After determining the next cooperation plan, Pang Xuelin, under the leadership of Shi Yi, visited the laboratories and various departments of Westlake University.

At present, Westlake University is divided into three colleges: the School of Life Sciences, the School of Science and the School of Engineering, with first-level disciplines such as biology, biomedical engineering, pharmacy, physics, mathematics, chemistry, basic medicine, computer science and technology, electronic science and technology, optical engineering, materials science and engineering, and mechanical engineering.

The total number of faculty members in the university exceeds 400, and more than 1,000 are doctoral and master's students.

Most of the faculty and staff are PhDs from prestigious universities with overseas backgrounds, and they are all very young, with an average age of early thirties, which is the easiest age to produce results.

For Pang Xuelin's arrival, these people were very surprised.

In particular, after learning that Pang Xuelin will be the honorary chairman of the board of trustees of Westlake University, and that the school will cooperate with the Jiangcheng Institute for Advanced Study and the Qiantang Laboratory, I was even more excited.

After all, Pang Xuelin is famous, and everyone knows that there is meat to eat if you follow this big guy.

Moreover, the various experimental platforms being built by the Qiantang Laboratory have been hot for a long time, and the cooperation between Westlake University and Pang Xuelin has given them the opportunity to join the Qiantang Laboratory.

For Pang Xuelin, the cooperation with Westlake University will undoubtedly bring the talent pool of Westlake University into his command, and will also play a role in the future development of Qiantang Laboratory.

At noon, Pang Xuelin, Shi Yi, and Qian Zhongning had a working meal together in the canteen.

Qian Zhongning and the others resigned one after another because they had their own jobs, and Shi Yi sent Pang Xuelin to the school gate.

At this time, Pang Xuelin smiled and said, "Professor Shi, are you interested in cooperating?" ”

"Cooperation?"

Shi Yi was slightly stunned and said, "Professor Pang, haven't we started to cooperate?" ”

Pang Xuelin said with a smile: "I'm not talking about this kind of cooperation between institutions, I mean that we cooperate in scientific research." ”

"Research collaboration?" The expression on Shi Yi's face became a little strange: "Professor Pang, you also have research in the field of biology?" ”

Pang Xuelin nodded with a smile and said, "Our Qiantang Laboratory is going to build a biological science platform next, covering structural biology, cell biology, stem cell research and cell therapy, neural and behavioral biology, developmental biology, bioinformatics, immunobiology and immunotherapy, epidemiology, nutrition, metabolic biology and metabolic diseases, aging and degenerative diseases, cancer research, botany, microbiology and other fields. I hope that you will be the director of the biological center of our Qiantang laboratory, focusing on the research on the structure and function of biological macromolecules such as proteins, RNA, glycopolymers......"

Pang Xuelin still has a deep understanding of Shi Yi.

Shi Yi's greatest achievement was the analysis of the key complex structure of eukaryotic messenger RNA spliceosomes through cryo-electron microscopy during his time at Tsinghua University, revealing the active site and molecular mechanism.

The outside world has mixed reviews of Shi Yi's achievement, some people think that he is opportunistic, taking advantage of the right time and place, after joining Tsinghua University, he has money and resources, and he has encountered cryo-electron microscopy, so he has today's achievements.

But Pang Xuelin is well aware of the difficulty of this achievement.

In fact, spliceosomes are one of the most important differences between eukaryotes and prokaryotic bacteria, and they are no less important in molecular biology than ribosomes.

Splicosomes are also giant molecular machines that are larger, more varied, and more complex than ribosomes.

The understanding of spliceosomes is actually very late.

In the early nineties, mankind knew little about it, and the study of spliceosomes reached its peak in the nineties.

However, scientists soon became dissatisfied with indirect cognition of the spliceosome through biochemical methods and wanted to understand its molecular structure.

At the beginning of the 21st century, people have been trying to understand the structure of spliceosomes through various methods.

Unfortunately, before 2010, cryo-EM was still quite immature, and X-ray crystal diffraction technology could not do anything about such a huge and variable complex.

As a result, until 2010, human understanding of spliceosomes was superficial.

However, after experiencing the field of cryo-electron microscopy from 2010 to 2014, Shi Yi was born in 2015 and published the first high-resolution spliceosome structure, which greatly promoted the human understanding of spliceosomes and set off a boom in analyzing the structure of spliceosomes.

