Dr. Charlie walked through the large fir forest and along the driveway to the familiar iron gate again.
He had no intention of seeing the beautiful forest park outside the manor, nor did he take a second look at the blooming tulips in the garden.
The black car raced along the driveway, squealing from its tires, and stopped in front of the magnificent palace with a whoosh.
Dr. Charlie jumped out of the car in a hurry, and rushed in without even having time to close the door.
"Mr. Merck, I have good news for you!"
This time, no beautiful blonde came to greet him. He rushed to the study, only to find that the door was ajar, and there were faint voices coming from inside.
He quickly stepped forward and knocked twice on the door. Mr. Merck's old and loud voice immediately came from inside.
"Oh, Charlie, you're just in time. Move your fat ass to my couch."
When Dr. Charlie walked in, he first saw Mr. Merck, who had white hair but a ruddy complexion, followed closely by Bill, who always had a smile on his face, and of course, the beautiful Catherine.
The three of them looked over at the same time, but their reactions were different.
Bill's eyes were full of curiosity, Catherine's expression was calm, and Merck's eyes were full of scrutiny.
"Charlie, hurry up, you are the most well-informed person. Tell me, has Sanqing's organ transplant experiment been successful?"
Merck immediately shouted.
Charlie sat on the sofa opposite the three of them and nodded respectfully.
"According to the latest news I got, the organs planted in the pigs survived for three days in the brain-dead patient's body, and had all normal functions without any rejection."
"At present, Sanqing has recruited several brain-dead patients and continues to conduct experiments. Once sufficient experimental data is collected, it will presumably be approved for clinical trials."
Bill couldn't help but said thoughtfully: "In this case, Sanqing's overseas clinical trials in Yingguo will probably come to nothing, and the FDA will definitely be very disappointed."
Charlie smiled humbly and said helplessly.
"Originally, it was difficult for Sanqing to conduct experiments on brain-dead patients, but Mr. Wei's popularity in China far exceeded our expectations. He only said a few words on the Internet and recruited enough fans from volunteers.”
"It seems that we can no longer count on Sanqing's overseas clinical trials. If it were me, I wouldn't want to go overseas if such an important experiment could be done in my own country."
Mr. Merck waved his hand boldly: "This is not a problem for me. My medical foundation can fund several poor patients to go to China to participate in clinical trials."
"Organ transplantation is not as simple as taking a few pills every day. Now artificial organs have given patients more choices. I think there will not be too many patients who can voluntarily undergo organ transplant clinical trials."
Charlie praised: "You are right, I very much agree with you. Since Sanqing has sufficient technology, we should try our best to promote the clinical realization of this technology."
At this time, Catherine, who understood the situation after listening to the conversation between the two, could not help but marvel with eyes burning.
"Oh my god, has Sanqing been able to create human organs in less than five years? This Mr. Wei is really a genius."
"The last surprise he brought us seems like it happened just yesterday. That time was the clinical news of artificial hearts. This time, he actually planted a real heart directly in the body of a pig."
Bill couldn't help but sigh: "Mr. Wei is indeed a great figure. The whole world will benefit from his research. Humanity is so lucky to have him."
"Fortunately, his heart is as broad as his mind, and he is willing to share all his great achievements with the world instead of locking away the technology."
"Bill, the Mr. Wei you talk about is not as lovable as you make him out to be when he collects fees."
Mr. Merck said with some dissatisfaction: "I have to pay him a large sum of protection fees every year."
"Over the years, I have finally figured it out. He is collecting high protection fees from rich people like us who are afraid of death, and then using them to help the poor people in China."
Bill laughed loudly: "Old man, you are richer than God, but you are as stingy as a devil. Money is valuable only when you spend it, otherwise it will always be just a number on a bank account."
"What do you care what he does with your money? You are a customer, not an investor."
"Don't talk about you. I am not sick and have no disaster. I still have to give him a large sum of money every year. This is called taking precautions in the bud."
