Chapter 375: Chapter 0355: Old Irons

Yang Ping’s decision to use stem cells for muscle cultivation wasn’t spontaneous, but rather the result of careful consideration.

If successful, it becomes relatively easy to expand into cultivating other organs such as skin, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, bones, and even joints.

In the long run, it may be possible to develop towards cultivating organs such as heart, liver, and kidneys.

The organization techniques and equipment required for this topic will be relatively convenient, such as nanoscale micro-stents, which can be easily acquired through Takahashi.

Nanoscale micro-stents have high demands on 3D printing technology. Their three-dimensional structure is arranged at the cell cluster level and should be able to guide muscle fiber into spatial configurations.

This level of 3D printing technology is not currently available domestically. The core technology is monopolized by German and Japanese enterprises.

This is why Yang Ping seeks international collaboration. One person cannot possibly break through all industrial technologies and can only make effort in medical technology.

The obstacles that the United States and Japan are currently unable to overcome are cell collapses which are caused by the instability of certain cellular structures. There are many potential causes for the instability, such as an unstable cell membrane or cell organelles

Several papers are making assumptions about the causes of these collapses. Any of these factors as the initiator can trigger cell collapse, causing other structures to collapse as well. It’s understandable that researchers tend to focus on one aspect due to various reasons.

This is the inevitable result of artificially inducing stem cell differentiation. Without mature induction technology, it will inevitably cause some structures to become unstable, which is the potential reason for the collapse.

Indeed, the cultivation of organs using stem cells is already underway and is developing rapidly.

Tokyo University has even cultivated the world’s first heart, with a diameter of 1 millimeter, complete with ventricles, atria, and blood vessels, roughly the size of a fetal mouse’s heart.

The National Center for Child Health and Development in Japan has cultivated a liver; the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom has cultivated a kidney; Harvard University in the US has cultivated skin.

These technologies all face a common problem – maturity and stability.

If this problem is solved, these technologies can move from the laboratory to the clinic.

At present, muscle cultivation is the most mature, it can be transplanted into animals and can survive for a few weeks.

For organs such as the heart, the diameter is only one millimeter. Cultivating it further would lead to the issue of collapse, preventing the small heart from growing successfully.

Yang Ping wants to start with muscles, then solve the problem of maturity and stability.

Then it could be extended to skin, tendons, cartilage, etc, these have a wide range of applications in orthopedics.

With skin, there would be no need to graft or flap skin from other parts of the body.

With tendons, the surgical outcomes of patients undergoing ligament reconstruction would be better.

With cartilage, degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis of knee joints in the elderly can be addressed.

A joint could even be cultivated for joint replacement.

Stem cells are the most promising field for the future of surgery, they will change the history of surgery.

Perhaps one day, patients like Yu Shuilian can cultivate an entire lower body using her own cells and then undergo a transplant surgery to connect the upper and lower halves to restore a whole body.

In the afternoon, the young doctors from the Department of Comprehensive Orthopedics who were free, all attended President Guo’s dinner party.

President Guo was generous and set up several tables at the Hakka restaurant next to the hospital, indicating his willingness to spend money for the occasion.

After dinner, they rested for a while. Xiao Su said that Fujiwara Miyuki had invited her to play tennis and wanted Yang Ping to come as well.

It seemed they had planned it earlier as they were dressed in tennis clothes under their jackets and had brought along their racket bags.

Xiao Su usually worked in the operating room of the Comprehensive Orthopedics Department and only interacted with Miyuki during surgeries. Surprisingly, they got along well, along with Tang Fei. The three of them seemed like old friends.

Everyone rested for half an hour, by the time they arrived at the tennis court, they were ready for intense exercise.

Song Zimo, Tang Fei, and Xu Zhiliang returned to the department; Little Five went home to accompany his wife; Zhang Lin’s wife was on duty, he packed some of her favorite food and needed to deliver it in time.

Yang Ping, Takahashi, Xiao Su, and Miyuki went to play tennis. Yang Ping and Takahashi did not change their clothes.

Xiao Su pulled Yang Ping aside, “Miyuki and I will play a few rounds. You guys can just watch.”

Miyuki held onto Xiao Su’s hand, “A friendly tennis match between China and Japan.”

Takahashi felt like he was surplus to requirements, so he followed them, maintaining a certain distance.

However, watching two tall beauties play tennis was quite entertaining.

Both of them had reserved the court in the hospital sports hall in advance, so Yang Ping and Takahashi sat down next to them to discuss the collaborative project.

The sight of two stunning beauties playing tennis attracted many onlookers. Occasionally, passersby would glance over.

Both of them were skilled players and the game was intense. The score was close, indicating that Xiao Su had met her match.

Takahashi took the initiative and said, “Dr. Yang, the prematire collapse of stem cells is a problem that all cell cultivation currently faces. If this can be solved, it would be a groundbreaking advancement. If Dr. Yang decides to taken on this topic, I’d like to request a collaboration. I am the lead of the research team at Tokyo University and have significant authority over our work.”