Moreover, according to Pang Xuelin, at that time, in the competition in the field of analyzing the structure of spliceosomes, Shi Yigong's fierce rivals included Reinhard Lührmann of the Max Planck Institute in Germany and Kiyoshi Nagai of Cambridge.

Lederman is a recognized leader in the field of spliceosomes.

He also proposed different stages of spliceosome purification methods, and solved several early low-resolution spliceosome structures.

His subordinate Hogg Stark was also one of the pioneers in the field of cryo-EM, and he proposed several data processing methods for cryo-EM.

Such a combination of scientific research is terrifying.

But they weren't the first to unravel the high-definition structure of the spliceosome.

Not to mention Kiyoki Nagai of Cambridge, who himself was both a pioneer in the field of spliceosomes and an expert in crystallization.

The Cambridge Molecular Biology MRC Laboratory is a mecca for structural biology, and the data processing software developed by the MRC has single-handedly advanced the development of cryo-EM.

However, they were not the first to unravel the spliceosome structure.

From this, it can be seen that Shi Yi's level is high.

Even in a sense, his Nobel Prize ranking is higher than that of Corton Walker at the beginning.

Shi Yi pondered for a moment and said with a wry smile: "Professor Pang, I am fifty-five this year, and I have been out of the front line of scientific research for some years. A few years ago, when we were at Tsinghua University, we used cryo-EM to explore the structure of proteins and other biological macromolecules, hoping to understand the basic principles of biomolecular machine work from the structure. In fact, this is why I am obsessed with structural biology, which allows us to really explain biological phenomena from a physical and chemical point of view. Just thinking about the countless nanomachines that are constantly initiating DNA expression, transcription, and protein production day and night makes people feel obsessed. For me, understanding nanobiological machines with the basic principles of physical chemistry is the most fascinating part of doing structural biology. And the discovery of drug targets is just a bonus to understanding life......"

"But here, I will also tell the truth, over the years, we have used cryo-EM to analyze the structure of many biological macromolecules, and some people even say that my Shi Yi plus cryo-EM plus Tsinghua University is equal to CNS. If you want to say that this kind of work is important, it is very important, but if you want to say that it is not important, it is the same thing. Now that cryo-EM technology has matured, any trained doctoral student can complete this job, and it is actually of little significance for me to do similar research, at best, there are more scientific research workers on the front line. ”

Pang Xuelin laughed and said, "Professor Shi, who said that I am going to use cryo-EM to study the structure of biological macromolecules?" ”

"...... with cryo-EM"

Shi Yi suddenly came back to his senses, looked at Pang Xuelin with wide eyes, and said, "Professor Pang, do you mean you have a new way?" ”

Pang Xuelin nodded and said, "Atomic probe chromatography technology, have you heard of it?" ”

Shi Yi was slightly stunned, frowned, and said, "I know this, but this technology seems to be mainly used in the field of materials science, right?" ”

Pang Xuelin smiled: "Our Qiantang laboratory is developing dynamic atom probe chromatography technology on the basis of atomic probe chromatography technology, which is expected to analyze the atomic structure of proteins, RNA, DNA and other biological macromolecules from a dynamic perspective and at the atomic scale, as well as their structural changes in femtoseconds to microseconds, and then clarify the three-dimensional structure and function of biological macromolecules such as proteins, RNA, and glycopolymers." This technology is still in the development stage, and it is currently mainly led by Yang Heping and Anderson White, and we need a top structural biologist to participate in the analysis and editing of the data software for atomic probe chromatography......"

Shi Yi took a deep breath and tried to suppress his excitement.

He was well aware of the significance of Pang Xuelin's work.

Throughout history, many important discoveries have been made based on human observations.

However, in some areas that are beyond the reach of technology, access to images has become extremely difficult, and it has also hindered the further understanding of nature.

In 2017, the Nobel Foundation awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Jacques Dubochet of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, Joachim Frank of Columbia University in the United States, and Richard Henderson of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom for "developing a cryo-electron microscope that can determine the high-resolution structure of biomolecules in solution."

With the efforts of these three scientists, cryo-EM came into being.

Scientists are able to "freeze" biomolecules and observe them like never before.

