Extreme germ phobia

Chapter 311 Stem Cell Embedding

Ouyang hadn't originally thought about the fungus, and hadn't felt anything was wrong, but once the thought popped into his head, it took root and wouldn't go away.

He smelled phagocytosine quite often along the way!

Moreover, Ouyang doesn't consider himself to be the impulsive type, so why couldn't he resist when he heard about Smith?
There must be a reason for this!

Well, whether it's true or not, the reasoning is quite valid.

But Ou Yang didn't say it immediately. Instead, he put on a submissive act and humbly accepted Xu Yi's criticism. Only after he had calmed down did he find an opportunity to express his speculation.

Upon hearing this, Xu Yi fell silent instantly, feeling as if he had punched the air.

Continuing to criticize seems a bit inappropriate, but not criticizing makes it hard to get over that mental hurdle.

Xu Yi didn't dwell on it much, and gave Ou Yang a serious but restrained lecture.

Before they could exchange more than a few words, there was a knock on the door.

Xu Yi still had a lot to say, and he was so frustrated that he yelled irritably, "Who is it? Come in!"

The door opened, and Zhou Jimin walked in with a smile: "Oh, you haven't finished approving it yet?"

Xu Yi saw the documents in Ou Yang's hand and knew he needed to speak with him. He sighed and waved to Ou Yang, "Go back and reflect on your actions!"

"Okay!" Ou Yang agreed and left immediately, not forgetting to give Zhou Jimin a grateful look before leaving.

Zhou Jimin responded with a bright smile.

After Ou Yang left, only Xu Yi and Zhou Jimin remained in the cabin. The former sighed and looked at the latter with a playful gaze: "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

Zhou Jimin laughed heartily: "No, that's not true. Hey, this isn't like you. You let him off so easily?"

Although he only heard the last part, the tone and manner of the voice were hardly stern.

Xu Yi was filled with righteous indignation: "This kid isn't one of my soldiers, otherwise I would have locked him up in solitary confinement!"

Zhou Jimin sat down by himself: "Just solitary confinement?"

"if not?"

Zhou Jimin laughed again and put the documents in his hand on the table: "Let's get down to business. This is the experimental plan for the next stage."

Xu Yi was stunned: "Wasn't the plan already finalized?"

Zhou Jimin solemnly said, "I have made some necessary adjustments. Please report them as soon as possible."

Xu Yi opened the document and quickly scanned it: "What's been adjusted?"

Zhou Jimin flipped the document directly to the page that had been folded beforehand: "Remember when I said that the phantom lung bacteria and that kid Ouyang are symbiotic?"

Xu Yi nodded: "What, is adjusting the plan related to that kid?"

Zhou Jimin nodded slightly: "I organized a task force of key personnel and we have extracted the foreign gene fragment from Ou Yang's cells. This gene will be the focus of the next stage of research."

Upon seeing this passage, Xu Yi immediately began to read it carefully.

Zhou Jimin explained in detail: "Simply put, it's about artificially inserting this foreign gene into someone else's DNA to see if it can have an immune effect. If successful, it would be equivalent to finding a cure for phantom lung disease. Such a great discovery, giving me a Nobel Prize wouldn't be an exaggeration, would it?"

"Not at all, not even a little bit!" Xu Yi looked up. "Are you confident?"

Zhou Jimin shook his head: "If we were so confident, would we need to conduct experiments?"

"That's true, I was too impatient." Xu Yi closed the file, placed it on the table, and gently tapped it twice. "What are you planning to do? Retrovirus?"

Although he wasn't a researcher, he was influenced by his surroundings and, having been in contact with Zhou Jimin for so long, had learned a little about research.

"Pretty much," Zhou Jimin said. "Our method is to first extract stem cells, embed gene fragments into the DNA of the stem cells, culture them in vitro, and finally perform autologous transplantation."

As is well known, stem cell transplantation must address the issue of rejection, while autologous transplantation does not have this problem and is the best solution.

Xu Yi looked at Zhou Jimin seriously: "What do you think the chances of success are?"

"It's hard to say; we'll have to wait for the experimental results."

"Roughly how long will it take?"

“Autologous transplantation takes two to three weeks, but it’s not certain yet,” Zhou Jimin explained in detail. “The biggest problem is whether the immune system will recognize the stem cells as foreign cells after the new genes are inserted.”

Xu Yi let out a soft breath: "Is there anything I can do?"

Zhou Jimin: "The first phase of the experiment requires a group of volunteers, ten with severe cases and ten with mild cases, to observe how their conditions change after stem cell transplantation."

