Chapter 18: Final Exam |
Two days later, the freshmen of class grade 20 took the first final exam of their university life.
Unlike high schools, the final exams in universities were usually not very difficult. It was mostly basic questions that were equivalent to giving out free points as most of them depended on the student's understanding of the curriculum.
Other than the extracurricular specialty subjects which were compulsory, students of the Institute of Biological Sciences also had examinations on principle compulsory subjects like Bioethics, Linear Algebra, Inorganic & Analytical Chemistry, Natural Science, Organic Chemistry, Advanced Mathematics, University-level Physics, and Introduction to Biology.
After a barrage of examinations, the students were left dizzy and fatigued. They could not even tell what year it was.
As for Chen Chen, it was not a big deal. While others had to resort to sneaking in tiny cheat sheets, Chen Chen had already devoured dozens of study material. At this point, he could even easily handle the postgraduate entrance examinations. The final exams were just a drop in the bucket for him.
Throughout several rounds of exams, Chen Chen had maintained his record of being the first one to hand in the examination paper. He had established a reputation of a top student in class two of biological sciences.
Besides, many people noticed that the examination papers Chen Chen had submitted were filled out completely. In addition, the invigilators who took the papers always had a surprised look on their faces. It was not an exasperated look either, therefore the error rate must be very low.
Therefore, after yet another round of examinations, Li Bo and Zhou Jie forcibly took Chen Chen back to the hostel to discuss the terms of a secret exchange.
As per Li Bo and Zhou Jie's request, Chen Chen had to let the two of them copy his answers each time he had completed a question. In exchange, the two of them had to be Chen Chen's water boy for the entire next semester.
Amid this mixture of suffering and hope, Li Bo and Zhou Jie vowed to start studying seriously from the next semester onward. They wanted to turn a new leaf by their sophomore year.
After several dark and heavy days of examinations, the new students of Shangdu Jiao Tong University finally ushered in the first break of their university life. Countless students who left their hometown to further their studies happily embarked on their trip back home.
Activities in the campus slowly died down as well. After Chen Chen and Wang Wei sent Li Bo and Zhou Jie on their way, they set up a meeting location with Xia Yin to prepare for the experiment.
In an empty classroom, Wang Wei looked at a thick bundle of research materials. Chen Chen opened a book that consisted of teaching material on cell biology.
Even though Chen Chen had a nonchalant expression on his face, every page he flipped through was forever imprinted in his mind, never to be forgotten.
After a short moment, light footsteps came from the corridor outside. A girl with long hair down her shoulders appeared by the doorstep.
The girl had a pair of crystal clear eyes. She smiled gently when she saw the two people in the classroom. She radiated fresh, youthful energy unique to a young lady.
"You are…"
When Wang Wei saw a girl entering the class, he quickly got up and asked in bewilderment, "Miss, you must be Xia Yin, right?"
"Hi there, that's me."
Even though she swapped out her thick-framed black glasses with contact lenses and even had makeup on, all these minor details might as well be nonexistent in Chen Chen's mind.
In Chen Chen's mind, even if the lady before him had been stripped naked, it was still "so early".
"What's with the get-up?" Chen Chen pretended to be surprised.
"It's the holidays anyway. It's only right to take some time to put myself together, right?" Xia Yin pretended to be angry. "Do I not look good?"
"Quite pretty, I was expecting some kind of sugar mo… Ahem, ahem!"
Wang Wei seemed to have realized something once he opened his mouth and began to cough violently.
After introducing the two to each other, Chen Chen shifted the topic back to the main subject at hand. "For now, I have planned three categories of the experiment, all related to autologous stem cells."
Arriving at this point, Chen Chen retrieved a thick booklet of printed information from his bag and passed it to Xia Yin. "Stem cells. These are cells in the human body that are capable of infinite self-renewal. Also, it can differentiate into at least one type of progeny cell.
"For example, hematopoietic stem cells can differentiate into red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and others while bone mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into bone cells, chondrocytes, muscle cells, fat cells, and many others.
"Stem cells are always developing in the human body. Our hair and fingernails grow continuously. Every day, old cells are replaced by new cells. The root of all these new cells is the various kinds of stem cells in the human body.
"The first experiment I want to conduct concerns the reparative effect of the neural stem cell on a damaged brain."
Chen Chen went on. "The function of the neural stem cells is as its name implies, it's a class of adult stem cells able to repair neural ends. This is the initial theory of the experiment. After the neural stem cells are injected into the human body, they are able to stimulate the stem cells in the body to automatically secrete cell growth factors – a type of small molecule protein that can promote biological activity, in turn repairing the cranial nerves.
"Stem cells are classified into 'autologous' and 'allogeneic'. As the name suggests, 'autologous' refers to stem cells that originate from your own body. By extracting autologous stem cells and enhancing them via external influences and then reinjecting it into the same body, there will not be any incompatibility issues as it originates from the same body. This is the best option as it negates the possibility of transplant rejection.
"For this experiment, we'll need to create a brain damage model. It's better to use SD rats as opposed to Kunming mice since it's more optimal to work with slightly larger subjects."
Arriving at this point, Chen Chen gradually became more serious. "As for the autologous neural stem cells required for the experiment, I will use two methods to obtain them. One, artificial cultivation. Two, extracting it from a cloned body via cloning method."
"Clone?"
Wang Wei jolted. He raised his head and asked, "You're saying you want to carry out two batches of experiment and compare the neural stem cells to see which one is more effective?"
"Correct, that's exactly it."
Chen Chen snapped his fingers. "Stem cells are always exalted by the outside world, known to be able to infinitely reproduce, immune to aging, and such. But realistically, if stem cells were able to reproduce infinitely, then why do humans still age and die? What I want to figure out is whether there'll be any difference in effectiveness between artificially developed stem cells and new stem cells from a clone. They are both autologous stem cells after all."
"Why not apply an induction method?"
Xia Yin sat in front of Chen Chen and cupped her chin with her palm. "Ultimately, the experiment model is based on humans. Since the goal is to compare the differences between stem cells, wouldn't it be more optimal to use stem cells developed using directional induced differentiation technique?"
"The preparation needed for directional induced differentiation technique is too complex and the cost is high as well."
Chen Chen explained, "Additionally, this technique isn't well developed yet. An induced stem cell has a risk of tumor formation and immunity rejection."
"We can also try to clone other animals such as house rabbits," Wang Wei suggested.
"We can certainly try house rabbits, but you can't forget about the time and cost factor. A pregnancy cycle of a SD rat is about twenty days. A house rabbit will need double that. Just the time factor alone constrains our experiment resources."
"Alright, I didn't think of that." Wang Wei looked sorry.
Chen Chen went on. "For the second experiment, I'll destroy the spinal nerves of several rats. This will render them with high paraplegia without endangering their lives. After that, cultivate the stem cells and see if we can restore the rat's mobility using this method."
"And then, the final experiment. It's also the experiment which I think is the most important…"
Chen Chen's expression was solemn. "The two previous experiments aren't a big deal as they have been done throughout the world. But the third one is different. It has to do with rebuilding the immune system."
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