Chapter 80 - 77: The Scientific Research Sacred Body
At Zhejiang University, in a medium-sized conference room in the Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Sciences Building.
"Alright, thank you to all the experts for your feedback. Our research group will address these issues and push forward in the next phase."
As the final presenter stepped down from the stage, the annual mid-term review for the "National Key R&D Program—Fundamental Research on Important Traits of Agricultural Organisms," which had lasted for over seven hours, finally came to a close.
Professor Zhang Minfang took off his glasses and rubbed his temples.
Attending this kind of high-intensity project review meeting was more mentally draining than staring at data in the lab for an entire day.
He stood up and checked the time. It was already 5:30 PM.
’It’s gotten this late already...’
Professor Zhang mentally calculated the time. It had been nearly eight hours since he’d sent Sun Xiang and the others to the third-floor lab that morning.
’I wonder how they’re doing...’
He still felt a little uneasy.
Extracting genomic DNA from wild, non-model plants required dealing with large amounts of interfering secondary metabolites, which was a true test of a researcher’s fundamental skills.
He gathered the documents on his desk, preparing to go check on the situation.
"Old Zhang."
A slightly heavyset professor walked over with a smile. It was Professor Fang, a colleague from the same college who researched plant stress physiology.
Professor Fang hadn’t had it easy the past couple of years. The several industry-funded projects he had were just wrapping up, he had failed to secure a new major project, and his funding was stretched thin. As a result, his influence within the college was naturally not on par with Zhang Minfang’s.
"There’s something I’d like to discuss with you," Professor Fang said, lowering his voice.
"Your research group has an open research assistant position for the second half of the year, right?"
As soon as Professor Zhang heard this, he knew what was coming. He was being asked to take someone in.
In universities, a research assistant (RA) position with a top-tier research group was a huge boon. Although most were contract-based, if a student later wanted to compete for a permanent university-staffed lab technician role or apply for a Ph.D. at a top university, this work experience in a national key laboratory was an extremely solid stepping stone.
"I have a third-year master’s student under me who is very down-to-earth and hardworking. He wants to stay and build his career at the university."
Professor Fang was promoting his star student.
"The kid’s fundamentals are solid. Just last month, he published an article in *Plant Diversity* as the first author, and it had a pretty good impact factor."
"Old Zhang, do you think you could let him come to your lab for a transitional period?"
*Plant Diversity* was indeed an excellent domestic top-tier journal. Being the first author on a paper there meant this master’s student was quite capable.
Under normal circumstances, if Professor Zhang had an open spot, he would have done the favor and accepted the student.
But not today.
"Old Fang, I’m really sorry."
Professor Zhang said with a hint of apology.
"If you had asked me a couple of days ago, it would’ve been no problem. I trust your judgment."
"But that research assistant position of mine was just filled this morning. A former graduate is coming back to continue their work."
Professor Fang was taken aback, clearly not expecting this turn of events.
However, since there was no position, he wasn’t going to press the issue.
"Oh? A graduate is willing to come back?"
"That’s great news! You know them inside and out, so they can start working right away. It’ll save you a lot of training!"
Professor Fang laughed it off.
"Alright then. I’ll let you get back to it. I’ll go ask Old Li if he has any openings."
The two exchanged a few more pleasantries before Professor Fang turned and left.
He didn’t take it too much to heart. After all, his student had a first-author paper in a top domestic journal. Finding a transitional research group for him in this building wouldn’t be impossible.
After that brief interruption from Professor Fang, it was already 5:40 PM by the time Professor Zhang Minfang reached the "Plant Genetics and Molecular Breeding Laboratory" on the third floor.
He pushed open the door to the lab’s buffer room and walked in.
Inside the lab, several research grunts were busy at their respective clean benches.
Seeing the big boss walk in, a few students called out, "Professor Zhang," then immediately turned back to the pipettes in their hands, terrified that a slight tremble would make them add the wrong reagent.
Professor Zhang nodded without a word and scanned the lab.
He didn’t see Sun Xiang or Li Dong.
He then walked over to the lab bench where Liu Dong usually trained newcomers.
The benchtop was spotless. Reagents like CTAB lysis buffer, chloroform, and isopropanol had all been put back in their places.
A PCR machine nearby was blinking with a green light, a clear sign that someone had already moved on to the next amplification step.
"Where is everyone?"
Unable to find his senior disciple, Professor Zhang casually asked a second-year master’s student who was shaking a culture flask nearby.
"Where’s Liu Dong?"
The student quickly stopped what he was doing.
"Professor Zhang, Brother Dong went to the restroom."
Just as he finished speaking, the lab’s back door was pushed open.
Liu Dong walked in with a spring in his step, humming a little tune.
But the moment he entered, he saw his professor looking right at him.
Liu Dong’s humming stopped short. He spoke awkwardly.