"No problem, you can choose the severe case yourself, and you can sign up voluntarily for the mild case."

“Okay!” Zhou Jimin agreed. “We also need a group of volunteers, able-bodied people.”

This time, Xu Yi did not respond immediately, but looked at the other person seriously: "There's nothing to say about those who are already infected, but for normal people participating in this experiment... if the experiment is successful and the gene fragment is successfully inserted, wouldn't they have to inhale the spores to determine whether they can be immune?"

Zhou Jimin nodded: "Yes!"

"No!" Xu Yi refused without hesitation. "We can't risk normal people, even if they volunteer!"

Zhou Jimin smiled and said, "I knew you would disagree, so I didn't plan to experiment on other people."

Xu Yi's expression immediately changed: "What do you mean?"

“It’s exactly what you mean.” Zhou Jimin’s smile remained unchanged. “My first experimental subject was myself.”

He pulled up his sleeve, revealing the needle marks on his arm: "The stem cell injection has been completed. Whether it works or not depends on the next two weeks..."

"Zhou Jimin!" Xu Yiteng stood up abruptly. "Do you know what you're doing? Do you think you're so great? You're the leader of the entire project, and you're using yourself as an experiment? You're being irresponsible!"

"Hey, why are you so agitated?" Zhou Jimin quickly reassured him. "I know you're worried about me, but I was the one who proposed the experiment. Oh, so when it came to getting serious, I backed down and let everyone else rush in? That doesn't make sense!"

"Is this a matter of reason or not?" Xu Yi slammed his fist on the table in anger. "If anything happens to you, it's not just your personal loss, but also the loss of the country!" "Don't give me any lectures. I only know one thing, and I have to be the first to step up in this matter!" Zhou Jimin adopted a nonchalant attitude. "Anyway, the stem cells have all been injected, and no one can extract them again!"

"You!" Xu Yi was furious, wishing he could slap him a few times.

"Alright, alright, it's nothing!" Zhou Jimin continued to reassure him. "Don't worry, I'm confident. Even if it doesn't succeed, it won't have much of an impact. Besides, can't you think of me in a positive light? If it succeeds, I'll be immune to pneumothorax, wouldn't that be great?"

"Is this something that can be done without any certainty?" Xu Yi covered his forehead with one hand. "Even if we're going to do experiments, shouldn't we do animal experiments first? How can we start by experimenting on humans?"

Zhou Jimin immediately retorted: "Aren't infected people human beings?"

Xu Yi nearly exploded on the spot: "They are patients, you are a normal person, how can you be the same?"

“Nothing is different.” Zhou Jimin said calmly. “Animal experiments take too much time. The sooner the transplant is done, the sooner we get the results. Even if it’s done a day earlier, we can gain an extra 24 hours.”

Xu Yi's gaze was complex, and all his unspoken words were finally reduced to a sigh: "You acted first and reported later... Did you inject other people with stem cells?"

"In progress."

Xu Yi touched the folder: "I will report your situation to the higher-ups truthfully. If it succeeds, that would be best. But what if... no, there's no 'what if'!"

“No need to avoid this, I’ve already written my will.” Zhou Jimin took out an envelope and slammed it on the table. “If anything happens to me, please give it to the Tie family. Hey, can you stop looking like you’re about to cry? Research always has risks, but I don’t think it’s a big problem. Just in case.”

"Who's going to cry? Which eye of yours saw me about to cry?" Xu Yi immediately became displeased, put away the suicide note and locked it in the drawer. "Fine, I'll keep it for you for now!"

"Ah, that's more like it!" Zhou Jimin was satisfied, not taking the danger he was facing to heart at all.

Xu Yi then asked, "What about the experiments on infected individuals? When will they begin?"

"I'll make the arrangements in a bit. Mild cases aren't a big problem, but the physiological state of severely ill patients is different from that of normal people, and stem cells are not so easy to extract."

"Don't make researchers take unnecessary risks. If there are any particularly dangerous procedures, assign them directly to the immunization personnel," Xu Yi said.

This isn't about having any prejudice against immune individuals, but rather that immune individuals are the best choice when there is a risk of infection.

“Okay!” Zhou Jimin agreed.

Xu Yi suddenly remembered something: "By the way, didn't you check on the patient's condition?"

"What are you looking at?"

"What else could it be? It's cells, of course!" Xu Yi reminded him. "I think Ouyang might not be the only exception. Do you think the DNA of infected people might contain gene fragments of Pneumocystis phantomii?"