For a long time, it was considered that electron microscopy was not suitable for observing biomolecules because powerful electron beams would destroy biological materials.

But in 1990, Professor Chad Henderson succeeded in using an electron microscope to display three-dimensional images of proteins with atomic-level resolution. This breakthrough demonstrates the potential of imaging biomolecules with electron microscopy.

Professor Joakim Frank has made this technology universally applicable.

Between 1975 and 1986, he developed an image processing method that revealed a clear three-dimensional structure by analyzing and merging blurred two-dimensional images from electron microscopes.

Professor Jack Doubuchet added water to the electron microscope.

Liquid water evaporates in the vacuum of an electron microscope, disintegrating biomolecules.

In the early '80s, Professor Jack Doubuchet succeeded in vitrifying water – he cooled it so quickly that it could solidify around biological samples.

In this way, the biomolecule retains its natural shape even in a vacuum.

It is precisely because of the continuous efforts of scientists that cryo-EM technology can be applied on a large scale in the field of biology.

The dynamic atom probe chromatography technology mentioned by Pang Xuelin is undoubtedly a new generation of microscopic observation technology after cryo-electron microscopy.

According to the observation level of atomic probe chromatography, they can even observe the movement of biological macromolecules at the atomic level, so that human beings can complete the dynamic analysis of the structure and function of most biological macromolecules through this technology.

This is many times higher than the current cryo-EM technology.

If it can really be successfully done, it is completely worthy of a Nobel Prize.

Not to mention, after this kind of equipment is made, it will promote biology.

"Professor Pang, can I meet Yang Heping and Anderson White? I want to talk to them. ”

"Of course you can, it just so happens that I want to talk to Lao Yang about the specific design scheme of dynamic atomic probe chromatography technology."

Pang Xuelin laughed and said, "Professor Shi, get in my car." ”

More than an hour later, Pang Xuelin and Shi Yi arrived at the Qiantang Laboratory in the eastern part of Binjiang and met Yang Heping and Anderson White.

After the four of them exchanged pleasantries for a while, Pang Xuelin began to explain to them the relevant technical implementation routes of dynamic atom probe technology.

Shi Yi, Yang Heping, and Anderson White are also the first time they have seen Pang Xuelin's ability.

In the past, there were many legends about Pang Xuelin in the outside world, but in the eyes of outsiders, there was always a feeling of seeing flowers in the fog.

There is only a rough idea of how "genius" Pang Xuelin is.

And today, the first time they came into contact with Pang Xuelin, they felt that Pang Xuelin was extraordinary.

For ordinary people, such a new concept of instruments and equipment, when the technical scheme design is first started, there will definitely be many immature places, which need to be improved step by step.

Pang Xuelin is different, his understanding of dynamic APT technology is completely beyond the expectations of the three of them, every technical difficulty of this technology, every implementation plan, there are many things they can't think of, Pang Xuelin explained to them in detail.

And they recorded it again and again, and listened to Pang Xuelin's explanation over and over again.

It's like going back to the university classroom of the past.

When the final plan was presented to them, even they were a little incredible.

Because what Pang Xuelin gave was a fairly mature and perfect design plan, as if Pang Xuelin had seen this plan before.

In this regard, whether it is Shi Yi or Yang Heping, they can only sigh that there are really geniuses in the world.

Pang Xuelin saw that the three of them were all in high spirits, so he simply struck while the iron was hot, and dinner was eaten in the conference room.

It wasn't until 10 o'clock in the evening that Pang Xuelin finished explaining the dynamic APT technology.

And whether it is Shi Yi, Yang Heping or Anderson White, they have all memorized a whole book.

"Okay, let's stop here today, that's the general principle of dynamic APT technology, and we still have a lot of work to do to actually make it. Lao Shi, tomorrow I will send Ms. Wang Zhi of Transwarp Technology to Westlake University to find you, and then we will sign the agreement directly, as for the Qiantang Laboratory, you can report it next week, and then the dynamic APT technology will be handed over to you, Lao Yang and White to solve. ”

Shi Yi hadn't recovered from the excitement he had just discussed, and said with a smile: "Professor Pang, don't worry, I'll come over in a few days to report." ”

The same is true of Yang Heping and Anderson White, who also feel that the emergence of this technology is likely to change the whole world.