For virtually every medical basic researcher, the first step in pushing open the door to the research path is cell revival technology.[1]
Medical basic experiments involve intervening with tumor cells or other cells from a cellular perspective, observing cell viability, function, proliferation, and other characteristics.
The purpose is straightforward: to hope that one's treatment can intervene with these cells, potentially becoming a new direction for drug therapy of the disease represented by these cells.
After all, you can't just directly experiment on humans!
"Cell thawing, washing, culturing. Thawing, washing, culturing." Fang Ziye first ran through the corresponding procedure in his mind, then turned back to smile at Luo Tingzhu.
But Luo Tingzhu didn't mock Fang Ziye. Instead, she encouraged him by raising her fist.
To conduct disease research, you first need cells of the corresponding disease. Professor Yuan Weihong had already purchased these, and they had been frozen after differentiation.
The start of cell experiments involves reviving a portion of the frozen cells, then culturing and propagating them as materials for subsequent experiments.
They're usually cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen.
Taking the cell sample out of its frozen state, Fang Ziye immediately transferred the cryopreservation tube from the steaming liquid nitrogen tank, which looked like a fairyland, into a pre-set 37°C water bath. He gently shook it until the sample was completely thawed.
The faster this process, the better, because the cryopreservation solution contains reagents that can lyse cells and are unsuitable for cell growth. If the process takes too long, the cells are likely to die.
If Fang Ziye were to kill all the cell lines, then Yuan Weihong would need to spend money to purchase them again.
He would likely face criticism in that case.
Fang Ziye moved quickly. After thawing, he swiftly transferred the cryopreservation solution and cells into the culture medium, using the medium to dilute and wash the cryopreservation solution.
This is like when a person is about to suffer from gas poisoning and must immediately go to a place with fresh air to breathe, simultaneously detoxifying and preventing further toxin invasion.
Since this was his first operation, Fang Ziye followed the best practice principle. He centrifuged the cell suspension once after diluting the cryopreservation solution with culture medium, then discarded the supernatant in the test tube, leaving only the adherent cell lines before resuspending them evenly in fresh culture medium.
He took the suspension and added it to the prepared culture dish.
"Senior Fang, you're so extravagant! If this were in the internal medicine lab, you'd be scolded for such waste," Luo Tingzhu clicked her tongue.
Even with prepared culture medium, because serum is added, it's expensive. Each milliliter can be measured in RMB yuan.
Fang Ziye's centrifugation probably wasted at least ten yuan.
A simpler and more direct method would be to take the cells out of the cryopreservation solution, dilute the intracellular cryopreservation solution directly with culture medium, or even add it directly to the culture medium.
"It's the first time, so a little waste is okay. Better than killing the cell lines," Fang Ziye replied.
"So after covering the culture dish and shaking it for a few days, letting it grow naturally for a while until the cells adhere and fill the surface, we can harvest the cells, right?" Fang Ziye turned and asked.
The cell lines stored by Yuan Weihong were precious, essentially mother stocks. They could be cultured and passed on for several generations before being used in experiments without any issues.
These cell lines were quite expensive, and Fang Ziye didn't dare waste them.
He planned to culture one bottle first, then freeze a portion and experiment with another portion. His subsequent experiments would be done on the next few generations cultured from this mother stock.
"That's right. I thought you were going to do it directly like this, Senior Fang. After all, Professor Yuan's research funding is substantial, so you could afford to be extravagant," Luo Tingzhu smiled.
Fang Ziye quickly shook his head.
"Junior Luo, have I already used nearly a hundred yuan today?" Fang Ziye asked again.
Luo Tingzhu scrutinized the setup: "The culture dish, plus Professor Yuan's high-grade pipettes at one or two yuan each, and then the culture medium... it's not quite a hundred, but around seventy or so."
"Too rich for my blood!" Fang Ziye exclaimed. After spreading the cells evenly, he first took them to observe under the microscope.
After adjusting the focus, he found that the cells in view were all round and plump, floating in the culture medium. There were no misshapen cells or moving bacteria. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.
However, as Fang Ziye carefully observed the cell movement for a while longer, he suddenly realized that his Knowledge Points were increasing rapidly.
[+0.1!]
[+0.3!]
[+0.4!]
After about half a minute, Fang Ziye's Knowledge Points had increased by 5 Points.
This made Fang Ziye pause, somewhat bewildered.
Luo Tingzhu had already left, and Fang Ziye was wearing a mask, so no one could share in his confusion and excitement.
After placing the culture dish into the cell incubator, clearing the trash from the cell operation table, spraying it again with alcohol for disinfection, and putting away his experimental equipment into the laboratory refrigerator and drawer compartments, Fang Ziye sat down on a laboratory stool, lost in thought.
In the distance, Luo Tingzhu was hunched over, copying something unknown. Further away, some academic doctoral senior students of Professor Deng Yong were typing on keyboards, seemingly unsatisfied with the data they were processing.
Even further away, a junior academic master's student was entering and exiting an experiment room with a senior student and senior female student Fang Ziye didn't recognize, still asking, "Senior, what are we going to do next?"
At this moment, Fang Ziye finally understood some things.
In clinical practice, the diseases they see, those changes, are already very mature in terms of disease diagnosis, treatment, surgical plans, and procedures.
In the laboratory, it can be said that if there's any direction that others have done before, you won't be able to apply for a research project. Any project that gets approved is in a new direction or field.
Whether this direction is useful or not, even if the verification fails, it's a failure that others haven't verified before.
What are Knowledge Points?
Points of knowledge learned, right? At least that's how Fang Ziye considered it. Treating and operating on clinical patients could all potentially yield subtle gains. The knowledge gained from diagnosis and treatment is considerable, allowing you to truly experience the process, which inevitably has immature aspects.
And in the laboratory, every treatment direction might be something that others have never done before.
For example, reviving this cell line, which Yuan Weihong had specially treated with reagents to silence the HK2 gene. Therefore, in this situation, even just observing its cell movement was...
New knowledge.
Fang Ziye suddenly felt as if he had found the door to a new world, and beyond this door was the mortal realm, a world of misty rain.
What is knowledge?
The new, the unknown to oneself, the unknown to others, the process from nothing to something, all count as knowledge...
Author's Notes:
[1] Some of the cellular experimental pathways mentioned in this text differ slightly from real-world pathways. This serves three purposes: first, to avoid revealing ongoing project details; second, to prevent specialists from nitpicking; and third, because this novel is primarily for entertainment rather than a scientific paper. Readers, please be aware.