"Over the years, we've tried to clear bacterial infections with various antibiotics, but sometimes it wasn't that successful."
"But if you use the laws of nature and use the bacteria's natural enemies to attack them, sometimes things will take an unexpected turn."
Williams is bright-eyed and talkative.
Everyone listened attentively and with bated breath.
"All things are interdependent, and highly toxic things are often accompanied by natural enemies."
"Bacteria have survived on the earth for billions of years, constantly evolving and becoming more and more cunning. Humans can no longer defeat them by relying solely on antibiotics."
"We need allies, and they must be very powerful helpers. Fortunately, there is another thing in the world that has also survived for billions of years. They know how to deal with bacteria and are their natural enemies. This is bacteriophage, a specialized Viruses that infect and destroy bacteria.”
"Just like humans, bacteria can also be infected with viruses and die. Bacteriophages are much smaller than bacteria. They attach to bacteria, inject their own DNA, and then reproduce within the bacteria until the bacteria rupture and die."
"Antibiotics are chemical weapons arsenals produced by bacteria and have strong killing power against other bacteria. However, antibiotics have a disadvantage, which is that they cannot mutate and cannot keep up with the pace of bacterial evolution. When bacteria become resistant, they are completely useless. "
"But phages are different. They can mutate. When bacteria change, the phages also change and multiply and grow in the newly generated bacteria. This mutated phage has an advantage and starts to multiply and become the dominant group."
"The bacteria mutate again, and the phages mutate soon after, and both sides continue to evolve, like a life-and-death arms race."
"If we can get them to fight for humans, they will keep fighting even if the bacteria mutate."
"Isn't it a wonderful thing to use viruses to eliminate drug-resistant bacteria?"
"Next, let me talk about my idea. Each bacterium has dozens or hundreds of corresponding phages. We collect drug-resistant bacteria from patients and then screen out the phages that can eliminate them."
"Next, we use gene editing technology to optimize the phages and enhance their ability to dissolve bacteria so that they can exhibit the most effective therapeutic effect."
"Of course, this screening and optimization stage will take a certain amount of time, but with Aicell and the transformation using machine learning, I believe the speed will be much faster."
"There are already relevant papers proving the broad prospects of phage therapy in treating multi-drug-resistant infections. This may be a development direction of future biomedical technology, and we should not miss it."
"That's pretty much it."
Williams ended his explanation with a smile.
"Bah bang bang!" Tang Que clapped vigorously: "It's a very ambitious project. Research on bacterial resistance is a direction with great potential. It's very exciting."
After a burst of warm applause, he looked around again.
"Okay, if any of you have any exciting ideas, you can discuss them together and brainstorm, maybe we can actually make them happen."
Everyone looked at each other and fell silent.
A timid voice suddenly sounded.
"Well, I have some ideas."
Everyone looked over and saw a thin man standing up nervously.
Tang Que nodded approvingly: "Huang Qin, you are very good. I am very pleased to see you grow from a newcomer to a veteran in your own right."
He asked kindly: "What do you think? Tell me."
Huang Qin swallowed his saliva and said loudly, pretending to be calm: "Hello everyone, as you all know, I was recently transferred to the animal protection department. Logically speaking, I am no longer a member of the biological laboratory, but I am from here. Those who go out will always regard this place as home and treat everyone as brothers."
"So I have a few potential projects on hand right now, and I immediately thought of discussing them with my brothers. Hehe." He smiled honestly and quickly started to introduce them.
"It's like this. We previously cooperated with Syngenta on gene-edited crops, and the results were very good. They all benefited from it. After this news spread, many companies came to us and wanted to cooperate with us to develop new gene-editing products. plant."
"We have cooperated with the Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences to develop a super long-staple cotton. We want to beat Egyptian cotton and kick Pima cotton, and become the brightest pearl in the world's cotton industry."
Like every scientific researcher, Huang Qin becomes more and more excited when he talks about his areas of expertise.
The anxiety and tension in his heart had long since disappeared, and he was dancing and talking non-stop.
"You may not know much about cotton. The best cotton in the world is Egyptian cotton, which is very expensive. Although our Xinjiang cotton is very good, there is still a big gap."
