Next, Pang Xuelin asked Jill to help arrange Ashford's residence, and there were still empty rooms in the manor, just in time for Ashford to move in.

In the evening, Pang Xuelin held a banquet for Ashford.

The Kempten base was well supplied, and even steaks, fish steaks, and red wine appeared at the banquet prepared by Jill.

After dinner, Pang Xuelin dispersed everyone, and then pushed Ashford to the courtyard.

"Professor Pang, I think we need to have an open and honest talk between us."

Ashford looked up at Pang Xuelin and took the lead in speaking.

"Alright, Mr. Ashford, if you have anything to say, just say it."

Pang Xuelin nodded and smiled.

The reason why he asked Ashford to come over from Spencer by name was that Ashford's father, Ashford Sr., had co-founded the Umbrella Company with Spencer and Musko, and Ashford must have known many unknown secrets of the Umbrella Company.

On the other hand, as a top scholar who has been immersed in the field of T-viruses for more than a decade, Pang Xuelin believes that Ashford knows more about T-viruses than anyone in the Kempten base.

In the future, if he wants to find a way to deal with Spencer and others, I am afraid he will have to start with Ashford.

"Professor Pang, I'm afraid you don't have a good impression of the Umbrella Company, right?"

Pang Xuelin was slightly stunned, and said with a deliberate look of surprise on his face: "Mr. Ashford, where did you come from, I am working well with Mr. Spencer now, and the construction of the Kempten base is also thanks to the support of the umbrella company, how can I not have a good impression of the umbrella company?" ”

Ashford smiled and said lightly: "Professor Pang, you don't have to be so vigilant, in fact, not only can I see this, but I am afraid that you and Spencer also know it." It's just that now you all need each other, the development of the Kempten base needs the financial support of the umbrella company, and Spencer wants to find the final evolutionary direction from you, so you won't tear your face in a short time. ”

After a pause, Ashford continued, "Professor Pang, I need your help. ”

"Need my help?"

Pang Xuelin was stunned.

Ashford's eyes lit up with hatred, and he said: "You should know that my father Ashford Sr. cooperated with Masku and Spencer to find the progenitor virus from West Africa and founded the Ambrera Company. In the beginning, their goal was to use the special effects of the Ancestral Virus to find the future evolutionary direction of mankind and help mankind overcome terminal diseases such as cancer and AIDS. ”

But as they studied the progenitor virus, they found that the virus showed amazing potential for bioweapons. So my father and Mascu and Spencer had a disagreement about the future direction of the company. At that time, a large part of Ambrera's R&D department was made up of my father's people, and the scientists involved in this project shared my father's vision of contributing to the future of humanity through the study of Ancestral Virus. ”

"As a result, in order to realize their ambitions, they actually confined my father to the laboratory and injected him with the virus, using him as a test subject. Later, they claimed that my father had voluntarily participated in human experiments, but the experiment failed, resulting in my father's death. In order to appease the people in the company who belonged to my father's faction, they pushed me out and became the so-called Umbrella Company Triumvirate, but in reality, I was just a puppet in their hands, and the reason why they pushed me out was only to prevent turmoil in the company. It's funny that I was stupid at the time, thinking that my father really died because he actively participated in the experiment. ”

"It wasn't until I was in another car accident in which I lost both legs, but I was surprised to learn that it was all a conspiracy by Spencer and Mascu, and I realized that I had been deceived by them. Later, Spencer's ambition swelled and he repeated his old tricks against Mascu, and I got the news in advance and deliberately revealed the news to Mascu, which is the reason why Musku was resurrected after ten years of fraudulent death. Over the years, the Ashford family's influence within Ambrera has been declining, and with my daughter's relationship, I have kept my hatred to myself all these years. I originally wanted to use Mascu's resurrection to fight Spencer and lose both, but I didn't expect that the two of them would now reconcile, they had already met, and decided to work together to develop a new and more powerful virus based on your tube of blood and T-virus......"

Pang Xuelin couldn't help but be stunned, and wondered: "Mascu and Spencer reconciled, why?" ”

Pang Xuelin has seen Mascu and Spencer all met, and these two are not people who are willing to be subservient.

And Spencer used his own hands to destroy Masku's Erwin base, the two should be even more enmity, right, how could they join forces?

Ashford shook his head and said: "I don't know the specific reason, but this is what I have seen with my own eyes, and although the Ashford family has not had much influence in the umbrella company over the years, there are still some people within the umbrella company who are loyal to the Ashford family......

After saying this, Ashford raised his head, stared at Pang Xuelin without blinking, and said, "Professor Pang, only you can help me now......"

Pang Xuelin said expressionlessly: "Dr. Ashford, your daughter is still in Spencer's hands, right?" If you persuade me to go against Spencer now, won't you worry about your daughter's safety? ”

Ashford showed a trace of bitterness on his face, and said: "Musk and Spencer converge, my power within the umbrella company is very limited, and now people are swords and I am fish and meat, and our father and daughter are just puppets in his hands, if it weren't for the fact that I still have some key data about the T virus in my hands, I'm afraid I would have died a long time ago." Now I have no choice but to strike a blow in anger to get out of Spencer's grasp. ”

Pang Xuelin didn't say anything, just looked at Ashford quietly.

"Professor Pang, don't you still believe me?"

Pang Xuelin didn't speak, and after a long while, he said lightly: "Dr. Ashford, if I help you, what can you bring me?" ”

Ashford's eyes lit up and he said, "Professor Pang, you came out of the hive laboratory, you should know the horror of the T virus, but if I say that I have the weakness of the T virus in my hands, do you believe it?" ”

"Weaknesses of the T-virus?"