Zhou Jimin nodded thoughtfully: "I haven't really researched this direction before. Let's arrange it together in a bit. It would be best if we didn't have it, but if we did, it would be troublesome."

There is only one exception, Ouyang, which means that the embedding of the fragment is a random event and not universal. Even if other people have the same situation, the probability is extremely small.

Conversely, if Pneumococcus gene fragments are commonly embedded in the DNA of infected individuals, it means that Pneumococcus itself possesses the characteristics of reverse transcription genes.

Not only does the risk of stem cell transplantation increase dramatically, but it may even rewrite the fundamental mechanism by which Pneumocystis jirovecii infects humans.

Zhou Jimin felt that the possibility was unlikely, but scientific research is all about rigor. Although feelings are important in many situations, no matter what the guess is, it must be supported by experiments.

"Let's make arrangements as soon as possible," Xu Yi said. "By the way, when are you getting your stem cell injection?"

Zhou Jimin pointed to the needle marks on his arm: "It's all done!"

"Don't try to fool me!" Xu Yi rolled his eyes. "You made me so angry that I lost my mind. What stem cell transplant doesn't go through a sterile ward? I'm not that ignorant!"

“This is an autologous transplant, so it doesn’t need to be so complicated,” Zhou Jimin said. “The specific situation needs to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. The purpose of going into the sterile ward is to destroy the immune system and kill the diseased cells, but I am perfectly healthy and there is no need for me to go into the sterile ward!”

Xu Yi frowned: "Is that so?"

"Of course!" Zhou Jimin said confidently, without the slightest hint of guilt.

"Alright then." Xu Yi lacked the professional knowledge to find any flaws. "So now you're the only one who's finished the transplant, right?"

"Yes, I plan to see how it goes before deciding whether to recruit more volunteers."

“Don’t bother gathering anyone else, count me in,” Xu Yi said.

"What?" Zhou Jimin was stunned, and repeatedly refused, "You? No, no, no, no, no!"

"What do you mean 'can't'?" Xu Yi asked, dissatisfied. "If you can, why can't I?"
"How can that be the same? I'm just a researcher, you're the captain of the ship, responsible for the whole ship!" Zhou Jimin continued to deflect. "I'm different, we researchers have this tradition, why are you getting involved?"

This is not something to be said lightly. In order to complete clinical trials, Professor Gu, who was researching polio vaccines, fed the vaccine to his own one-month-old baby. Some researchers in the laboratory also made the same decision, letting their own children participate in the vaccine trials.

Dr. Tomson, the father of vaccines, isolated the world's first strain of trachoma pathogen. To test the experimental results, he personally "planted" the pathogen in his own eye and persisted in not undergoing any treatment for forty days, all in order to obtain a set of clinical data.

Ms. Tao, the "Mother of the Hepatitis B Vaccine," used her own body to test the vaccine, saving 4000 million Chinese people over 25 years.

With so many predecessors setting an example, it wasn't difficult for Zhou Jimin to make this decision; in a sense, this was his battlefield.

But Xu Yi's battlefield wasn't in the laboratory; in Zhou Jimin's mind, these were two completely different things.

But Xu Yi thought differently. He revealed a playful smile: "Didn't you say there was no danger? You've changed your mind so quickly?"

"Whether there is danger or not is relative. We researchers should face the potential dangers in experiments and be mentally prepared for them. What are you, a warship officer, doing getting involved?"

"I'm not just joining in the fun. You're allowed to sacrifice and dedicate yourself, but I'm not allowed to show my style?" Xu Yi calmly retorted. "Even if you've already experimented on yourself, what will the higher-ups think if I don't react at all? Besides, just because you want to be immune doesn't mean others can't. Enough with the nonsense, it's settled!"

"Bullshit! I'm the one in charge of the experiment. If I say no, then no!"

"Don't give me that excuse. I'm in charge of the entire ship. If I say it's okay, then it's okay!"

The two argued back and forth, neither willing to back down. In the end, they each compromised. Zhou Jimin agreed to let Xu Yi join the experiment, but only after the first phase of the experiment was completed and detailed experimental data was obtained. Then, the higher-ups would decide whether Xu Yi could join.

That's right, it's about reporting the situation to higher authorities and letting them make the final decision.

Xu Yi was completely distraught. Was this something that could be reported to higher authorities? If the higher-ups found out about this, the only result would be a strict ban.

Not only him, but also other normal people's embedding experiments will be stopped by the authorities.

If it weren't for this concern, why would Zhou Jimin have acted first and informed the other party later, making the deed a fait accompli?
(End of this chapter)