"Brother Fang, could I borrow your PBS? I think mine might be contaminated. My cells were growing fine last time, but after a wash with PBS, they all died," Luo Tingzhu said, possibly after taking another look at her petri dishes while Fang Ziye was deep in thought.
PBS buffer solution is like a bath for cells. When cells grow attached to a surface, they need a change of medium and a wash with PBS.
If the PBS buffer is contaminated, it spells trouble.
Compared to bacteria, tumor cells are as fragile as little Hello Kittys!
And losing a cultured cell line was even more heartbreaking than getting injured oneself.
The little cells cultivated in the lab were like the corn and sweet potatoes planted by agricultural doctoral students in their fields. They were extremely precious.
Hearing this, Fang Ziye was startled. He turned to look at Luo Tingzhu, who was frowning slightly. "Sister Luo, did you throw away the culture dish? Can I take a look?"
Fang Ziye was like a curious child.
He had never seen what contamination looked like, and he wanted to guess if observing the contamination could increase his Knowledge Points.
If possible, this laboratory would be a vast treasure trove.
Luo Tingzhu nodded woodenly, understanding Fang Ziye's curiosity. "What about the PBS?"
After contamination, having found a possible cause and needing to reorder supplies, Luo Tingzhu had likely prepared for the subsequent experimental procedures. Now that the cells were gone, it was like having no subject for the experiment - akin to wanting to eat out but finding no restaurants.
"Don't worry about that, Sister Fang. You can use it. Just seal it up after you're done," Fang Ziye said as he quickly put on a sterile mask and cap, rushing to the cell culture room.
Reagents used in the lab needed to be sealed and stored after use to prevent bacterial contamination.
Luo Tingzhu's PBS buffer solution might have been improperly sealed.
Upon entering the cell culture room, Fang Ziye saw three culture dishes labeled "LTZ 10.08", meaning Luo Tingzhu had changed the medium or transferred cells on October 8th.
These were the subjects of her cell experiments, not to be used by others.
Fang Ziye's label was "FZY 10.10", making it easy to distinguish between different researchers' work.
He picked up one dish and placed it under the microscope. Sure enough, he saw that the adherent cells had lysed, and various debris was floating in the suspension.
Due to the separation of the culture dish, he couldn't use an oil immersion lens and couldn't see bacteria. He also didn't observe other common contaminants like Burkholderia cepacia, so he could guess it was bacterial contamination.
With this observation, Fang Ziye found that his Knowledge Points had rapidly increased by 3.
It was possible that the cell line Luo Tingzhu was currently cultivating had undergone special treatment and was a rare type, with few existing anywhere in the world and no mature theoretical system surrounding it.
Even if such a cell line was contaminated and died, it could still allow Fang Ziye to understand what death and lysis states looked like. This was also a new kind of knowledge.
There truly was learning to be found everywhere.
Fang Ziye quickly switched to another dish, then another.
He found that they all looked similar, and his Knowledge Points no longer increased.
"Too greedy, too greedy," Fang Ziye muttered to himself.
While Fang Ziye was observing, Luo Tingzhu had prepared the reagents and equipment for cell revival that Fang Ziye had prepared earlier. She had even thoughtfully pre-warmed the PBS and culture medium in a 37°C constant temperature water bath.
This was to simulate normal body temperature as much as possible, allowing the tumor cell "babies" to grow robustly and happily after revival, becoming useful experimental material for Luo Tingzhu.
"Sister Luo, should I help you throw these away?" Fang Ziye asked.
"Yes, throw them away. I asked the senior, and he said they can't be saved when contaminated like this. I was planning to do a scratch assay."
"Sigh!" Luo Tingzhu used a term that was beyond Fang Ziye's current experimental progress.
Fang Ziye didn't immediately delve deeper, but curiously glanced at his own cell culture dish again. He found that the cells were still suspended and hadn't adhered to the bottom yet. He realized he was being too impatient.