"Besides, if you hadn't spent so much money, how could you look so radiant and younger than me?"
Merck suddenly turned from anger to joy: "Seriously, it seems that the protection fee was not in vain."
He turned to look at his granddaughter, his eyes full of tenderness: "Catherine, my poor little baby, grandpa is going to use your pocket money for charity again."
Catherine winked mischievously and said coquettishly: "Grandpa, I am willing to use all my pocket money in exchange for your eternal health and safety."
Merck laughed loudly: "My little sweetheart still makes people happy."
After saying that, his expression suddenly changed and his eyes became sharp.
"Bill, I'm just old, not an old fool. I'll be 90 soon. You're still young and can afford to wait. I can't wait a few more years."
"These Chinese people are too slow. I don't know what they are thinking about all day long. Such a magical technology is not being tested on humans right away. Instead, it is slow and slow, and it has been delayed in clinical trials. I can't stand it. "
"The organ transplant program must be accelerated, and I will use all my influence to get it into clinical practice as soon as possible."
“Only by conducting more experiments on humans can we discover its hidden dangers and defects and continuously improve it to make the technology more perfect and mature.”
He stretched out his hands towards Bill and asked expectantly.
"Bill, will you come with me?"
Bill was silent for 3 seconds, then suddenly laughed and held his old bark-like palms tightly.
"as you wish!"
****
Kunming City, Sanqing Headquarters.
"Huang Bo, the hospital called, good news!"
A subordinate hurriedly ran into Huang Qin's office and opened the door directly, forgetting to knock.
"What? The hospital said that it had recruited 12 brain-dead volunteers to participate in the experiment?"
Upon hearing the report from his subordinate, Huang Qin couldn't help but raise his head in surprise, unable to believe his ears.
It took him a while to react, and he was suddenly pleasantly surprised.
"Wow, after Mr. Wei personally took action, the effect is great."
"It's like a response. I couldn't find suitable volunteers before, but now there are 12 volunteers."
"Actually, there were more, but the hospitals behind them all rejected them." The subordinate added with a happy face.
"The progress of the experiment can be greatly accelerated now." Huang Qin stood up and rubbed his hands excitedly.
"Fortunately, we prepared enough piglets for experiments before, otherwise it would be embarrassing if there were not enough organs."
"Come on, let's go to the laboratory quickly, let's live!"
He acted immediately as if he had been injected with chicken blood. He wanted to complete these experiments as soon as possible and advance the project to the human clinical stage.
With the joint efforts of the team members, it took only one month to complete all experiments on brain-dead patients and produce a satisfactory pre-clinical research report.
"A total of 13 brain-dead patients, their transplanted organs survived for 3-5 days, which is enough to prove the effectiveness and safety of transplanted organs in the short term."
"I think this kind of data should be enough for us to apply for human clinical trials."
"Of course the ethics management committee may have some concerns, but the overall problem is not big."
Huang Qin took a deep breath, suppressed the excitement deep in his heart, and said to Ding Mian.
"I also think that the conditions are ripe, let the gears of fate begin to turn! Hallelujah! Yeah!"
Ding Mian raised his fists excitedly, looking eager to try.
"When I think about being able to transplant human organs grown from pigs into patients and save their lives, I seem to feel the adrenaline pumping crazily from my body, never stopping."
"There is no doubt that in the future, humans will be able to harvest not only delicious pork belly from pigs, but also strong and healthy organs."
"Organs from pigs will become a sustainable, renewable source of transplant organs."
"They are like solar energy for organ transplantation, a new virgin land waiting to be developed."
When Huang Qin heard this description, he couldn't help but be fascinated by it. Wonderful pictures flashed in his mind, and he suddenly felt a sense of yearning.
After his emotions slowly calmed down, he calmly thought about the next clinical experiment process and spoke slowly.