"Pro... Professor, your meeting is over?"
Professor Zhang shot him an annoyed glance.
"Where are Sun Xiang and the others?"
"Oh, Sun Xiang and his student went back to their hotel to pack."
Liu Dong reported dutifully.
"They have an early high-speed train back to Jiangcheng tomorrow. They wanted to schedule the next phase of experiments with you after they finished.
But I saw you were in a project review meeting, so I told them to head back first, and that I’d let them know after you were done."
’They went back to pack?’
Hearing this, Professor Zhang sighed internally.
’It seems they ran out of time and gave up halfway through.’
He didn’t blame Li Dong.
After all, that batch of wild Alpine Willow Chrysanthemum samples was rich in polysaccharides and polyphenols, making extraction very difficult.
Even for an experienced second-year master’s student, the entire process—from grinding, lysis, extraction, precipitation, and washing, all the way to the final quality control checks—would take at least fifteen or sixteen hours to complete for all those samples.
"Which step did they get stuck on? Was the lysis incomplete? Did the DNA degrade?"
Professor Zhang said as he walked toward the workbench.
"And how many of those wild samples are left undone?"
"The sequencing platform is pushing us. You’ll have to work overtime tonight and finish the remaining samples."
Listening to his professor’s questions, Liu Dong’s expression turned a little strange.
"Professor, there are none left."
"What do you mean, ’none left’?" Professor Zhang froze.
"They finished," Liu Dong said, pointing to the ultra-low temperature freezer not far away.
"For all the wild samples, not only did they finish the DNA extraction, but they even successfully ran the three preliminary experiments needed before sequencing library construction."
"Finished?"
Professor Zhang stopped in his tracks, his voice unconsciously rising in volume.
"Eight hours? Dozens of difficult-to-extract wild samples? The entire process, finished?!"
Professor Zhang’s first reaction was disbelief.
This completely defied his years of scientific common sense!
’How is that possible? The centrifugation and precipitation times are fixed and can’t be shortened. Does that mean the kid didn’t get stuck on a single one of the other steps?’
"Take me to see it!" Professor Zhang demanded.
Without another word, Liu Dong hurried over to the -80°C ultra-low temperature freezer. He put on a pair of cryo-gloves and carefully took out a sample box full of EP tubes.
He then quickly walked to the computer for the gel imaging system next to it and woke up the screen.
"Professor, the samples are all here. And this is the electrophoresis gel image."
Professor Zhang strode forward, first glancing down at the microcentrifuge tubes in the sample box.
Just one look was enough to make his eyes light up.
’So neat!’
Dozens of EP tubes were arranged perfectly in the rack.
After the nucleic acid pellet at the bottom of each tube was dissolved in TE buffer, the liquid was crystal clear, with no browning impurities from oxidized phenols visible to the naked eye.
Moreover, the liquid level in every single tube was identical, as if measured and dispensed by a precision instrument, without the slightest deviation!
’This level of precise sample loading... was done by a high school student?’
He then looked at the agarose gel electrophoresis image on the computer screen.
On the screen, distinct fluorescent bands were clearly visible.
Professor Zhang leaned closer to the screen.
’No diffuse smearing!’
’What does this mean?’
’It means the genomic DNA maintained extremely high integrity during the extraction process, with absolutely no degradation!’
There were no glowing halos of impurities near the loading wells, and below, there were no residual small-molecule bands indicating RNA contamination.
"Beautifully done,"
Professor Zhang murmured involuntarily.
In truth, as long as the extracted DNA met sequencing standards, a bit of color in the tube or some minor smearing on the gel image didn’t affect the big picture. That was the typical quality everyone produced.
But this batch from Li Dong actually possessed a certain "elegance"!
For someone who conducts experiments and research, this elegance was like listening to a flawless, high-fidelity symphony.
Liu Dong then opened an Excel spreadsheet.
"Professor, this is the purity data Li Dong got using the NanoDrop."
"The A260/280 ratios are all stable between 1.85 and 1.90. The protein purity is ridiculously high."
"The A260/230 ratios are also all above 2.0, meaning the polysaccharides and salt ions were removed very cleanly."
"And over here is the Qubit concentration measurement. The absolute quantification of double-stranded DNA is perfectly up to standard. With this quality, it’ll pass the sequencing library construction in one go, guaranteed."
Professor Zhang stared at the data on the screen, silent for a long time.
His mind was now filled with utter disbelief.
Just then, he suddenly recalled the words he had spoken to the young man in his office a few hours earlier.
"You don’t need to feel awkward."
"Go to whatever school you want to go to."
"Zhejiang University isn’t lacking for excellent students..."
Professor Zhang’s face twitched uncontrollably.
Zhejiang University indeed wasn’t lacking for excellent students.
But!
This kid was a research prodigy.
’Did I... speak a little too soon?’