Surgery Godfather-Chapter 1387 - 1049: The Castrated Virus

Nandu Medical University Virus Laboratory, this is a Level 3 Biological Safety Laboratory, also known as a P3 laboratory.

Based on the infectivity and harmfulness of pathogenic microorganisms, biological safety laboratories are internationally classified into four biosafety levels: P1, P2, P3, and P4. The so-called P4 laboratory is the highest level of biological safety laboratory currently available to mankind, hailed as the "aircraft carrier" of the field of virology research.

Nandu Medical University’s P4 laboratory is under construction, and once completed, it will be the second P4 laboratory in China.

A week later, visible turbidity appeared in the sterile transparent culture medium of the laboratory. When the researchers, clad in protective suits, saw this turbidity, they were immensely excited.

This turbidity was none other than the cultivated K virus complex; Yang Ping tentatively referred to this combination of virus and K factor as the K virus complex.

The researchers cautiously took out a portion of the liquid containing the virus with specialized tools. Even though these viruses are non-infectious and have been rendered replication-deficient, the researchers still rigorously followed the standard experimental procedure, daring not to be negligent in the slightest.

These samples will undergo the most stringent tests to verify their purity, check for any mutations, or detect the presence of any other harmful microorganisms.

Viruses are a type of microorganism capable of self-replication, so they must be handled with caution. Of course, as long as no rare mutations occur, these viruses are still safe and will not cause any danger to the human body. At most, they might induce transient and mild flu symptoms, which are self-resolving and leave no after-effects once healed. This is one reason why some viruses can be used to treat tumors.

Some samples, after special processing, were sent for observation under an electron microscope to analyze their structure.

The basic unit of structure and function in life is the cell, but viruses are an exception. They are non-cellular life forms and do not have a cellular structure. They are merely a simple protein structure, where ’simple’ is relative compared to the complexity of cellular organisms.

Because viruses lack a cellular structure, they must parasitize within living cells to survive and reproduce. They cannot live independently and must rely on host cells to provide the necessary conditions for life activity. They reproduce within host cells through processes such as adsorption, injection, replication, assembly, and release.

Humanity, from its inception, has had to deal with countless viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms. Through a long process of evolution and change, some microorganisms have become an integral part of our bodies.

For example, the organelles in human cells – mitochondria.

Mitochondria are organelles found in almost all eukaryotic cells. In ancient times, they were free-living viruses capable of generating energy in the presence of oxygen. They were then engulfed by ancestral eukaryotic cells. Over time, as these viruses parasitized the ancestral eukaryotic cells for too long, they gradually forgot their original identity and became an indispensable energy generator within the cell—mitochondria, the site of cellular respiration and many important metabolic processes.

Professor Zhang Zhiwei is an outstanding virologist that Principal Ruo had invited back from the United States. At that time, as part of the Thousand Talents Plan, Professor Zhang returned to China to lead virology research at Nandu Medical University, instantly catapulting China’s virology research to a top-tier status in the world.

He is a pure virologist with little knowledge about using viruses to treat tumors. However, hearing that Yang Ping intended to use the newly-cultivated virus directly in human trials, he couldn’t help feeling anxious, as this was a violation of scientific ethical principles. If something were to go wrong, the consequences would be unimaginable, implicating everyone involved.

When Professor Zhang heard that Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital wanted to cooperate with him, he was initially eager for the opportunity. Upon learning more about the situation, however, his heart wavered. It would be best to avoid such matters if possible. Some ethical rules should not be challenged lightly, as it is easy to put oneself in an unrecoverable situation; there was no need to take such risks.

Yet, after speaking face-to-face with Yang Ping, Professor Zhang changed his mind and developed a sense of admiration and respect for him. Yang Ping’s selfless courage for the sake of science made him feel ashamed, so in the end, he agreed to cooperate.

However, for safety’s sake, Professor Zhang placed stringent requirements on the research team’s scientific personnel regarding the experimental details, prohibiting anyone with less than three years of virus research experience from participating in this experiment.

Although these viruses are relatively safe, they have been modified by Yang Ping, who combined the virus with the K factor to create a novel virus. While structurally, this new virus still maintains the original virus’s structure and functions, the function of the embedded K factor is very specific, targeting only one type of tumor cell.

Professor Zhang Zhiwei is not worried that the virus will do harm; he is concerned about the K factor, a protein structure that did not previously exist in the world and was cultivated out of nothing by Yang Ping in the laboratory. It is not a virus, just a protein molecule without the ability to replicate itself, and alone it is unlikely to cause any significant trouble.

But once this K factor is combined with the virus, it becomes a different matter. Although it is not a virus, it has now become part of the virus, meaning it can now divide along with the virus, which is quite terrifying.