Free Web NovelChapter 1526: Chapter 722: The Pressure Brought By Fame_2
Zhao Yi and the senior leaders walked at the forefront, waving to the people who had come to greet them at the hatch before stepping off the spacecraft together.
After descending from the spacecraft, Zhao Yi walked away directly. He did not stop for any media interviews, lacking the mood to deal with reporters, and only wanted to find a place to get a good sleep.
Returning from space required isolation, so the entire group, including the senior leaders and Zhao Yi, needed to undergo a fourteen-day quarantine.
The quarantine location was already prepared, resembling a mountain villa, complete with a dedicated medical team. After arriving at the villa, Zhao Yi asked the doctors to wait while he went to his room to sleep well. Only after waking up did he proceed to do a physical examination.
Upon completing the physical examination, they continued their quarantine inside.
Not being able to see his family immediately upon returning to Earth made Zhao Yi a bit depressed. He missed his parents, wife, and children, but he could only see and talk to them through video calls, and in his spare time, he still paid attention to his research and work.
He first inquired about the manufacturing progress of the flying cars, learning that the first batch was in production, and the company was running smoothly. He had no need to worry about anything else.
He then turned his attention to research related to gravity. The theoretical group had been tirelessly working on "Voidon’s Hypothesis on the Creation of Gravity via Spatial Transmission," although expecting any progress in just a few days would be difficult.
Later, he checked on his own medical laboratory. Research at Zhao Yi’s laboratory had been ongoing, with the most significant advancement being the strict disclosure of the research related to several proteins and enzymes and their impact on lifespan extension, which had caused a sensation in the entire medical community.
Many institutions sent representatives to inquire, and some companies hoped to establish research collaborations with Zhao Yi’s laboratory.
Obviously.
Most of these were companies that manufactured health care products. They hoped to leverage the reputation of Zhao Yi’s laboratory to produce some ’health and longevity drugs.’
That, of course, was out of the question.
Zhao Yi’s laboratory wasn’t short on funds and had no intention of collaborating with companies to manufacture such drugs, as that would amount to deceiving consumers. The proteins and enzymes they had discovered were not yet possible to produce on a large scale, so related products could only synthesize the nutrients necessary for the proteins and enzymes. Taking large amounts of such nutrients would have little significance to the body, and could even be counterproductive, such as increasing the burden on the organs and leading to a series of diseases.
In short, developing drugs based on these findings was impossible for the time being.
When Zhang Wei was interviewed about the ongoing R&D at Zhao Yi’s laboratory, she plainly stated, "Our current research findings cannot be used to create longevity-related drugs. Any longevity drugs related to our research that appear on the market in the short term will definitely be deceiving consumers."
"I must clarify this here to prevent any company from manufacturing fake drugs or health care products under the guise of the latest research."
"In the field of longevity research, Academician Zhao believes that the most fundamental aspect is genetic research, not the study of proteins or enzymes."
"Our gene laboratory is continuing related research, hoping to achieve a genetic-level breakthrough in the field."
Zhang Wei’s candid remarks during the interview also sparked much debate, as she bluntly stated that the research could not be applied to health care products. Unlike many other laboratories and companies that exaggerated any small findings, her honest statements and sincere warnings won great appreciation.
At the same time, Zhao Yi’s laboratory was also working on a new project related to immunological rejection.
This project was being conducted jointly by Ai Lixin, Zhang Wei, and Li Ming. They hoped to unravel the intricacies of human immune rejection at a more refined, molecular level.
Human immune rejection is categorized into cellular and humoral rejection, but both mechanisms are directly related to the molecules on the external layer of cells. The body’s T cells directly recognize molecules expressed on the surface of transplanted cells, then become activated into cytotoxic T cells, which directly damage the target cells. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
This is an exposition of the overall process.
Although the overall mechanism is now quite clear, the research at the molecular level is still quite superficial, meaning, we know the principles, but which specific molecules are involved, what their composition is, and what the process looks like, we simply don’t know.
Research on immune recognition and rejection is a national-level major project, and even a major project in world medicine.
It’s very difficult to achieve results in projects of such caliber.
Ai Lixin, Zhang Wei, and others who took over the project, still faced considerable pressure, one reason being that the reputation of the Biomedical Research Institute, as well as the reputation of Zhao Yi’s laboratory, is too significant—they must produce world-class results, otherwise, it would be almost like having no results at all to them.
This also involves the issue of laboratory development.
The development of the Biomedical Research Institute has been focused on ’breadth,’ continuously expanding with a large number of researchers, and producing many results across multiple fields.
Zhao Yi’s laboratory, on the other hand, is the ’elite within the institute’; it doesn’t develop its breadth, but rather aims to conduct the most cutting-edge research, taking on internationally level projects.
However, Ai Lixin, Zhang Wei, and others are very clear that the reason they can achieve cutting-edge results has little to do with their abilities; it all comes from Zhao Yi.
Without Zhao Yi’s involvement, they would just be ordinary researchers. Their skills and experience may be top-notch at most, but this level is quite ordinary on a global scale; to produce a top-notch result would require a very long time, and it might not even be achievable.
Fame brings pressure.
When they got in touch with Zhao Yi via video, and discussed the progress related to longevity research, Ai Lixin brought up the immune recognition project, hoping Zhao Yi could offer some advice.
Zhao Yi listened patiently and nodded. Just listening to the content, it was hardly possible to give advice. He asked, "Don’t you have specific experimental designs and data?"
Ai Lixin replied, "We have designed several experiments and completed two, which involve the analysis of substances in the immune response process, including substances inside and outside the cells. We’ve obtained a lot of data, which isn’t easy to analyze."
The immune rejection response involves the participation of many cells and substances, making detailed analysis very challenging.
Zhao Yi nodded and said, "In that case, send me the laboratory designs and the results of the experiments. I’ll take a look when I can. If there’s any progress later, or if you conduct any experiments and get results, send them to me."
"I’ll make time to analyze them."
In the area of immune rejection research, he also hoped for results, because this research is extremely important in the field of medicine.
Currently, many medical treatments involve immune rejection reactions. For example, the widely used heart stent surgery requires placing a small stent inside the coronary vessels to ensure normal blood flow.
Although the stent is very small, its impact is significant.
Patients who have undergone heart stent surgery must take immune-suppressing drugs for life to ensure that the stent inside the blood vessels does not suffer a severe immune rejection reaction. Long-term use of immune-suppressing drugs can lead to persistent after-effects, the most direct of which is a lowered immunity, reducing resistance to viruses and bacteria, and increasing the frequency of colds in daily life.
Heart stent surgery is relatively minor, and there are many larger-scale procedures, including organ transplantation—the biggest obstacle being one’s own immune system.
Even with continuous use of immune-suppressing drugs, transplanted foreign organs can suffer persistent rejection reactions, directly affecting their effectiveness and lifespan, and consequently, the health and longevity of the patient.
Therefore, research on human immune rejection is one of the most important and meaningful areas of research in medicine.
Zhao Yi hoped to continue making breakthroughs in medical research. Research on the latest technologies and space exploration is important, but the gains from the development of space exploration technology are more for human advancement, representing the future, and are unlikely to affect ordinary people in the short term, especially those at the lower end of the social spectrum, while medical research can directly help many people.
