I can extract side effects - Chapter 664

c660 Dawn of the Interstellar Age (Final Chapter)

Kunming, Sanqing Headquarters, Neuroscience Laboratory.

“Your old spinal cord injury is recovering well. The MRI scan shows that after the broken wounds at both ends are connected by nerve scaffolds, new axons have grown together along the scaffolds.

“At the same time, your limbs also detected the recovery of sensory evoked potentials and motor evoked potentials, and there was no adverse reaction with the grafted scaffold material.”

“Okay, Zhu Jun, it’s been a month since the nerve stent was implanted, how do you feel?”

Chen Yiqing looked at Zhu Jun sitting in the wheelchair with a smile on his face, and asked in a gentle tone.

Zhu Jun, on the other hand, looked excited and looked at his hands in disbelief.

His ten fingers were trembling slightly, like springs, constantly flexing and stretching.

Although the movement was slight, to him it was like a thunderbolt hitting the sky spirit cap on a sunny day.

“Chen, Director Chen, I, I feel something in my hand, and I can move my fingers.”

He swallowed hard, a wild flame ignited in his eyes.

Chen Yiqing smiled with satisfaction, and said: “Young people recover quickly. At your speed, as long as you persist in rehabilitation, you should be able to walk independently after 3 months.”

Zhu Jun was overjoyed and said: “It’s so fast, it’s great. I never thought that there will be a day in my life when I will fully recover and walk freely.”

“Hehe, in fact, you can try to stand up and have a look now.” Chen Yiqing smiled and encouraged.

Zhu Jun’s eyes burst into two dazzling lights instantly, and he couldn’t wait to look at his brother beside him.

“Brother, help me, I want to stand up and try.”

The elder brother Zhu Ming came over with an excited face, put his hands under his arms, and gently embraced him.

Because Zhu Jun has been bedridden all year round, his body is very thin and his muscles have shrunk by half, so he is very light, and he was supported to stand up immediately.

Chen Yiqing timely handed over two long crutches, one on the left and one on the right under Zhu Jun’s armpits, to provide him with a supportive force.

Zhu Jun touched the ground with both feet, but instead of feeling nothing like before, he felt the solidity of the ground under his feet again.

Although his legs were still limp, he seemed to be able to control the force from top to bottom, keeping his body upright under the pressure, standing motionless on the ground, and would not fall again.

A hot current of joy gushed out of his heart in an instant, flowing through every part of his body.

Tears welled up in Zhu Jun’s eyes, and he shouted uncontrollably.

“Ah, ah, ah, I, I stand up!”

After trying his best to squeeze out these words from his chest, he seemed to have exhausted all his strength at once, and suddenly lost control of his body, he suddenly fell backwards.

With the support of his brother, he sat back heavily on the wheelchair.

The first attempt was unsuccessful, but Zhu Jun was not disappointed at all, instead his heart was filled with endless joy.

Encouraged by Chen Yiqing, he tried to stand up again.

This time the effect was a bit better, and he stood for half a minute before falling down weakly.

After several attempts, Zhu Jun was finally able to stand up straight with the support of his crutches.

It’s just that the standing time is still quite limited, and further exercise is needed to stand longer.

It is foreseeable that, a week later, or even a month later, I will open my legs again and walk on the familiar land.

Wanting to understand this, he instantly burst into tears of joy, wishing he could immediately travel to a few months later and witness the miracle of running wildly on the grass.

When he was happy, a staff member came in quietly and whispered something in Chen Yiqing’s ear.

Chen Yiqing nodded, glanced over, and said with a smile.

“Zhu Jun, there just happened to be a media interview. They heard about the nerve stent and wanted to interview you face to face. Would you like to?”

Zhu Jun restrained his boiling emotions, and quickly said: “No problem, I am happy to cooperate.”

In this way, he drove the electric wheelchair to the large meeting room at the other end of the corridor.

The spacious meeting room was full of people. At a glance, they were all major media with long guns and short cannons. As soon as they saw someone coming in, they all pressed the shutter in unison and frantically took pictures.

Chen Yiqing strode in, looked around, and smiled politely.

“Everyone has been waiting for a long time. The one behind me should be familiar to everyone, so I won’t introduce much.”

“Zhu Jun is also a long-term high paraplegia patient. About a month ago, he received our nerve stent transplantation.”

“After the operation, his sensory evoked potentials and motor evoked potentials have recovered to a certain extent, and the severed spinal cord has been connected together again. If all goes well, he is expected to be able to resume independent walking in three months.”

“Just now, we tested and found that he can stand up with the assistance of the staff.”

