Chapter 334 - 228: 100%

Chapter 334: Chapter 228: 100%

The plane took off on time.

Jiang He looked down at his phone.

The screen still showed the last text message Shen Yu had sent before he boarded:

"Dr. Jiang, have a safe trip. Remember to miss me."

Jiang He stared at the line of text.

But at this moment, what he felt wasn’t sweetness.

As the plane continued to climb and the cabin pressure changed, an inescapable fear enveloped him.

The more he cherished the present, the more he feared losing it.

’Cancer. Cancer.’

Even in his past life, humanity still hadn’t completely figured out the pathogenesis of this disease.

The medical community always emphasized prevention, stressing improvements to one’s lifestyle and routine, quitting smoking, limiting alcohol, and maintaining a positive mood.

But as a top pancreatic doctor, Jiang He knew very well.

Whether cancer would develop, and when it would develop, was fundamentally a giant black box.

Some people smoked, drank, and stayed up all night, yet lived to ninety and died of natural causes.

Others had extremely regular lifestyles and healthy diets, yet were diagnosed with terminal cancer in their thirties.

This world was often just that unfair.

Jiang He was truly afraid.

This terror nearly crushed him.

Surgery had its limits. Even if he could perform the posterior approach procedure to perfection, a scalpel still couldn’t save a life.

Even Professor Zhong Shouxian, the top surgeon at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, couldn’t save a patient after a complex, nine-hour pancreatic cancer surgery.

’I can’t stop.’

’All that talk about taking it easy after returning to Southern China? Completely impossible.’

The sweeter his time with Shen Yu was, the more it convinced him of one thing:

He had to fight with everything he had.

He not only had to crack early screening, but also develop targeted anticancer drugs.

He had to make all the preparations before fate arrived.

Jiang He opened his eyes, his gaze pathologically resolute.

’The vacation is over.’

’I have to work harder. And harder.’

...

The plane landed.

Chen Hao yawned and turned to Jiang He. "Old Jiang, are we heading back to the dorm to catch some sleep first, or what’s the plan?"

"You go back to the dorm and rest. I’m going to the lab."

Chen Hao was stunned for a moment. "Now? Not even going to grab a bite?"

"No need. I’m not hungry. You take today off. Come back to the team tomorrow according to the normal schedule."

Watching Jiang He’s retreating back,

Chen Hao scratched his head and muttered, "That guy... how come he seems even crazier than before right after seeing his wife..."

He didn’t feel right leaving Jiang He like this.

So he hurried to catch up, saying, "I’ll go to the lab with you!"

「Half an hour later, in the university lab.」

When everyone saw Jiang He, they came over to exchange pleasantries, asking him if he had fun in the Capital City.

But Jiang He just gave a simple "It was fine" and, while washing his hands, asked, "What’s the status on the data runs?"

Everyone was taken aback for a moment.

But they quickly readjusted, used to Jiang He’s nature as an insane workaholic.

Professor Wang Xiaoqing handed him a report. "Over the past week, we ran another three hundred-plus sets with serum from healthy individuals to establish the database baseline. The protocol using glycogen co-precipitation and dual chloroform extraction is very stable. All purity levels are above 1.9, and there was no noise in the downstream PCR amplification."

Jiang He dried his hands, took the report, and quickly scanned it.

The data was indeed beautiful.

"What about Teacher Gu?" Jiang He asked.

Wang Xiaoqing replied, "Professor Gu called last night. The samples have already passed the customs biosafety inspection. They’re being sent via expedited cold chain. Based on the timing, they should arrive at the lab this afternoon."

Jiang He’s gaze sharpened slightly.

’They’re finally here.’

This was the most crucial part of the project.

And the final piece of the puzzle.

"Notify everyone. Assemble."

「2:40 PM.」

Yi Xiangwan, Gu Yizhou, Cheng Xiyao, Tang Pei, and the others arrived at the lab one after another, quickly changing into their white lab coats.

「3:15 PM.」

A cold chain transport vehicle pulled up below the laboratory building.

Two uniformed staff members came in carrying a heavy insulated container covered with seals and various quarantine labels.

Signatures, handover.

「After they left.」

Jiang He put on goggles and cryogenic gloves, took a pair of scissors, and snipped the customs lead seal.

He unfastened the latches and lifted the lid of the container.

A thick, white vapor billowed out.

Pushing aside the top layer of dry ice revealed five neatly arranged cryoboxes below.

He took out one of the boxes and opened it.

Inside were ten microcentrifuge tubes with German labels and barcodes on their sides.

The bottom of the tubes showed a pale yellow color.

Fifty samples.

This was serum drawn from patients two to three years before they were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, back when they were in a state of complete health.

Inside was what they were looking for: the shadow of extremely early-stage pancreatic cancer.

"The serum is here."

Jiang He placed the cryobox back in the dry ice and turned to face his team.

His gaze swept over the faces of Chen Hao, Yi Xiangwan, Gu Yizhou, Lu Xiaolin, Cai Zhuoqun, Cheng Xiyao, Tang Pei, and Wang Xiaoqing, one by one.

"Everyone, these fifty samples represent fifty living people. They also represent the current blind spot in the global medical community’s approach to the early screening of pancreatic cancer."

"Our task is to use the miRNA early screening model we built ourselves to ferret out the data that has already begun to change silently within these fifty seemingly normal serum samples."

"If we succeed, this model will be the only radar in the world capable of providing a two-to-three-year early warning for pancreatic cancer."

"Let’s get to work."

Everyone immediately sprang into action.

The lab entered its highest state of operational intensity.

Wang Xiaoqing announced, "Set the water bath to 37 degrees. Prepare to thaw the samples."

Lu Xiaolin, holding a pipette, aliquoted the thawed serum samples into new centrifuge tubes.

Jiang He stood before the workbench, personally taking charge of the most critical extraction step.