"The longer the fibers of cotton, the better. Long-staple cotton has the best quality, but the fibers become thinner as they grow, resulting in low strength. Egyptian cotton is unique in this regard. Not only does the fiber be very long and thin, but its strength is also low. He is very tall, so he can stand at the top of the pyramid.”
"If we rely on purely natural methods, it may be difficult to catch up, but with gene editing technology, everything is different."
"We and the Academy of Agricultural Sciences have sequenced the genes of Egyptian cotton. As long as we edit the genes that control strength and fiber length, I believe we will soon have long-staple cotton that is better than Egyptian cotton. Let the world know that only we can Xinjiang cotton is the supreme king of cotton in the world."
"This is the first project I want to talk about. The second project is very similar to this one, but about animals. This is gene-edited goats. Everyone should have heard of the EEDs in the Inner Mongolia wool industry. 70% of the world's It supplies cashmere, which is very important.”
"Cashmere is a top-grade thermal insulation material taken from goats. It is very soft and will not cause discomfort even if it is worn close to the body. Its thermal insulation ability is even better."
Huang Qin suddenly stretched out his hand, touched Tang Que's sweater next to him, and said, "Look, Director Tang's sweater is made of cashmere. It is very light and warm. You can come up and feel the feel."
He glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw Tang Que staring at him, and immediately shrank his neck: "Of course, if Director Tang agrees."
Tang Que stared at him, his eyes like daggers, smiled and said nothing.
Everyone urged wisely: "Hurry up and stop talking. Don't ramble."
Huang Qin cleared his throat and said: "Although eeds accounts for the majority of the world's cashmere production, the top cashmere is still in the hands of foreigners, which we cannot defeat for the time being. But similarly, with gene editing technology, we We can also strive to catch up in this regard.”
"Editing the genes of goats to produce top-quality cashmere is our goal, and the project is currently progressing well."
"The third project is also a gene-edited animal. It is a gene-edited cow. We want it to have the texture of top-grade calfskin, because domestic cowhide is relatively rough and the quality is not good. Of course, our tanning technology is also average. But now we can overtake in detours. If tanning is not good, we can rely on high-quality cowhide."
"Our goal is to make the leather of domestic bags beat Hermès, and to make the leather of knock-off bags better than the original Hermès."
"the fourth……"
"These are the projects I am currently working on. They sound very attractive. They are currently very short of people. Everyone is welcome to participate."
Huang Qin finished talking about this big call and looked at everyone expectantly.
"Bang bang!" Tang Que took the lead in applauding and praised: "They all look great and have endless potential. As long as they are developed, they will be big projects that change the world."
With Tang Que's encouragement, someone immediately raised their hands.
"Brother Huang, I'm very interested in that cotton project. Please take me with you."
"The cashmere project is also very interesting. If we can increase cashmere production and popularize it to the public, it will be a very meaningful thing."
"I want to participate in the calfskin project. My wife loves to buy big-name bags. They say their leather is good, and domestic brands all use imported leather. Brothers, you see, this is the IQ tax paid to women. Can these luxury goods be bought?" All the big names are playing, I really want it.”
There was a lot of discussion, and many people expressed interest in these projects.
Huang Qin was immediately overjoyed and smiled from ear to ear.
He knew that to recruit people, the leader would have to nod. As long as Director Tang made a statement on the spot, these people would definitely be willing to go.
"Today's brainstorming was very good. Everyone's performance was very good. It really impressed me."
Tang Que showed a satisfied smile and waved his hand, indicating that the meeting should continue.
****
Williams drove his car to the Kunming sewage treatment plant in the outer suburbs.
A staff member came out and the two of them put on protective clothing and walked towards the sewage pool.
In the distance, several huge pools came into view, and a stench instantly hit their nostrils.
Williams stood outside the fence beside the pool and looked at the surging pool water under his feet. The water was dark brown in color and looked filthy, with a thick layer of scaly yellow foam floating on it.
The pond dam is full of sludge, and some disgusting algae can be seen vaguely.
Toothbrushes, bottle caps and other small pieces of garbage were swirling in the water, bobbing up and down.
