Surgery Godfather-Chapter 1463 - 1090: Both Enemy and Friend

Director Zhao calmed the affair with a basket of eggs. As the head of the Medical Services Office, he faced various complaints, disturbances, and disputes almost daily. He was battle-hardened and experienced, knowing exactly how to handle each situation.

If a situation could be resolved with a basket of eggs, he couldn’t be bothered to explain and persuade, deeming it a waste of time. He also didn’t bother to call security for a forceful resolution—it wasn’t worth it. The young staff learned from Director Zhao, watching a seemingly difficult disturbance being effortlessly resolved.

The first PET-CT scan of the experimental pig was complete. Due to networking, the images quickly appeared on the laboratory’s digital viewer, displaying the specially marked NK cells scattered throughout the image.

Of course, Tang Shun and Lu Xiaolu couldn’t read the images; they could only listen to Yang Ping’s explanations. Hearing the images were available, Yang Ping came to the laboratory.

Indeed, compared to the K virus, which suffers substantial losses through the immune system, NK cells, being native cells, moved unhindered within the experimental pig, quickly spreading throughout the blood and gradually congregating at the tumor.

However, a problem arose. The distribution of NK cells was consistent with the distribution of the pig’s blood vessels—even within the tumor images. They matched the layout of the tiny blood vessels and capillaries, making it difficult for them to break through the blood vessel walls and into the fluid between the tumor cells.

"You see, are these images formed by the accumulation of NK cells? Seems like the tumor is covered?" Tang Shun could discern some details through direct observation.

Lu Xiaolu also came over, and it appeared so—the images of the NK cells accumulated covered the tumor.

Yang Ping shook his head: "Many NK cells are in the blood vessels, and some have penetrated the walls of the capillaries to reach the gaps between tumor cells. However, whether they can be effective remains unknown."

Some cells, such as white blood cells, can indeed pass through capillary walls as they can perform deformation movements. When bacteria infect a part of the body, white blood cells pass through the walls of the capillaries to engulf the bacteria. Similarly, NK cells—being a type of white blood cell—can also penetrate capillary walls and move through the gaps between tumor cells. But NK cell penetration does not necessarily mean they can approach tumor cells, as the tumor has its own barriers that prevent NK cells from contacting the tumor cells—one reason why cell therapy is less effective against solid tumors.

However, this was just the first imaging test; many more imaging tests, along with other examinations, were yet to come.

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Another project by several collaborating laboratories—involves embedding certain gene segments of immunocytes into adenoviruses. Although it’s not yet clear if the K factor is genuinely recomposed from immortalized segments of immunocytes, for the sake of advancing research rapidly, they presumed this hypothesis to be true and proceeded with their genetic recombination.

If this research direction is pursued, compared to the original combination of K factors and adenoviruses, there’s significantly more room for maneuverability. Not only can certain gene segments on immunocytes be used to arm the virus, but also to camouflage it. This camouflage is lasting and can help the virus evade attacks from the immune system, reducing the system’s attack capacity and naturally weakening the virus’s adaptability to the immune system. Theoretically, this new type of virus could escape the immune system’s onslaught.

Viruses are both humanity’s archenemy and old friend, maintaining a special foe-and-friend relationship. A virus is a non-cellular organism that must parasitize living cells and reproduce by replication. Extremely tiny and existing between life and non-life, viruses lack their own metabolic structures. Simple in structure—nucleic acids wrapped in protein—they can rapidly reproduce within host cells, essentially relying on host cells for survival.

The term "virus" originates from Latin, meaning the venom of a snake or the semen of a human, thus it is imbued with the dual meanings of "destruction" and "creation."

People usually consider it harmful, with a certain destructive nature. Once it breaches the human immune system causing infection, it can lead to illness and death, whether it’s the flu virus that causes headaches and runny noses or other more serious contagious viruses. Once they infect the human body, they bring disease or even death; that is its destructive nature.

As for its creative aspect, it indeed exists but is lesser known. The suitability of Earth for habitation also owes to viruses. Oceanic coccolithophores contribute a quarter of Earth’s oxygen through photosynthesis, and the DNA that truly activates coccolithophores comes from viral genes. Scientists estimate that 10% of the photosynthesis on Earth can be attributed to viral genes, which not only contribute the oxygen we breathe but also regulate the temperature for Earth.

The relationship between viruses and our bodies is very close; there are 8% of DNA fragments in the human body that come from viruses, which can potentially be reactivated under certain conditions. On the other hand, when our cells manufacture new viruses, they may also insert their own DNA, transmitting genes within other hosts. From the perspective of viruses reflecting upon ourselves, life fundamentally is just a collection of continually mixing and transferring DNA.

According to the plan provided by Yang Ping, three tasks are needed: to dissect and study functional gene segments of immunocytes, to study the most suitable viral vector, and to examine the structure of viruses that have coexisted peacefully with humans. After clarifying these three issues, this subject could then begin to see the light.

The breadth and depth of these research topics are unprecedented. In the face of such monumental tasks, Zhang Zhiwei felt that his previous research seemed like child’s play.

Previously, Professor Zhang Zhiwei would not even dare to contemplate undertaking such grand research. Not to mention his own imagination and strategic judgment falling short, even if a research proposal was laid in front of him, he would decidedly not dare accept such a task.

The funding required for such a project is immense, and pooling all his research funds would still be a drop in the bucket. The timeline is also alarmingly broad, and it’s highly likely to end in failure. Even though Professor Zhang does not worry about professional titles, the researchers under him wouldn’t follow him on such a project because it wouldn’t yield immediate results, no results mean no papers, and without papers, it’s difficult to get professional titles and stand in the academic community. Moreover, if it weren’t for Yang Ping’s own funding, if it was Professor Zhang Zhiwei applying for the project, it would likely not pass expert review because the reviewing experts simply wouldn’t understand such a project, ultimately dismissing it as fanciful and exaggerated talk.

But now it’s different, with Yang Ping’s substantial financing backing him, Professor Zhang Zhiwei does not need to worry too much. He only needs to research slowly according to the rhythm, without worrying about whether it can ultimately succeed, because exploration of the unknown mostly ends in failure.

Reviewing medical history, many innovations that initially seemed absurd and incomprehensible were later proven wrong, but being incorrect does not mean they were meaningless. Correctness stems from the accumulation of these mistakes.

Not just in medicine, but the development of any science is like this. Aristotle once believed force was the cause of maintaining motion—a judgment that persisted for two thousand years and was later corrected by Galileo and Descartes. They believed that force was not the cause of maintaining motion; an object could maintain its movement without any force acting on it. This was only a rough hypothesis at the time, reached through ideal experiments, later providing the basis for Newton to propose Newton’s First Law.

Therefore, in science, any new theory is initially imperfect; it is rough, may contain errors, or even be completely wrong. But even if completely erroneous, it possesses immeasurable value, providing experience for successors and a foundation for further research.

Lin Lan’s Genetics Laboratory began mapping the gene spectrum of the K factor and also started mapping the gene spectrum of various human immunocytes. Once both gene mappings are completed, comparisons will be made to see if there are overlapping segments, and if so, what those segments are.

If overlapping segments of the K factor are found within immunocytes and immune factors, then Professor Yang’s hypothesis would be verified as true. For a genetics scholar, completing this project would be enough to reach the pinnacle of the global academic community.

On Lin Lan’s end, whether researchers or equipment, it is clearly not sufficient for such a massive project. The day after the meeting ended, before her budget was even proposed, Yang Ping’s Research Fund,]=]