As soon as the voice fell, a noisy sound wave broke out instantly, and the conference room became as noisy as a vegetable market.

Everyone scrambled to stand up and ask questions, for fear of being left behind.

The buzzing sound of questions, like waves of sound, completely drowned Zhu Jun and Chen Yiqing.

Under Chen Yiqing’s signal, Zhu Jun stood up again with difficulty under the support of his brother.

This move shocked everyone immediately.

The sound stopped abruptly, and the scene was so quiet that a needle could be heard falling on the ground.

Everyone stared blankly at Zhu Jun, dumbfounded and unable to utter a word.

Zhu Jun, who had been paralyzed for more than ten years, stood up in front of everyone and in front of everyone.

What this means is clear to everyone.

Almost instantly, a sentence crazily surged in the hearts of the reporters.

“Something has happened, Sanqing has created another miracle!”

Originally, the reporters came to interview Chen Yiqing’s award, but they didn’t expect to be able to cover such a big news.

After 10 seconds, the reporters all returned to normal, screaming like chicken blood, asking a series of questions.

Seeing that the scene was about to lose control, Chen Yiqing smiled and waved.

“Everyone be quiet, first let me introduce the latest research results of Sanqing’s neural scaffold, and then it is time for the media to ask questions.”

The scene quickly became quiet again, and the reporters sat down one after another, sending messages to their colleagues on their mobile phones while listening quietly.

And Zhu Jun also sat on the wheelchair again after standing for a minute, becoming a mascot brimming with joy.

Chen Yiqing coughed lightly, opened the ppt, and showed the audience the latest nerve support.

“According to statistics, there are more than 2 million people with spinal cord injuries in my country, and about 100,000 people are added every year.”

“As the primary vehicle for communication between the brain and the peripheral nervous system, spinal cord injuries are often severely disabling and have long been considered incurable.”

“Related treatments mainly include drug treatment, surgical treatment, and rehabilitation, but these are only symptomatic treatments.”

“Many patients were unable to regain normal physiological function and suffered great pain.”

“According to the previous treatment model, they will not be able to walk for life, and can only spend the rest of their lives in a wheelchair and in bed.”

“The latest brain-machine therapy can make their lives a little easier and allow them to take care of themselves, but that’s all.”

“And the technological breakthrough of nerve stent from 0 to 1 has once again ignited a new light of hope for spinal cord injury patients who have fallen into the abyss of life.”

“This is a brand-new nerve scaffold developed by us, which can 3D print any complex central nervous system structure according to the size of the spinal cord and the geometry of the lesion in different patients.”

“After printing, the scaffold is filled with neural stem cells. The scaffold contains dozens of 200-micron-wide channels, which are almost twice the width of a hair, and can induce neural stem cells and axons to grow along the direction of spinal cord injury.”

“The scaffold was then fitted into the spinal cord injury site like a jigsaw puzzle, aligning the regenerating axons on one end of the spinal cord injury with the other, and the axons were meant to spread and regenerate in any direction, but the scaffold kept them in order, coaxing them to grow in the correct direction and complete the connection of the severed spinal cord.”

“Our researchers planted a 2mm spinal cord scaffold containing neural stem cells into the severe spinal cord injury site of rats. After one month, the new spinal cord tissue was able to completely regenerate and connect the nerve endings of the rat spinal cord injury, thus making the rats The motor function of the hind legs was significantly restored.”

“In addition, we have also printed 2cm-sized human spinal cord scaffolds, which are modeled after MRI scans of actual human spinal cord injuries, and can be 3D printed in just 5 minutes…”

The clear voice echoed in the conference room, and the reporters gradually became fascinated by the pictures that appeared on the screen.

*****

Meanwhile, on the same floor, in a laboratory at the other end.

Far away from the noisy human voice, it is extraordinarily quiet here.

Sitting in a chair, Zhang Li is busy examining the brains of some mice in front of her.

Suddenly, a figure came to her workbench, interrupting her concentration.

“Lily, stretch out your hand and prepare for a surprise.”

Zhang Li reluctantly looked away from the mouse’s pink brain tissue, and when she looked up, she saw the mischievous smile on Wen Renlong’s face.

Her eyes were full of joy, mixed with a hint of pampering, she closed her eyes and stretched out her right hand in a film glove.

After a while, I felt a hard, hairy lump in the palm of my hand.

Zhang Li immediately opened her eyes to look at the palm, and was surprised to find that it was a white mouse curled up into a tight fur ball, which was as cold as ice to the touch.

“Is this dead?” She asked in surprise.

“Hahaha, even you think it’s dead?”

Wen Renlong laughed out loud, a smug smile flitting across his thin face.

