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    Home > Food News > Food Articles > Zhai Heavy Army: Courage comes from a love of science

    Zhai Heavy Army: Courage comes from a love of science

    • Last Update: 2021-03-13
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    ", a researcher at the Center for Excellence and Innovation in Molecular Plant Science, said: "It's a little bit special."
    45-year-old converted to research, not very keen on writing papers, not very active running projects, more often than not, locked himself in the office, listening to classical music, pondering things.
    things he pondered were things that no one else had ever done or dared to do. For example, can we break the boundaries between primary and total nuclear organisms, artificially create a monochromosome organism and have normal functions?
    don't say, this in everyone's eyes strange thing, really asked him to ponder it.
    two years ago, the team combined 16 natural chromosomes from wine-making yeast into one, creating the world's first artificial monochromosome ucleal cell. The results, published online in the journal Nature, are considered a landmark breakthrough in synthetic biology.in the field of true nuclear biological research, "half way out of the home" of the heavy army was originally a "outsider."
    a "outsider" only 5 years to make a "big result", the reporter asked him what high tricks? "I am a person who loves toss, loves to take risks, dares to think and dares to do!" "
    , the heavy army is enough to toss.
    originally studied primary nuclear organisms, and has been working in this field for more than 20 years, with fruitful results. Academically, he led the team to find prosites in sticky bacteria for the first time and establish a genetic operating system, more than 20 laboratories around the world to request prosite carriers, industrialization, his team and domestic pharmaceutical companies to create and improve the anti-parasitic drug dorasin and other industrial production strains, breaking the foreign monopoly, drug sales of more than 100 million yuan per year.
    can be in the career rise period, but the heavy army wants to change. In 2013, he decided to abandon his original research and instead focus on the model material of the somatic cell organism, brewing yeast.
    this is not a heavy military effort. He felt that the "minimal" genomic framework for E. coli, the model material of primary nuclear cell organisms being studied by the team at the time, had been proposed by foreign scientists and that it would be difficult to make a new breakthrough. "I want to be our own original."
    , the army made a bold assumption about the "brain hole": the number of chromosomes varies from species to species, for example, higher mammalian humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, and plant rice has 12 pairs of dyes. Body, and "low-class" true nuclear bio-brewing yeast actually has 16 pairs of chromosomes, pro-nuclear E. coli only 1 chromosome, why there is such a difference, a specific number of chromosomes to a particular species to provide some advantage? Can we break the boundary between primary and total nuclear organisms, artificially create a monochromosome of the uenomal and have normal functions?
    "It's an idea that only a foreigner dares to have, and at first not many people thought I could make it, and I had to take risks to walk the road that no one else had walked." He said.
    now, he seems to be light- and light-hearted, but at that time did not suffer less. First of all, because the topic is too far-thinking, it is difficult to apply for research funds.
    so many research groups, I owe the most personnel fees, is the famous 'negative'. Zhai said that his scientific research funds once had millions of yuan "deficit", the most tense time is the first to give "credit", and then
    from the pilot special funds to support.
    there is pressure from the paper. For a full five years, Zhai has not published a paper related to yeast.
    that this person's level is so poor that he can't write all year-year. At that time, the heavy army heard these hearts are quite not taste, "is holding a force, must do a name-call hall to come!" "" scientific research must be bold guess, but then can not be bold. Zhai said that in the experiment must adhere to the principle of rational design, but also have precision, engineering implementation.
    and his colleagues worked out the overall plan of the whole experimental design and engineering promotion, and began to fight day and night. Over a period of 5 years, through 15 rounds of chromosomal fusion, the wine yeast with only one line chromosome was successfully created.
    to do different scientific research, you have to force yourself. He said.
    't the first time the army has forced itself like this. In 1987, Zhai entered Huahua Agricultural University to study for a master's degree, because of an innovative improvement of an experimental method, quickly attracted the attention of tutors. At that time, the tutor gave a difficult subject, can challenge the problem is exciting, he did not think much to agree.
    results, did not expect this to do is more than two years. Seeing that we were about to graduate, the heavy army still didn't make it. The fact that the subject has not been made means that it is difficult to graduate and may even drop out.
    to be honest, the pressure was really high. If the master's degree can not be graduated, the blow to me is absolutely very big. "After thinking about the analysis, I feel that I have done my best, did not make it may not be my problem, perhaps in the technical conditions at that time, the topic itself is difficult. "It is true that it was not until 2006 that the problem was solved by scientists at Shanghai Jiao Jiao University.
    he was unable to complete the master's degree, but the hard work and strong innovative thinking of the army was recognized by the tutor. The tutor thought he had great potential for scientific research and strongly recommended that he stay on for a Ph.D.
    destiny is always a love of science, tenacious exploration of the people, the original master's degree is difficult to graduate from the Heavy Army became the first "trial" of Huahua Agricultural University Shubo lian students. He also did not meet expectations, timely change the direction of research, opened a new breakthrough, doctoral thesis published in the internationally renowned professional journal "Bacteriology Journal", which is also the first academic article published in this magazine.
    in the post-record of his doctoral thesis, Yu wrote: "In nearly 1300 pages of experimental records, the failure of a hundred times!" However, no failure can really break me, why? It is a love of science that illuminates my way forward and constantly gives me the courage to face up to failure. " 1994 was a very meaningful year for the Army.
    , he established his five scientific dreams: to make breakthroughs in major basic research, original technology, industrialization, solving human diseases, and new theory.
    also in that year, the heavy army completed an important choice in life. He wrote to Professor Stanley Cohen of Stanford University in the United States, one of the founders of genetic engineering, to apply for postdoctoral work. "Even if you can't make a great discovery, you want to see what it's like to make a great discovery," he wrote.
    Cohen's assessment of the army, "I feel a love of science and a strong desire to make a breakthrough in you." In
    , Louis Pasteur, a French microbiologist who pioneered microbiology, is also a role model for the army.
    said Pasteur had been challenging and breaking through himself throughout his life, changing his research direction almost every five years before he began the most important rabies treatment of his life at the age of 58. "I wish I could be like him, not only in basic research, but also in the original technology, industrialization, treatment of human diseases and other aspects of the breakthrough, which is my original intention to set up a scientific research dream."
    2020, when the army was 55 years old, some of the scientific research dreams of that year have been realized, and some are still in the process of efforts.
    the creation of the world's first artificial monochromosomal ucleocyte, the army did not hold back, but began a more difficult challenge. This time he hopes to make another breakthrough in genomic engineering. "We're still using microbes as vectors, and I don't think we can develop new genomic technologies, such as the operation of very large fragments, and eventually plants, animals, etc., so that new technologies from microbes can be more scientifically significant."
    than in the past, he spends more time "bubble" in the office and in the lab, and if he doesn't go to the lab for two days in a row, he panics.
    "After 2018, I set myself a deadline to make another breakthrough within five years." It's been more than two years now, and although time is running out, I think it's very promising. Since then, it has been hoped that, like Pasteur, he will begin to do the most important research work of his life at the age of 58, making the accumulation and results of previous work a 'prelude'. He said.
    because of "love challenges, love adventure", the scientific research career of the heavy army is intertwined. But he was always firm, "from '0' to '1' the original road is long and arduous, no matter what I will continue to go." ”
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