Chapter 415 - 267: Nature
「The next morning.」
Jiang He arrived at Affiliated Hospital No. 1 on time.
After the shift change was over, he took the printed paper to find Teacher Yang.
That’s right... the overachiever had struck again.
He had pulled an all-nighter and churned out the entire paper.
If the miserable PhD students, the ones going bald from the stress of their delayed graduations, ever found out about this, they would actually cry...
The Executive Vice-Dean’s office.
Yang Xu said, "Have you had breakfast? I’ve still got some bread my *wife* baked. Want a slice or two?"
Jiang He chuckled. "Teacher, with the way you emphasized that, I thought Professor Sun was here."
Yang Xu’s mood improved just hearing the name Sun Changming.
He sighed. "It’s been a while since I’ve seen him. Such a shame. Do you think he’s been avoiding me lately?"
Jiang He said, "I’m not sure. But Teacher, you’ll be seeing him a lot more from now on."
"What do you mean?"
"Professor Sun applied to join my group."
"?"
The smile vanished from Yang Xu’s face.
Jiang He explained, "Professor Wang is stepping back, and I figured the group could really use a professor to help guide things, so I approved it. Teacher... you don’t mind, do you?"
Yang Xu quickly waved his hand. "It’s your group. You’re free to bring in whoever you want. Of course I don’t mind!"
But as soon as the words were out, he started cursing, "That old scoundrel, he’s so shameless! He’s obviously just trying to join the group to leech off your research, get his Changjiang Scholar award, and become an Academician! He just can’t stand the thought of me getting ahead of him! That bastard..."
Jiang He just smiled.
Their frenemy dynamic was quite amusing.
𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺
"I already ate, Teacher. I finished a paper last night. Could you take a look?"
"That fast? Let me see... ’An Analysis of the Local Biochemical Microenvironment Alterations of the KRAS G12C Mutant and the Covalent Anchoring Potential of its Cysteine Residue’?"
Yang Xu’s eyes shifted down as he began to read the abstract.
「Five minutes later.」
Yang Xu put the paper down and said bluntly, "Jiang He, I don’t get it."
Jiang He asked, "Okay. What part specifically don’t you understand?"
"The ’nucleophilic amplification,’ the ’picomolar-level affinity,’ and this ’covalent anchor’ part. I don’t really get them."
"Want me to walk you through it, Teacher?"
"Yes, that would be great."
A peculiar scene unfolded.
The executive vice dean of a top-tier hospital was asking his twenty-one-year-old student to explain something to him.
Even more bizarrely,
neither of them thought there was anything wrong with it.
In academia, knowledge, not age, commands respect.
And Jiang He was a master among masters; you couldn’t help but be impressed.
"Teacher, I don’t need to explain the KRAS protein, do I?"
"Right. It’s considered undruggable. I know that much."
"Correct. The KRAS protein is very smooth, but in the G12C mutation, the amino acid at the 12th position changes to cysteine. The side chain of this cysteine has a sulfhydryl group..."
Yang Xu said, looking thoughtful, "Like... a handhold?"
"Exactly. If we can design a small molecule that acts like glue and bring it close to the sulfhydryl group, they’ll form a covalent bond. They’ll stick together and never come apart. That’s covalent anchoring."
It was slowly starting to make sense to Yang Xu.
Jiang He continued, "The main goal of this paper is to use theoretical deduction to prove to the scientific community that this so-called ’double-sided tape’ is real, and that it can actually stick to the sulfhydryl group."
Yang Xu’s eyes lit up with understanding. "I see! So you bypass the deep pocket and use the mutation’s side chain for surface adhesion. That’s the idea. I get you..."
Jiang He said, "Theoretically, it’s feasible. The next step is to run molecular dynamics simulations on a supercomputer. This paper is sort of a foundational one."
Yang Xu nodded. "Got it."
Just then, Meng Shiyu arrived outside the door.
He’d come looking for Jiang He. The conditions of two patients in their group had taken a turn for the worse.
But he couldn’t help but overhear the conversation inside.
He was immediately struck by a sense of absurdity.
’It sounds like Boss Jiang is lecturing the vice dean.’
’Incredible.’
’Who’s the teacher and who’s the student here?’
Once the conversation inside seemed to be winding down,
Meng Shiyu knocked and entered. "Dean Yang, sorry to interrupt. I’m looking for our team leader."
Jiang He asked, "What’s wrong?"
Meng Shiyu handed him the patient chart. "Boss, we put Bed 7 on somatostatin last night. This morning’s labs came back. We got the amylase under control, but the transaminase is suddenly shooting up. Bilirubin is also showing some abnormal fluctuations. There’s also an issue with Bed 12. Brother Liang told me to come get you to take a look."
"Got it. I’ll head back to the department now." Jiang He turned to Yang Xu. "Teacher, about the paper..."
Yang Xu said, "Just leave it here. This has all the makings of another top-tier journal article. Where are you thinking of submitting it this time?"
Jiang He thought for a moment. "Probably *Nature*."
"Why *Nature*?" Yang Xu asked.
"Charite Medical School was a big help with the early screening system. *Nature* has closer ties to the European Medical Community, so submitting to them should make the preliminary review and scheduling process go more smoothly."
Yang Xu nodded. "Alright. We’ll do it your way."
After Jiang He and Meng Shiyu left the office,
Yang Xu picked up the paper again and read it over and over, his expression serious.
Thinking back on Jiang He’s explanation, he now understood it completely.
’Incredible.’
’Is Jiang He some kind of fully-automated paper-writing machine? Does he just churn them out on demand?’
Then, he sighed in amazement.
What was the landscape of China’s medical community like back in ’08?
Any physician who managed to publish a paper with an impact factor over 10 in a Q1 SCI journal could basically strut around the hospital like they owned the place.
Publishing in one of the Big Four top journals? That was a once-in-a-lifetime stroke of luck, a direct ticket to applying for the National Distinguished Young Scholar award.
To please the editors of these top journals, scholars in China had to endure sleepless nights and endless revisions, enough to turn their hair gray.