Pang Xuelin was slightly stunned.

Ashford nodded: "Spencer is not very talented in the field of technology, after Spencer 'killed' Mascu, the research on the T virus came to a standstill, until I showed the talent of my father in the field of biology, so Spencer put the research on the T virus into my hands. Over the years, I have been developing a new generation of biochemical weapons according to Spencer's requirements, such as tyrants and lickers. But in the process of researching these weapons, I have also been trying to find a way to crack the T-virus, and I have really found some clues......"

"What clues?"

"Professor Pang, you've probably heard of non-coding RNAs, right?"

Pang Xuelin nodded.

"Since Watson and Crick proposed the famous model of the double helix structure of DNA in the fifties of the twentieth century, and later established the central law of the flow of genetic information from DNA → RNA → proteins, we have recognized that the complex structure and function of organisms are determined by the DNA sequence that becomes a gene on the genome and the proteins it expresses. Therefore, the genes on the genome are also called coding sequences, which can encode the amino acid sequence of a protein. ”

"But as we further researched, we found that the coding sequences on the genome (i.e., genes) actually only account for a small part of the genome, in the human genome, the coding sequences account for only 3 percent, and the remaining 97 percent of the DNA sequences cannot encode any polypeptides or proteins. This part of the DNA is the so-called non-coding sequence. And with our research on many organisms, we have found that lower organisms, such as viruses, bacteria, etc., have only a few non-coding sequences in their bodies, while higher animals and plants contain a large number of non-coding sequences, which occupy the vast majority of the genome. ”

In recent years, our research has shown that most of the DNA in the genome can be transcribed into RNA, therefore, non-coding RNA is transcribed by non-coding sequences in the genome, and there is more and more evidence that these non-coding RNAs play a very important role in life activities. Two of the most prominent examples are RNA interference and microRNA research. ”

"The study of RNA interference stems from the phenomenon of post-transcriptional gene silencing, which was first identified in petunias and a few species of plants. This peculiar phenomenon is manifested in the fact that when these plants are transgenic, the imported genes and their similar endogenous genes are suppressed, and further experiments show that homologous transcription does occur, but it is quickly degraded. ”

"Scientists have further studied the phenomenon of RNA interference and found that once the dsRNA enters the cell, it is cleaved into small interfering RNA (siRNA) fragments with a length of 21~23 nucleotides by a specific enzyme called Dicer. Dicer enzymes, a member of the RNase III family that specifically recognize double-stranded RNAs, cleave double-stranded RNA introduced by exogenous or transgenic or viral infections in an ATP-dependent manner, and the resulting siRNA fragments are then combined with some enzymes to form an induced silencing complex. The activated induced silencing complex is mapped to the mRNA transcript homologous to the siRNA by base pairing, and the mRNA is cleaved at a certain position 3' from the siRNA, so that the gene corresponding to the mRNA is silenced. A large number of studies have shown that RNA interference phenomena are widely present in various organisms from fungi to plants, from invertebrates to mammals, and even in some lower prokaryotes. ”

"A scientist in the Hive Laboratory once proposed that gene silencing was likely a defense mechanism used by organisms to defend against transposon or RNA viruses during their evolution, and that it was an ancient antiviral strategy used by organisms, and that it may have appeared even before plants and animals diverged."

Pang Xuelin's face showed a thoughtful expression, and he said, "You mean that through the study of gene silencing phenomenon, we may be able to find a way to fight RNA viruses?" ”

Ashford shook his head and said, "Gene silencing only makes humans immune to some RNA viruses, so that surviving humans can avoid being infected by the T virus and its cognate viruses in the future." We still have a long way to go to really eradicate the T-virus. ”

Pang Xuelin laughed and said, "Didn't you just say that in addition to RNA interference, there are microRNAs?" Let's talk about this RNA. ”

Ashford nodded and said, "In the eighties of the last century, when I took over the Hive Laboratory, in a study, one of my experimental groups used nematodes as the object to study the effects of certain genes on their development using gene targeting technology. We found a gene that significantly interferes with development, usually the nematode goes through four larval stages to mature, and the mutation of this gene can make its development stay only in the first stage. And then to our surprise, this gene again does not code for any protein, but only for a microRNA. ”

"And this microRNA actually inhibits the T virus in the nematode to a certain extent."

"Later we discovered that this microRNA is part of a large family of non-coding RNAs, and over the years, the laboratories under the umbrella company have discovered thousands of non-coding RNA molecules, which form an interaction network and participate in the regulation of life activities in the cell, which correspond to the protein-protein interaction network, like dark matter and light matter in cosmology. Previously, in the life sciences, we thought that the functions of organisms were fulfilled by proteins, so we conducted a lot of research centered on proteins, and discovered a large number of pathways and related networks about protein production, regulation and metabolism. With the large-scale discovery of non-coding RNAs and their biological functions, it will help us to find the interaction network between non-coding RNAs and even with proteins......"

Ashford paused and said, "I think the antidote to the T virus is hidden in thousands of non-coding RNAs, and it's up to us to find it." ”

Pang Xuelin looked at Ashford quietly, and after a long time, he stretched out his hand and smiled: "Dr. Ashford, happy cooperation." ”

Ashford was slightly stunned, and said with a smile on his face: "Professor Pang, happy cooperation!" ”

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