The next day, at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, within the Shangdu Life Sciences Research Institute.
Around seven in the morning, five or six male and female employees were wiping the tables and chairs of a meeting room, while also idling and chatting about things on the Internet.
As it was not yet work time, a girl’s crisp laughter rang out now and then from the place, bringing a light touch to the silent, solemn air of the research institute.
Only when it was seven-thirty, did they start to wipe the dust in the meeting room, including the windows and railings.
“Why aren’t you guys done?”
At this point, a skinny middle-aged man in a suit rushed in anxiously. “Hurry up, this venue will be used at eight o’clock!”
“Team Leader, don’t worry. We’ll clean it up before eight.” A young woman smiled. “What’s the rush?”
“What do you know?”
The middle-aged man looked even more anxious. “I’ve just received news that the director and deputy director of the institute will be coming to this venue. Don’t you know that the director usually arrives ten minutes earlier?”
Everyone was startled and sped up their cleaning.
Just when the middle-aged man was panicking and was even about to roll up his sleeves, there was the sudden sound of footsteps behind him.
The middle-aged man turned around instinctively and saw a young man in a white shirt approaching. “Excuse me, is this Conference Room No. 3?”
“Yes, may I ask who you are?” The middle-aged man thought the youth looked unfamiliar and realized he was not someone from the institute. He subconsciously looked at the identification card around the youth’s neck.
Chen Chen?
He had never heard of this guy...
“I’m the speaker for this conference.” The youth named Chen Chen looked into the room. “Can I head in now? I wish to prepare in advance.”
“Oh, yes, please come in...”
The middle-aged man quickly stepped aside. As he watched the young man walk to the podium nonchalantly and adjusted the projection equipment, he could not help but feel surprised.
It was the first time he was seeing such a young face on that podium. Plus, the director had personally vouched for this guy.
The people cleaning the room glanced curiously at the youth and dared not continue chatting. Their hands quickened even more and in less than ten minutes, they were done cleaning up.
The middle-aged man secretly sighed in relief. He shot a final look at the podium where the young man was checking the PPT with a serious expression. The middle-aged man gestured to the rest and prepared to leave the venue.
However, just as he was about to stealthily leave with his team, his heart suddenly clenched.
In the corridor far away, the director was leading a large crowd of academicians toward this direction.
“Go now!” The middle-aged man growled softly to his team and they dispersed swiftly.
A few minutes later.
A group of men dressed in work clothes and wearing varying expressions filed into the room. Although the talk had not begun, they still remained quiet in their seats, displaying excellent bearing.
These people were not students but a group of middle-aged and elderly people over fifty. Some were even over sixty.
Even so, they were unlike ordinary elderly people. Every single person here was at the top level of academia. A few were well known throughout the world.
These were mostly the academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. A few others held senior managerial roles, like Wang Luo.
What Chen Chen had to do was persuade this group of top elites in academia. Only when this group of people recognized the feasibility of Chen Chen’s plan, would the authorities be convinced, and only then would Professor Wang Xi agree to go abroad for treatment.
As he looked out at the filled room, Chen Chen bowed slightly, then began a lengthy speech:
“What we call Alzheimer’s disease is a devastating neurodegenerative disease that occurs mostly in middle-aged and elderly people. On average, there are 5 to 8 patients out of every 100 people over 60 years old. Moreover, as global aging accelerates, this figure is expected to rise even further.
“Unfortunately, more than half of the world’s people don’t understand this disease. Despite the rapid medical advances made in the world, Alzheimer’s has become the only disease whose mortality rate has increased in the past decade.”
As Chen Chen spread out his hands, the big screen behind him kept showing various reports which he had gotten from newspapers and periodicals.
These reported numbers were shocking.
“Alzheimer’s disease, which I’ll refer to as AD for short — I believe that some of you here know it like the back of your hand. After all, there are only two main complications: Aβ protein deposition and tau protein mutation.
“But, it’s only when we investigate deeper that we realize the complexity of the clues within. Behind these two complications, there are countless factors at work like endless coils of thread tangled together...”
Chen Chen pointed to the screen behind him. “So far, the most in-depth discovery in the academic world is probably that of microglia. As a type of immune cell in the brain, microglia have been proven by experiments to be able to effectively swallow Aβ protein and abnormal tau protein after being activated, thus inhibiting AD symptoms.”