“Collaborating can save us a lot of time. I do not want to reinvent the wheel. I only want to focus on tackling the most crucial difficulties,” Yang Ping expressed his plans.

“If Dr. Yang agrees to collaborate with us, we can share all our initial technology to save your time, this way it’ll be mutually beneficial,” Takahashi shared his thoughts.

At the moment, Tokyo University is leading in this field but has encountered a roadblock; Yang Ping analyzed all the current research papers.

He found that Tokyo University’s recent papers mainly focus on the survival period of cells implanted in animals, and the extension of the survival time seems to take many days, even with incremental increases.

It indicated that they haven’t had any significant breakthrough but are continually improving on the existing technology.

Collaborating with them would significantly enhance efficiency.

Scientific research is similar to sailing on a sea journey. To open a new route, one must go through multiple trials and errors, constant corrections, and data accumulation.

If he gains access to the System Space Laboratory in the future, he will still need a real-world lab to conduct experiments.

The data obtained in the System Space Lab could help streamline his research path in reality or even help him hit the target at once, but experimental verification must still be executed in a real-world lab.

Therefore, collaborating with these top international universities and hospitals would be beneficial.

The key is how to control and utilize these resources to play a leading role while maintaining self-reliance in scientific research and promoting openness for collaboration.

Having witnessed Yang Ping’s surgical skills and intellectual capacity, Takahashi firmly believes in his ability. Now, having forged a friendship with Yang Ping due to further training, Takahashi cherishes the opportunity to work with him.

In the future, when Yang Ping’s scientific research develops further, many teams will line up to work with him, and it would be much harder for Takahashi to get in on the collaboration.

Yang Ping pondered while watching the girls play, “Takahashi, let’s collaborate and share our findings.”

“No problem, I’ll send an official email to Tokyo University tonight to get the authorization for agreement negotiations. We won’t be any worse than Duke University. Though we were a bit late in cultivating muscles out of stem cells, we did it independently. We just published our paper a bit late. Compared to them, we’re more advanced in induction technology and micro braces. They managed to keep the cells alive inside an animal for three weeks, we did it for six.”

Ever since meeting Yang Ping, Takahashi has repeatedly witnessed him create miracles. He firmly believes that if Yang Ping concentrates on the field of stem cells, he can definitely work wonders.

From a personal standpoint, Takahashi wants to join in on this favorable situation. As for lab conditions and current technology, which may be precious to others, for someone like Yang Ping, even if you don’t collaborate with him, he will eventually catch up. It simply might take a bit longer.

By the time he proposes a collaboration, Yang Ping probably won’t be interested. Proposing a collaboration now, at least he can use the existing technology to help Yang Ping save time.

After playing a few rounds, the two beauties drank water, laughing across the net. They were sweaty from the exercise, and the athletic girls were adorable.

After five rounds, Xiao Su proved better and won three rounds.

Everyone started packing their stuff. Xiao Su and Miyuki went back to the dorm to shower and change. Yang Ping and Takahashi went ahead to save seats. They planned to find a barbecue stall for night snacks.

Yang Ping invited Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Zhang Lin, and Little Five.

Zhang Lin was still in Pediatrics, on night duty with his wife. Little Five lived near the hospital. Both of them could be there quickly.

Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were practicing peeling grapes under a microscope. As soon as they heard of the late-night snack, they did not hesitate to join.

The group gathered together. Zhang Lin ordered a box of beer. Except for Yang Ping and Song Zimo, the other men drank.

The men were chatting about professional topics, while the three girls chatted among themselves. Fujiwara Miyuki spoke excellent Chinese and often used interesting internet phrases, which made everyone laugh. She even took selfies with Xiao Su and Tang Fei and posted them on her “moment”.

Takahashi was straightforward with drinking. Whenever his cup touched another’s, he drank it all. And as per Teacher Tang’s rules, regardless of who he clinked cups with, his cup should always be a centimeter lower.

“When you come to Japan, I’ll invite you all to seaside beers in Wakayama,” he offered.

Takahashi felt that these Chinese friends were amazing. Like Abe Nakamaru, he wanted to write an article about his training experience to enlighten the Japanese.

The women were laughing happily, seemingly discussing fun places to visit in China. Miyuki seemed to have found good friends in China.

They seemed oblivious to the men’s discussion. The girls clinked their fruit juice glasses, planning to gallop across the grasslands in Inner Mongolia, see the snow mountains in Tibet, dress in Han Chinese clothing and photographed in West Lake, Hangzhou.

Skewers with beer, damn it feels good!

Takahashi, Xu Zhiliang, Zhang Lin, Little Five, one cup after another, plus the two women in vinegar, the atmosphere was very lively.

“Xiao Gao, good job! Cheers!” Zhang Lin immediately filled up Takahashi’s cup.

“Drink first for a toast!” Takahashi didn’t hesitate, he flipped the cup and drained it, declining no one.

After drinking, Takahashi got up and pointed in the direction of the restroom. “Lads, wait for me! I’ll relax a bit, I’ll be back to fight again!”

Who taught him to call out to “lads”?

Zhang Lin and Little Five were stunned for a moment. This guy.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on Novlove.com