At around 10 a.m., Fang Hong logged into his personal Weibo account K3478 and replied a letter to the two teams.
In the reply, Fang Hong expressed his interest in their research and proposed that the two parties learn more about their research through remote video communication.
In less than an hour, the two project teams responded again. They were very surprised.
I didn't have any hope at first, because the time for delivering the materials to Fang Hongfa was a few months ago, and now I have already planned to put the project on hold indefinitely or even kill it directly.
Unexpectedly, news came today. Both teams responded immediately after receiving the news.
At around 11:40 noon, Fang Hong and the two teams exchanged brief private messages again and agreed to start a video conference tomorrow. The Zhejiang University team's project was scheduled to be carried out in the morning, while the BGI team's project was scheduled to be carried out in the afternoon.
Expand.
After confirming the specific time for video conference communication, both teams put down their research today and prepared for tomorrow's video communication. This is the focus, and it is the last chance for the project not to be shelved.
If we can't get financial support from Fang Hong tomorrow, there's no point.
…
The next day, weekend morning.
In the study room on the second floor of Jingxinju Villa, Fang Hong is sitting at the computer desk. It is already around 10:50 in the morning, and he is making a video connection with the people from the Zhejiang University team.
After operating for a moment, Fang Hong moved the camera, looked at the screen to confirm that there was nothing wrong with the camera on his side, and then jumped the main screen to the other party's connection window, shrinking his own screen to a corner.
After a while, the video connection was successfully established.
Fang Hong saw the picture coming from the opposite camera. A man over fifty years old was sitting in front of the picture. Behind him were three young people. He asked the young people next to him: "Is the connection successful?"
A young man behind him responded: "Yes, Professor Zhu."
Fang Hong didn't speak. He looked at the man with eyes in the picture and heard the young man next to him call him "professor". He must be the leader of this project. It is estimated that these young people should be his students.
Or a member of the project team, the key is his hairstyle and the hairline that looks like the hairstyle of a strong man.
However, since he specializes in technical fields, this professor does not seem to be familiar with the online video conferencing function.
After a while, Fang Hong saw the young man next to him in the picture looking towards the camera and saying, "Hello, Mr. Fang, can you hear me?"
Yesterday's contact had a brief introduction and the name was revealed to the other party. Fang Hong nodded and simply replied: "You can hear me, good morning!"
After a while, the young man responded: "Good morning, Mr. Fang, let me introduce to you. This is Professor Zhu Yingdong, the initiator and person in charge of our project. My name is Lu Guangqi, and we are Professor Zhu's
postgraduate."
Several people on the opposite side, including Zhu Yingdong, were very shocked when they saw the real face of blogger K3478 for the first time. Even though they knew that he was a young man and had just graduated this year, they were still very shocked when they saw him in person.
Especially Zhu Yingdong, his heart is actually quite complicated.
After all, the people on the other side of the video are younger than the graduate students in his team. He is actually not willing to talk, especially if the other person is a young student. He is somewhat embarrassed mentally. In his eyes, he is no different from a child, more or less.
It tastes good, but there is nothing we can do to advance the project.
After Lu Guangqi gave a brief introduction, Fang Hong smiled unhurriedly and said: "Hello, Professor Zhu."
On the other side of the video screen, Lu Guangqi was not talking, and Zhu Yingdong also simply asked hello.
After a few simple greetings, Fang Hong went straight to the point and said: "I have roughly read the materials for your project, which is about implanting photosynthesis into animal cells. I have to say that your research is very bold and full of imagination. In terms of materials,
There’s not much to describe, I’d like to hear your specific research.”
The tone and demeanor of Fang Hong's words made Lu Guangqi and others on the other side of the video feel surprised, because the calmness displayed in his words and demeanor seemed incompatible with his age.
Maybe it's the self-confidence brought by having a net worth of tens of billions. This is the answer they gave themselves after being surprised.
Professor Zhu Yingdong also went directly to the topic and said: "Our research team implanted the thylakoids involved in photosynthesis from vegetables into aging mammalian cells, reestablishing the energy metabolism balance in the cells and allowing the aging cells to recover in a short time.