“Hey, not only is it not dead, it’s also very healthy.”

Zhang Li exclaimed in surprise: “Are they awake?”

“That’s right, we injected intravenous coolant into 10 mice, which stabilized and safely lowered their body temperature to 23 to 24 degrees, and put them into hibernation.”

Wen Renlong said excitedly: “The mouse’s heartbeat became very weak, its oxygen consumption and respiration were greatly reduced, and its metabolism also dropped a lot.”

“They relied on the fat and sugar in their bodies to maintain their weak vital signs for 25 days.”

“Didn’t you ask me to help you look at the little white mouse in the freezer? During my routine inspection just now, I found that this one had recovered from hibernation, so I brought it here to show you.”

“Hurry up and give it a physical examination to see how it’s recovering.”

As Wen Renlong talked, he began to urge him.

Zhang Li stood up excitedly, carefully holding the mouse in her hand, and came to check the instrument.

After a careful inspection, I found no obvious tissue and organ damage and abnormal behavior, and I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Every aspect is in good condition, the heart is not damaged, and the body temperature gradually rises at room temperature, and has returned to normal.”

“The body is fine, but the brain waves are a bit chaotic and not stable. It may be that the consciousness is not fully awake and is still asleep. It will fully wake up in three hours at most.”

“For this mouse, the 25-day hibernation may be just a long dream. Maybe it dreamed of something good and was reluctant to wake up.”

“The successful hibernation of mice is enough to prove that our research is in the right direction, and we hope it can be applied to humans as soon as possible.”

“Do you think we will be like in sci-fi movies, where the whole world will change after we wake up from hibernation? It’s really exciting.”

Speaking of this, Zhang Li’s eyes were burning, and she showed a longing smile.

Wen Renlong stared at her and said with a smile, “No matter what kind of sweet dream it is, I will always be with you.”

Zhang Li blushed pretty, lowered her head, fiddled with the curled up mouse in her hand, and said.

“I also have to thank you for the arctic gopher you gave me back then, otherwise I wouldn’t have discovered what I have today.”

“Haha, as long as you like it.” Wen Renlong said with a smile, a gleam of happiness flashed in his heart.

At the beginning, he also learned that Zhang Li, a little girl, had a habit of collecting all kinds of rats, so he asked a friend to get a very special arctic gopher, and gave it away as a birthday present.

Unexpectedly, the arctic gopher, one of the most extreme mice on earth, has a special habit of hibernating for 8 months a year, which aroused Zhang Li’s strong curiosity.

After some research, the mystery of animal hibernation was discovered, which opened up a new research field, which can be regarded as a false hit.

Wen Renlong suddenly slapped his head and said, “Hey, based on our discovery, we should be able to win a Weishi Science Award next year.”

He gloated and laughed: “It’s all right now. I, Lao Chen, and Xiao Ding have all won the prize, and the only thing left is Lao Tang. Let’s see when he can win the prize. Hahaha~”

Zhang Li couldn’t help but said with fascination: “It’s a beautiful thing for the two of us to share an award.”

“If we really win the prize, we will be the Curies in the field of biology from now on.”

Hearing the words, Wen Renlong also laughed heck.

“Take it easy and dream, I have to write the report quickly.” Zhang Li glanced at him coquettishly, then turned and walked towards the freezer.

“Hey, wait for me.”

Wen Renlong hurried to catch up, feeling happy in his heart, like a mouse that fell into a rice bowl.

*****

Soon, Wei Kang received the mouse hibernation research report in the background, and his heart was agitated.

“The mice that couldn’t hibernate originally entered the hibernation mode, and they were still in good condition after returning to normal.”

“This means that humans, who are also mammals, can also hibernate if they enter a certain mode!”

“Perhaps, in the not-too-distant future, maybe within 5-10 years, human beings will hibernate and go to the sea of ​​stars.”

“Although the 25-day hibernation time is a bit short even for mice, it cannot be controlled freely.”

“However, the dawn of the interstellar era has already appeared on the horizon. As long as we continue to work hard in this direction, we will be able to realize the dream of traveling in space sooner or later.”

“I want to cooperate with the space center to advance the human hibernation project as soon as possible.”

He immediately took out his mobile phone and called Academician Xie.

A week later, a piece of news came out that shocked the world.

The Huaxia Space Administration and Sanqing reached a strategic cooperation to study the space hibernation plan for astronauts.

At the same time, the manned mission to Mars has begun to be launched ahead of schedule, and we must strive to achieve Mars landing within 5 years.

At this point, human beings have finally begun their journey towards the sea of ​​stars.

*****

The book is over! (end of this chapter)