Next is the original words of Yang Ping, now recounted by Jiang Jitong to the junior fellows.

In the following days, everyone began to delve into materials, studying handbooks and papers to the point of nearly forgetting to eat and sleep.

The information provided by Yang Ping was extremely extensive, not only covering the basics of immunology, protein engineering, and the latest in chemical biology linking technologies but also introducing a large number of computer-aided design and bioinformatics analysis tools.

Chu Xiaoxiao, while rapidly learning about the relationship between protein structure and function, also began planning her cell experiment platform. She listed a long string of needed cell lines, antibodies, ELISA kits, flow cytometer machine time, etc. When encountering unfamiliar techniques, she immediately asked questions in the group, often receiving timely answers from Jiang Jitong or direct responses from Yang Ping.

He Zijian and Wang Chao, on the other hand, while deepening their understanding of the logic behind "enhancer" design, started sorting out known immunomodulatory functional domains.

He Zijian focused more on internalization signals and costimulatory molecules, while Wang Chao concentrated on receptors and pathways related to viral antigen presentation. They shared their preliminary organization results in the group documents for Liu Yang's reference.

Liu Yang was the most efficient; after digesting the core part of the materials, he quickly came up with a somewhat simple and crude molecular cloning platform construction plan. This included using high-throughput cloning technologies like Golden Gate assembly and partially automating operations using the laboratory's automated workstation, establishing a standardized plasmid construction and verification process.

The plan was not very mature, even a bit naive, but it received Yang Ping's approval. Yang Ping's philosophy was clear: don't wait for everything to be mature before starting, instead start first and gradually revise and upgrade later. Even if it's wrong, it's fine; just try again, how else will you know it's wrong if you don't try? Scientific research itself is a process of trial and error.

Jiang Jitong, on the other hand, was the busiest. Not only did he have to digest the materials and delve into research on linking technologies, but he also had to coordinate the daily operation of the entire team and solve all kinds of trivial issues they encountered—from laboratory bench allocations to ordering special reagents and communicating with other departments of the institute. He demonstrated excellent management skills and interpersonal coordination, managing everything in an orderly manner, ensuring Yang Ping could think about strategic issues without any interference.

He often went to seek advice from Tang Shun on how to manage research, leaving Tang Shun impressed; this guy, usually a bit nonchalant, now seemed so dedicated in his work. It seemed he truly loves immunology.

At four o'clock in the afternoon a week later, the second group meeting started promptly.

This time, the atmosphere in the meeting room was noticeably different, with less awkwardness and more focus and eagerness. In front of everyone were notebooks and laptops, with questions prepared for discussion written all over them.

"Everyone, talk about your progress and any issues you've encountered," Yang Ping started straightforwardly, without any small talk.

Liu Yang was eager to be the first to speak; he pulled up a PPT to show the flowchart of his designed molecular cloning platform: "The core framework of the platform is already designed. I will continue to make some corrections. Based on the preliminary list of functional domains provided by Chu Xiaoxiao and He Zijian, I used software to preliminarily screen a batch of possible amino acid sequences and performed codon optimization. Currently, we have synthesized the first batch of gene fragments for 15 'enhancer' candidate molecules, and they are expected to arrive the day after tomorrow. Once received, I will immediately start on construct the vector."

Yang Ping nodded: "Very good, remember to reserve tag sequence sites for subsequent linking bridge operations on the vector, such as the commonly used AviTag, SpyTag, etc. Specifically which to use depends on the technical route decided by Jiang Jitong's side."

"Understood, I have already reserved multiple cloning sites and insertion interfaces for several common tags," Liu Yang replied.

Next was Chu Xiaoxiao; she appeared somewhat tired but her eyes were bright, "Most of the cell strains I need have already been applied and are reviving and expanding. The calibration and plan design of the flow cytometer have been completed. The detection panels for dendritic cells and macrophage activation markers are also ready. Once Liu Yang expresses the first batch of candidate proteins, I can complete the preliminary activation screening within 48 hours. Additionally, I have reviewed a lot of literature and established a preliminary cytokine storm risk assessment model based on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, but further optimization is needed."

Yang Ping praised, "You all are very efficient, the risk assessment model is crucial, and keep improving it. Remember, safety is the bottom line."

Then it was He Zijian and Wang Chao's turn; they reported their thoughts on the selection of functional domains and some initial concerns, such as potential autoimmune risks from certain potent costimulatory signal domains and steric hindrance issues that might arise from the special structure of viral antigens on docking.

Yang Ping listened intently, occasionally interjecting to guide them into deeper thinking or pointing out literature references they might have overlooked, subtly offering his guidance.

"These questions are very insightful, keep a record of them and use them as important references for subsequent design iterations. Don't worry if there are many problems; the more problems we identify, the clearer our paths to solutions will become."

Lastly, Jiang Jitong presented a detailed report on linking technology research, systematically comparing the advantages and disadvantages of genetic fusion, biotin-affinity, various enzymatic linking systems, and several new chemical coupling methods.

"...Overall, enzymatic linking, particularly traceless linking systems based on short peptide tag pairing, has the greatest advantages in terms of specificity, gentleness, and flexibility. I suggest we initially focus on the SpyTag/SpyCatcher and SnoopTag/SnoopCatcher systems. Their reaction conditions are mild, and efficiency is high. They are relatively mature now, with many commercial vectors and successful cases available for reference. We can construct these tags into 'enhancers' and 'model antigens' separately to conduct connection efficiency and function verification."

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