Scholar's Advanced Technological System

Chapter 775: Nematode Cells

Actually, Professor Liu didn’t have to “suck up” to Lu Zhou.

He had his own laboratory, so he could do whatever experiment he wanted.

However, he still couldn’t resist.

He immediately came over to Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou said, “I can’t help you this term, but next term, which is in two years, I can guarantee that you will become an academician.”

Professor Liu had no connections outside the world of biology, so this was enough to tempt him…

Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

A laboratory located inside the Institute of Biochemistry.

Some of the equipment here was ordered by Lu Zhou’s friends from Germany and the Netherlands, and the others were simply borrowed or bought from the Institute of Medical Sciences, PLA General Hospital.

Even though borrowing equipment like this was unusual, because the project was backed by the Lunar Orbit Committee, the PLA Hospital was more than happy to lend out their equipment.

All they had to do was sign over the equipment, and they would receive the glory of supporting a national key project. It was a no-brainer.

Lu Zhou stood in the laboratory. He stared at the glassware samples in the refrigerator as he asked, “What is this?”

Professor Liu Zuobing: “Ancient nematode cell samples! The research team from the St. Petersburg State University collected them from the tundra of the Alazeya River. I’m pretty close with the professors there, so I bought these off them.”

Lu Zhou casually asked, “How much is it?”

“Pretty cheap, just a hundred thousand USD.”

Only a hundred thousand USD…

That’s pretty expensive…

If Lu Zhou recalled correctly, this wasn’t some kind of endangered species. It was often found in the feces of extinct species. As long as one was near an ancient river bed, one could retrieve these samples with just a shovel.

A hundred thousand dollars would be enough to fund an entire scientific research expedition.

Professor Liu Zuobing knew what Lu Zhou was thinking, so he coughed and casually explained, “A hundred thousand USD is not expensive! Supply and demand, my friend. According to carbon dating, this thing is 40,000 years old. It’s very difficult for us to retrieve them.”

Lu Zhou: “Alright, get to the main point, I’m not an expert in paleontology.”

Professor Liu Zuobing put on a serious face and said, “This is probably the earliest living biological sample we can get our hands on. After we bought the nematode cell sample from the research team at St. Petersburg University, we took out some of the nematode cells and placed them into special culture dishes, and an amazing phenomenon was discovered.”

Professor Zhang Jiafu, who stood beside them listening, couldn’t help but ask, “What phenomenon?”

Professor Liu Zuobing replied in a serious tone, “Among the 173 culture dishes, 2 observed the recovery of the nematode cells, and they resumed normal life activities!”

Professor Zhang Jiafu suddenly looked shocked.

“Are you sure there was no contamination? Could there be something wrong with the St. Petersburg University sample?”

Professor Liu Zuobing spoke in a serious manner, “I am certain, because my students were also with the St. Petersburg University research team.”

“Me,” Song Siyuan said. He looked at Liu Zuobing and nervously said, “I was there for the sample collection, I took photos.”

Lu Zhou asked, “Then why did you guys have to pay a hundred thousand USD?”

If you retrieved the samples yourself, why did you have to pay?

Professor Liu Zuobing suddenly had an awkward expression on his face.

Professor Zhang Jiafu coughed and said, “The thing is that we signed a contract with the Russians… Can I look at the sample?”

Professor Liu Zuobing nodded and spoke.

“Of course.”

Professor Liu Zuobing’s assistant used a special pipette to retrieve a sample from a petri dish. The assistant quickly placed the sample on a slide specimen and placed the slide under a laboratory microscope.

Professor Zhang Jiafu stepped forward and carefully looked through the microscope.

He saw these precious tiny creatures floating in agar and a special nutrient solution. They slowly moved around, eating E. Coli as food.

After a couple of seconds, he looked up from the microscope and spoke emotionally.

“This discovery is incredible… St. Petersburg University just gave you the research results?”

“Of course not, the thesis is theirs, but I haven’t collaborated with them in further research.” Professor Liu Zuobing smirked and said, “For example, the retrieval of the nematode cell DNA… I assume they have been trying to do this, but no results have come out yet.”

Professor Zhang immediately asked, “Did you find something then?”

“By studying the DNA of the nematode samples, we found that the 18S-rDNA gene fragment may contain factors that allow them to remain actively dormant in extremely cold environments!”

Even Lu Zhou looked surprised.

The DNA fragment is related to frozen dormancy!

This is huge!

Lu Zhou immediately asked, “Have you published the results?”

“Not yet.” Liu Zuobing shook his head and said, “This is just an in-progress result. We’re certain the Russians haven’t discovered this yet, so we’re keeping it a secret for now.”

This type of situation was common in the academic community.

Lu Zhou had done the same himself, so he nodded.

“Okay then, I want to hear your experimental ideas, can you explain them to me?”

Professor Liu Zuobing nodded and said, “The 18S-rDNA gene fragment may become the key to solving dormancy technology. So far, we have speculated about two possibilities. One is that this 18S-rDNA gene fragment synthesizes a special protein through transcription of RNA, which allows cells to maintain cell body structure under extreme temperature conditions!”

This sounded extremely exciting.

However, Lu Zhou didn’t look excited. He thought for a bit and said, “But a lot of cells still die.”

Professor Liu nodded and added, “Yes, not every cell is able to survive, because the cold temperature isn’t the only damaging factor… Of course, this isn’t the main point. The point is that we have two ideas.”

He walked to the laboratory whiteboard and drew two lines on the whiteboard. He then wrote on one of them.

“One method is through gene editing. After we modify the potentially effective gene fragment, we can insert it into the genes of a living body. This way, we can achieve dormancy!”

Lu Zhou thought for a bit before asking, “What’s the other idea?”

Professor Liu Zuobing said, “The other is to use a similar idea to Professor Grange’s. Which is to immerse a human body in a substance containing the special protein.”

Professor Zhang Jiafu said, “Like formalin?”

Professor Liu Zuobing nodded and said, “Something like that, but definitely not formalin…”

Standing next to the whiteboard, Lu Zhou thought for a while.

After a couple of seconds, he said, “This sounds like a crazy idea, but I think we can try the second idea.”

Professor Liu Zuobing nodded.

“I agree as well, the genetic modification method… might succeed, but the costs are too high.”

More importantly, research regarding genetic editing of human DNA was currently banned.

Unlike the controversial debates regarding human dormancy, human genetic editing was deemed to be morally unethical…

Even Professor Lu didn’t dare to experiment with this kind of illegal research.

Suddenly, knocking sounds were heard.

Lu Zhou’s office assistant walked through the door.

“Professor, someone is looking for you.”

For me?

Lu Zhou didn’t recall having an appointment with anyone today, so he asked, “Who?”

The young female assistant replied, “The visitor claims to be Professor Angus Deaton from Princeton… He seems to be pretty anxious.”

Angus Deaton?

Lu Zhou had a vague impression of this name. He seemed to recall Deaton was from the economics department.

Even though Princeton didn’t have a business school, it did have an economics department. Surprisingly, Princeton’s economics department was ranked highly in the United States.

However, Lu Zhou had never studied economics before.

Therefore, he couldn’t think of a reason why Professor Angus would want to meet him.

After a while, Lu Zhou said, “Okay, ask him to wait at reception.”

The female assistant nodded.

“Okay, Professor Lu!”

She turned around and walked out of the laboratory.