The causes of human death have always been complex. Wars, famines, murders, accidents, and even malnutrition were also major causes in ancient times.
However, after entering a modern society with great material abundance, peace and stability, human life span has been greatly extended, with the average life span increasing to 70 or 80 years.
In this way, the cause of death begins to become simpler.
Two major causes: disease and aging.
Both disease and aging will damage human cells, causing some organs to begin to fail, thus affecting the normal functioning of the entire body and eventually leading to death.
Yes, organ failure has become the biggest cause of death.
Whether it is systemic infection or natural aging, it all starts with the failure of individual organs, leading to inevitable death.
So, what if after the organ fails, it is replaced with a normally functioning organ.
Wouldn't it greatly alleviate people's death?
Because of this, organ transplantation has become the most direct way to extend life in modern medicine, and is known as one of the greatest medical miracles of the 20th century.
Even the concept of "death" has received a huge impact.
In the past, people used to regard the permanent cessation of breathing and heart function as a sign of death.
However, due to the advancement of medical technology and the popularization of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, extracorporeal membrane lung (ECMO) and other technologies, some new problems have arisen, which have refreshed humankind's understanding of death.
Because even if the whole brain function stops and spontaneous breathing stops, the patient can still rely on artificial respiration and other measures to maintain the blood circulation of the whole body and the functional activities of various organs except the brain for a certain period of time.
This creates the abnormal phenomenon of "living body, dead brain".
As we all know, the brain is the commander of the body and an indispensable organ for human survival. Once the brain's function permanently stops, the individual's life will also end.
Therefore, under this circumstance, the concept of "brain death" is gradually accepted by people.
The medical community directly revised the definition of death and judged the irreversible and permanent cessation of the whole brain function, that is, 12 hours of brainstem death, as death.
The biggest reason is that human brains cannot be transplanted at present.
Other organs that can be transplanted or replaced with artificial equipment cannot be included in the definition of death.
And organ transplantation, a clinical method that can dramatically change lives, has indeed become a life-extending method for the top rich.
The third-generation head of the Rockefeller family discovered that his physical fitness was not as good as before at the age of 61. In order to seize the money empire and continue his splendid life, he has undergone a total of 6 heart transplants and 2 kidney transplants since then. transplant surgery.
He adopted organ transplantation, the most direct way to extend his life, and successfully lived to the age of 101.
He even successfully completed his sixth heart transplant at the age of 99. He used a healthy heart that ordinary patients could not wait for, so he could use it whenever he wanted, just to live for two more years.
Since its invention in the 1950s, organ transplant surgery has saved millions of people and given them a second life.
Today, many human organs, including the heart, intestines, kidneys, liver, lungs, trachea, spleen, pancreas, retina and skin, have been successfully transplanted, which can be described as immeasurable merit.
After organ transplantation, if immune rejection is well controlled, most people can live for 5-10 years. If they are in good health and have minimal rejection, they can even live for decades.
Of course, if there is a strong rejection reaction between the donor organ and the recipient, the survival time may be very short, usually only one or two years.
Therefore, organ transplant patients basically have to take immunosuppressants for life after surgery to prolong their survival.
All in all, although the life span of organ transplantation is limited, the comfort and happiness it brings to patients and their families after surgery is unlimited.
However, due to the severe shortage of donor organs, transplantable organs are extremely scarce in the medical market.
Coupled with the existence of a series of problems such as rejection and ethics, organ transplantation has never been popularized, and the lives saved are limited.
Scientists are currently solving this century's problem. Autologous stem cell cloning of organs, gene-edited xenogeneic organ transplantation, etc., have gradually begun to make some staged progress, providing new ideas for the development direction of organ transplantation.
And this is exactly what Wei Kang wants to strive for.
Sanqing has the world's most cutting-edge biomedical technology and is fully capable of making rapid progress and making breakthroughs in this field.
He believes that human beings will one day be able to realize the technology of "replacing broken parts" and extend life span for a truly long time through organ transplantation.
And he has this confidence. The first person to realize this technology is definitely Sanqing.
Even if you can't replace all the organs in your body, at least one can be replaced.
Even if the brain cannot be transplanted, it will still limit the length of human lifespan, but there is absolutely no problem in living until the end of life.
That way everyone can at least live to be over 100 years old in good health.
The realization of this achievement is definitely a human medical miracle of bringing back the dead and can meet the system upgrade requirements.
After making sure, he put away the system panel.
The panel suddenly turned into colorful lights and disappeared.
Then what appeared in front of him was a very familiar golden USB flash drive.
"It probably contains information on the seven medical devices that the points can be redeemed for."
"There are a lot of things this time, so I just stuffed the data into the USB flash drive."
Wei Kang thought to himself, and couldn't help but think of the last time he upgraded the AI pharmaceutical system. Because there was too much data, the system directly displayed a USB flash drive.
He quickly picked it up and plugged it into his laptop.
A golden light flashed again, and the USB flash drive turned into dots of stars and dissipated in the air.
When I opened the desktop, I saw a newly created folder. I clicked in and saw that it was divided into categories and contained detailed technical information on these seven devices.