Rejuvenate within the body, and we are about to submit a related paper to the journal Nature."
Fang Hong nodded and said nothing.
Zhu Yingdong held up the frame. He was worried that Fang Hong didn't understand it well, so he added some basic knowledge and said: "The human body is composed of various cells. Once there is a problem with the anabolism in the cells, the cells will have difficulty functioning normally and start to turn around.
Aging, if we can restore the functional system of cells, we have a chance to reverse the aging problem of damaged cells."
Fang Hongyan said concisely and comprehensively: "Is this the starting point of your research?"
Zhu Yingdong nodded and said: "Yes, so we need to find a suitable energy production line that operates normally. Plant photosynthesis that has evolved in nature for billions of years has entered our field of vision. The inner membrane system of chloroplasts, the thylakoids
The body is a powerful energy factory. We only need to extract it and put it into mammalian cells, and then borrow a little light to enhance the anabolism of animal cells."
Fang Hong, who was in front of the computer, put his hands on the table, rested his chin on the back of his hands and looked at the screen. "I'm not an expert in the field of biology, but I know a little bit of common sense. The animal's immune system should recognize thylakoids as foreign substances."
And clean it up, right? It’s the so-called rejection reaction.”
Zhu Yingdong said methodically: "The idea adopted in our research does seem a bit far-fetched. A very critical issue is how to allow plant cells to survive in such an extreme environment."
Fang Hong nodded and said, "This is also what I'm curious about."
Zhu Yingdong said: "Our idea is to wrap the thylakoids of plants with the animal's own cell membrane, and use this layer of camouflage to blend into the cells."
Fang Hong said in surprise: "It's a bit interesting."
Zhu Yingdong added: "The specific method of operation is to use cell membrane nano-coating technology. We have carried out some experiments and injected thylakoids into the damaged cartilage parts of mice. These artificial organelles will quickly pass through the cell membrane, and twenty
It can be evenly distributed in the cartilage in four hours, and then light is used to wake up the thylakoids."
Fang Hong nodded and said nothing.
After a while, Zhu Yingdong in the video said: "The experimental results showed that the anabolic level of thylakoid stimulated by light was significantly improved, and the arthritis of the mice was also significantly improved. The chondrocytes were equivalent to returning from the age of 60 in humans. The state of being 20 years old..."
As time went by, Zhu Yingdong gradually ignored that the person opposite was a young man. He gradually began to draw the cake with great enthusiasm: "This technology not only has good clinical potential in the medical field, but also in energy, materials and so on." There are also opportunities for widespread application in other fields, which may allow us to find new strategies for treating human diseases from billions of years of plant survival mechanisms..."
Time passed so fast, fifty minutes of video communication between the two parties passed unknowingly, and Fang Hong also learned more about the progress of their project. At this time, Hutao girl came to the study room and used soft and cute words. The voice said: "Brother Hong~, lunch is ready. Let's go down and eat before we get busy."
On the other side of the video chat, Lu Guangqi and the others also saw Hutao girl appear in the camera through the video screen and heard her voice. Everyone was stunned for a while, mainly because they did not expect that Hutao girl was wearing a maid uniform.
"I know." Fang Hong turned around and glanced at Hutao, and then said, "I'll be down in a minute."
"Well~, then hurry up~" Hutao girl nodded with a sweet smile, and then left the room. Fang Hong looked at the camera again, looked at Lu Guangqi and the others and said calmly: "What do you want for this scientific research project?" To be honest, the transformation into results and commercialization is still far away..."
At this time, Lu Guangqi and the others also came to their senses. When they heard Fang Hong's words, they sighed in their hearts. There was indeed no hope!
They had no words to refute Fang Hong's words. Transforming scientific research into commercialization of application results is indeed not something that happens overnight, and they cannot guarantee whether it can even be realized.
After a moment, Fang Hong suddenly changed the subject and said, "But, I want to invest some money in your scientific research project to give it a try."
Um?
Everyone was stunned when they heard this. After confirming that they heard correctly, Lu Guangqi and the others' eyes lit up instantly, and their inner emotions gradually became excited.
Zhu Yingdong said quickly: "Mr. Fang, do you really intend to support our research?"