"However, it will still take a certain amount of time to achieve the effect of custom-made organs for patients."
"First of all, it must be clear that the volunteers recruited must have a survival period of more than half a year."
"Even for ordinary organ transplantation, there is a waiting process for matching, which can take as short as one and a half years, or as long as more than ten years, let alone such a high-tech organ transplantation technology."
"Our organs don't grow automatically from the ground. Instead, we need to culture cells first and then develop them from pigs. It takes at least several months. It's not like an organ can be transplanted to a person immediately. "
"For brain-dead patients, the transplanted organs only need to be human, because they only need to survive for a few days and there is no need to consider matching issues."
"But in order to be transplanted into healthy people and survive for a long time, in order to minimize immune rejection, it is best to use the patient's own genome to grow perfectly matching organs for them."
"That's the beauty of organ transplantation."
“After recruiting suitable patients, their somatic cells are extracted and transformed into pluripotent stem cells, which are then combined with genetically modified pigs to generate embryos, which are then placed into sows to grow and develop. Finally, the piglets are raised to be suitable for adult transplantation. size."
"The entire process will take about half a year at the earliest."
"The patient will also need to undergo an organ transplant surgery, and then observe the patient for six months to one year after the operation to determine the patient's survival period."
"In general, the time required for clinical trials alone is about one to one and a half years."
Ding Mian shrugged and said: "It seems that I have to continue to improve the technology, otherwise it will probably take years and months to achieve large-scale popularization and application."
Huang Qin said thoughtfully: "Improving technology is one aspect, but from another perspective, we can give priority to pediatric patients, who will need a shorter time to complete clinical trials."
"Generally speaking, children's bodies are still in the growth stage, and their survival rate after organ transplantation is much better than that of middle-aged and elderly people who have many underlying diseases and whose bodies are in the aging stage."
"Especially since organ transplantation is currently limited to adults, organ donation from children is prohibited, and most organs from adults are too big for children under ten years old and cannot be cut, otherwise they will lose their function."
"So many child patients are unable to receive organ transplants and can only die in the arms of their parents."
"But if you use transplanted organs, there is no such restriction."
"The most important thing is that the size of the organs grown in the donor pig can be controlled."
"The mini pigs used in the laboratory are inherently small. After genetic modification, their size and entire growth cycle can be controlled."
"The weight of pigs at birth is about 1 to 1.5 kilograms, and they gain two to three hundred grams every day. As long as the growth pattern of the donor pig is mastered, organs of the right size can be successfully transplanted into child patients."
"The transplanted organ can continue to grow in the child patient until it reaches full maturity."
"This is much better than artificial organs. Many artificial organs cannot be placed in children's bodies due to size issues."
"Children with organ failure are inherently terminal diseases, and there are no organs that can be transplanted. If they want to survive, even for a few more months, this is the only way to survive."
"I don't think the family will refuse such a miraculous life-saving plan."
Ding Mian's eyes suddenly lit up and he cheered loudly: "Okay, your idea is wonderful, let's do it like this."
"Come on, let's design a clinical trial plan like this, focusing on recruiting patients with acute liver failure and children."
"For the former, we have ready-made organs for transplantation. We don't need to customize organs for patients from scratch. We can directly transplant them for a period of time, and wait until the patients have passed the acute crisis period. By then, their own livers will probably have grown almost as well."
"In the latter case, the organ needs to be customized from scratch, but the time can be shortened by one or two months."
"That's right." Huang Qin added with a smile.
"The most important thing is that these two are basically terminal diseases, and there is currently no good treatment plan. Ours is an innovative treatment. If the experiment is successful, the approval rate will be very high."
The two quickly formulated a clinical trial plan and submitted it together with experimental data on early-stage brain-dead patients.
Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long.
The superior department quickly passed the approval.
Just two weeks later, amid all the scrutiny.
Human clinical trials of transplanted organs have finally officially begun. (End of chapter)