Suddenly he looked up to the sky and laughed: "Haha, it's crazy! This time, punching Johnson & Johnson and kicking Pfizer will definitely work."
The next thing is very simple. If you have the money and ability, of course you need to recruit troops first.
Previously, the equipment department only had two products. Although it hired a lot of people, it was not enough for a dedicated R&D center.
There are tens of thousands of people in the major laboratories of Pangu Research Institute, but there are only a few hundred people in the equipment department.
High-end medical equipment has a very high technical content. It is an interdisciplinary subject that integrates medicine, biology, mechanics, materials, machinery, electronics, software and other fields.
There are not only high-end technologies such as CT, color ultrasound, artificial organs, and even brain-computer interfaces, but also low-end products such as orthopedic consumables, test boxes, stethoscopes, and tongue depressors.
In short, the threshold is very low, but the ceiling is also very high.
This industry is also a typical talent-intensive and technology-intensive industry with a long R&D cycle and is no less difficult than aerospace.
Several major foreign medical device companies, such as GSP, not only have technology, talents, and funds, but also have advantages in the complete industrial chain from upstream material research and development to downstream industrial application.
From these aspects, Sanqing can only be regarded as a novice player who has just started.
Therefore, he plans to recruit a group of high-end R&D teams first and is determined to build the world's most cutting-edge medical device R&D center.
The products he has in hand all have high technological content. As long as his employees have a thorough understanding of reverse research and development, they will naturally be able to continue to innovate and have independent research and development capabilities like a medical laboratory.
In addition to frantically recruiting equipment talents, he also did not forget to find Tang Que and ask him to open a new professional laboratory for stem cell technology.
In fact, stem cell technology does not refer to the kind of embryonic stem cells that are on the street. Even beauty salons dare to use them to scare people. "Regenerative medicine" and "stem cell beauty" are all lies.
The stem cell technology at the forefront of medicine today specifically refers to "induced pluripotent stem cells" (iPS stem cells). This discovery won the Nobel Prize in 2012 and is the third major bioscience in modern biotechnology after cloning technology and genetic engineering. Achievement.
Scientists injected specific genes into human skin cells, successfully transformed them into pluripotent stem cells, and differentiated into embryonic stem cells through special means.
This technology does not use embryonic cells or egg cells, so there are no ethical issues. It can be controlled through genetic combination and is known as universal cells, which can eventually be cultivated into human tissues or organs.
It can even cross the gender divide and differentiate directly into germ cells.
In other words, a man can take off a piece of foot skin, then transform it into iPS stem cells, and finally differentiate into eggs.
Sperm can also be differentiated from a woman's skin scraps through iPS stem cells.
It can even differentiate into embryonic cells and thus clone itself.
Not to mention differentiating into hematopoietic stem cells, greatly reducing immune rejection and benefiting bone marrow transplant patients.
In short, the emergence of this technology has huge potential value in clinical treatment and has triggered strong responses in all major biomedical fields.
Tang Que naturally understood this technology, and was stunned when he heard his boss's thoughts.
"iPS stem cell laboratory?"
"Research on autologous cloned organs?"
He slapped his thigh and said happily: "Great, boss, are we finally going to do some real technical work?"
"I have always been interested in research in this area. However, there are specialties in the field, so I am not an expert in this area."
"Boss, I would like to recommend a master to you. It just so happens that I have a junior brother who just completed his Ph.D. in Biology from Eagle University of Pennsylvania and returned to China to find a promising job."
"I'm about to recruit him, but I'm afraid that the company won't do business in this area, which will delay others."
"Of course it's no problem now. I'll call him when I get out."
Tang Que said happily: "My junior brother is a genius. He is good at everything. He is just arrogant and has a wild personality. I'm afraid he won't be able to stand the atmosphere in a university. The company is more relaxed, so it would be best to come to Sanqing. "
“When he was at the University of Pennsylvania, his teacher was Professor Thomson, the father of human embryonic stem cells, and Professor Yu, the co-inventor of iPS stem cells, was also his fellow student.”
He told everything about his junior brother in one breath, which instantly aroused Wei Kang's curiosity.
"No problem, you are responsible for recruiting people. Nowadays, there are many talents who have returned from overseas. HR said that too many people submit resumes every day, even foreigners, and they are too busy."
"However, there are still few real geniuses. Unless there is a department that is particularly short of people in Sanqing, there will be a shortage rather than an overabundance, so I haven't let go of the quota."
"You also know that the company still treats real talents very favorably, and the atmosphere here is also very relaxed. I believe it is still very attractive."
Wei Kang laughed and said: "Character is not a problem at all. Besides, no matter how crazy you are, can you still be crazy like Aaron?"
A trace of imperceptible embarrassment flashed in Tang Que's eyes: "Well, this junior brother of mine belongs to a rather special type. You will know when you meet him, but I can guarantee that there will be no problem with his technical skills."
Wei Kang nodded happily: "Okay, then I'll be relieved."
"By the way, what's his name?"
"Ding Mian."
I was so sleepy last night that I fell asleep while typing. I woke up around five in the morning and quickly finished typing and posted it. The remaining chapter will be added later.
(End of chapter)