After putting it back in the constant temperature cell incubator, Fang Ziye said goodbye to Luo Tingzhu.
Luo Tingzhu didn't need his guidance for cell revival, and staying there would only seem like a joke and add pressure...
Although Fang Ziye had entered the lab, he wasn't fully or partially relieved of his clinical duties. He still had to manage patients in the clinic, and on Monday's surgery day, he still needed to check if there were opportunities to assist.
On Monday, luck was relatively good.
Although Professor Deng Yong and Professor Xie Jinyuan were still pushing the surgical schedule at full force, they hadn't deprived Fang Ziye of the opportunity to assist in surgeries for the patients he was managing.
Moreover, in the afternoon surgeries, one belonged to Junior Brother Jie Han. After the split, Senior Brother Sun Shaoqing had to go to another operating table for surgery, so Fang Ziye had two opportunities to assist as a second assistant.
In the first surgery, Fang Ziye just acted as an assistant, not getting to do any other operations. Everything was taken by Professor Deng Yong and his own mentor.
Finally, after the split, under his mentor's feeding, Fang Ziye first completed an incision to maintain his touch.
Yuan Weihong's mood was still lingering on how Fang Ziye was bringing glory to their team. After watching, he said, "Even though you've entered the lab, don't neglect your clinical skills. Occasionally, you should still go to the practice room and operating room."
Jie Han then said, "Master, I heard from other senior brothers that Brother Fang was in the practice room for two hours last night, not returning until after eleven."
"Where do you get all these 'I heard' from?" Yuan Weihong turned his head and asked.
Jie Han's eyes flickered quickly, and he replied, "Master, thanks to your good teaching, and with senior brothers feeding me opportunities, I've published several papers, so the brothers are all quite courteous to me."
"Some people even asked me to teach them how to write a meta-analysis, but I didn't dare to agree."
Nearly three-quarters of Fang Ziye's research output was done together with Jie Han. Jie Han himself had independently published one paper, co-published one paper with Fang Ziye that had already been published, another letter had also been published, and one more revised paper was about to be published.
This research output could be described as phenomenal.
Moreover, Jie Han had independently worked on a meta-analysis that was about to be completed. It was said that while Jie Han was spending time in the practice room, he had collected some previous clinical data to conduct a retrospective clinical research analysis, which was currently in the data collection process.
This research output was simply insane.
How could one not love it?
"Hmph!" Yuan Weihong snorted.
"Has there been any progress with the suturing technique? If so, want to suture a case?" Yuan Weihong looked at his two precious disciples, his mood visibly improving as he raised an eyebrow.
"Master, I'm just a tiny bit away. Just a tiny bit more and I'll be able to properly approximate the rubber skin, and I'm not far from mastering the incision technique either," Jie Han replied, as if reassuring Yuan Weihong that his research time hadn't hindered his clinical progress.
Yuan Weihong's mood instantly improved, and he shouted, "Circulating nurse! Anesthesiologist!"
The anesthesiologist, who was playing on his phone, was startled by Yuan Weihong's shout. He instinctively checked the vital signs, found them all stable, and yelled back in a thick northeastern accent, glaring, "What are you shouting for?"
"Let's have dinner together tonight!" Yuan Weihong continued loudly.
"Dinner, dinner, why are you shouting so loud?" The anesthesiologist's voice softened.
But immediately, he put away his phone and lowered his voice, "Brother Wei, where shall we eat?"
Yuan Weihong then began discussing dinner locations with the circulating nurse and anesthesiologist while continuing the surgery.
Jie Han carefully pondered the details of Yuan Weihong's operations on the surgical table, helping with one hand while flexibly changing the other, as if contemplating.
Fang Ziye felt that even the light from the surgical lamp didn't seem as strong, and there was a sense of unprecedented goodness.
Most importantly, at the end of the surgery.
The floating message "[Knowledge points +0.4]" made Fang Ziye's mood even more cheerful.