“Even so, at the same time, this immune cell is a double-edged sword.”
Chen Chen turned around and the screen behind him displayed several research reports. “Recent research has shown that microglia would not only engulf abnormal proteins but also secrete a substance called apolipoprotein E, which is APOE.
“The gene responsible for secreting APOE has three conformations — APOE2, APOE3, and APOE4. In each person’s body, this protein gene comes about in pairs and each person can only have one or two of them.”
A list automatically emerged behind Chen Chen. “In other words, in everyone’s body, the chances of this genetic combination is about one in six.
“APOE originally assists in removing Aβ deposits, but in subsequent studies, scientists discovered that E2 is more effective than E3 while E4 has the opposite effect and will increase Aβ deposition.
“Having a copy of the E4 gene will increase your risk of AD by 3 times and if the gene sequence in your body is [E4/E4], then congratulations, your risk of AD is 12 times that of ordinary people.”
After Chen Chen said this, there was a murmur in the listening crowd.
“Microglia not only affect the deposition of Aβ protein but also affect the mutation of tau protein.”
Chen Chen turned up his palms. “The phosphorylation mutation of tau protein will cause neurofibrillary tangles, which will then cause nerve cells to die. But how does this death occur?
“Current research demonstrates that this death may still be caused by microglia. When it attacks those tangles, it’ll damage nearby neurons. At the same time, APOE4 that’s secreted by microglia will also amplify the toxic effects of the tau protein pair on neurons.
“Therefore, after the patient has undergone genetic identification, can we restrict or activate microglia based on the patient’s genes?”
Chen Chen said in a kind, explaining voice, “This is the foundation upon which my Blacklight Biotechnology Research Center operates.”
A few of the old people in the audience exchanged glances and nodded approvingly.
Chen Chen uploaded the data and photos in his hands to the projector. “The complications of AD would always involve inflammation. In recent studies, it was found that a cytokine of IL-1β may cause inflammation while the increase in IL-1β cytokine is due to the sharp decrease in TOM1 protein...
“The paper published in PNAS confirms this view. After the expression of TOM1 had decreased, the Aβ protein in the brain of AD model mice did increase, and the cognitive ability of these mice also declined.
“Therefore, in my experiment, I used genetic overexpression to activate the TOM1 protein gene, which greatly improved the condition of the experiment subject.”
Chen Chen presented the experiment data page by page. “You can think of TOM1 as the brake structure of a car. In the brains of AD patients, this brake had failed. What we need to do is repair this brake at a molecular level.”
There was a flicker in everyone’s expressions.
“Through the first two methods, we’ve already temporarily suppressed the conditions of AD. But if we stop here without finding a solution, the result will still be a tragedy. So, what we do next is to eliminate the deposition.
“Therefore, the third focus of our research center is the Solanezumab developed by Eli Lilly. This is a monoclonal antibody that targets the Aβ peptide chain, which prevents its deposition and aggregation, and allows it to be eliminated from the human brain.
“Of course, this won’t be enough, so we have the final and most crucial process — the production of autologous neural stem cells through ‘induced pluripotent stem cells’ while activating the G2 resting stem cells of the human brain.
“Through this method, we can restore the brain of an AD patient. Even if it isn’t restored to its original state, it can be restored to a large extent.”
As Chen Chen spoke, photos and evidence from the animal experiment appeared onscreen. The audience finally could not help but discuss in whispers.
“I’ll publish these results in Cell in the future. If you’re interested, please contact me. I can provide you with more detailed data.”
With that, Chen Chen turned off the projector and left the podium.
“Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap...”
There was thunderous applause from the room.
Seeing this, Chen Chen was reminded of the lecture by Professor Wang Xi which he had attended then.
More than a year ago, he was still sitting in a university class, listening to Professor Wang Xi’s pearls of wisdom which constantly instilled forward-looking ideas in the heads of the students.
At that time, most of them merely had the lifelong goal of becoming an academic expert like Professor Wang Xi in twenty or thirty years, right?
However, to think that in just a little over a year, Chen Chen himself was standing on a platform that was nearly equal to Professor Wang Xi.
‘Still, this is only the beginning...’
Chen Chen thought to himself silently.