it, they will no longer silently help you in the future! All kinds of stumbling blocks are used. People may not have the ability to help you succeed, but they definitely have the ability to help you fail!
Although I am not successful enough, I am more than capable of failing!
When Hawking came, he had to stand up and toast, which is no joke!
(End of this chapter)