The staff member asked with a smile, holding a transparent plastic bucket in his left hand and a long water collector in his right hand.
"This is the sewage sampling point. Is it enough to scoop a bucket of sewage here?"
Williams nodded and watched as the other person quickly scooped up water one ladle at a time and poured it into a transparent plastic bucket.
The water in the bucket was turbid, but it was cleaner than the sewage pool we just walked through. At least there was no garbage or yellow foam in it.
A few days ago, he contacted the sewage treatment plant through the company and asked to come and take samples.
Sanqing Group is a pillar industry in Kunming City and has a great reputation. Everything can be done smoothly.
This time was no exception. As soon as the sewage treatment plant heard that it was Sanqing's scientific research activity, it immediately agreed and sent a staff member to cooperate with him.
Williams put on gloves, took the transparent plastic bucket, looked at the sewage in the bucket intently, and smiled with satisfaction.
"Thank you, that's enough."
Seeing that the task was accomplished, the staff felt much relieved and asked curiously.
"Isn't your Sanqing a pharmaceutical company? Why do you come here to collect sewage? What is it used for?"
Williams shook the bucket in his hand and said with a chuckle: "You don't know that. Take a closer look at this bucket of water and tell me, what do you see?"
The staff member scratched his head in confusion: "Except for some sediment floating in the water, there is nothing to see."
"Haha," Williams shook his finger and said meaningfully: "Although we can't see it, there is a war going on inside."
"Ah?" The staff member was stunned: "What kind of war? Why can't I understand it?"
"As we speak, there are billions of bacteria inside that are fighting for survival, because there are tens of billions of phages that are waging a bacterial war to eat them all."
After Williams explained, he didn't say much, smiled slightly, and walked back with the bucket.
The staff member said "Oh" with a vague understanding and followed closely.
Soon returning to the company's laboratory, Williams put on a white coat and gel gloves, carefully used a pipette to put sewage into the test tubes that had been prepared.
Raw sewage is a perfect breeding ground for bacteria and is also the best place to acquire bacteriophages.
Williams collected sewage and brought it back to the laboratory precisely to launch his new phage therapy project.
He injected sewage into specific cultured bacteria. There were hundreds of phages in the sewage. Certain phages would attack this specific bacteria, attach to it, multiply and sterilize it.
yy
And that's exactly what he wanted.
Of course, under some special circumstances, some bacteria may only have a few phages that are effective against them.
After that, he can select the ones with the strongest attack power from these phages and culture them.
Finally, try gene editing it to see if it can be further optimized.
This is Williams' ideal state.
Once he has a certain research foundation, he can consider collecting drug-resistant bacteria from patients and officially start clinical research.
However, when he put the petri dish under an electron microscope and looked at it.
He saw an unexpected picture.
In addition to bacteria and phages, there is another group of uninvited guests.
Some microplastic particles, like dust floating in the air, condensed together and spread all over the petri dish like water mist.
"Hell, there were so many plastic particles that they burst my bacteria."
Williams was furious and stared at the microscope, wishing that the phages were eating plastic particles instead of bacteria.
"Damn it, is the plastic crisis so serious? It's even in city sewage."
"It seems that we either need to find a way to remove the plastic particles, or find another place to find the phages."
Disappointed in his heart, he stood up and walked out the door.
For several days, he pondered possible solutions.
The petri dish was placed aside on the test bench, completely forgotten.
It wasn't until a week later that Williams finally came up with a solution.
Then he ran over happily.
"Huh? These petri dishes seem a little different."
I put the glass dish under the light and observed it, and found that the liquid was not so turbid.
Suddenly my curiosity aroused and I put it under the microscope again.
"Oh my god! What did I see?" Williams was shocked when he saw the scene under the camera and exclaimed.
"Most of the microplastic particles have disappeared, leaving only some residue. What's going on?"
He frowned and thought hard. After a while, an idea suddenly flashed in his mind.
"Could it be decomposed by the bacteria inside?"
“Oh my god, I discovered a bacteria that can break down microplastic particles!”
Williams murmured to himself, his voice trembling, and his breathing suddenly became heavier.
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