Chapter 49: Junior Sister, Senior Brother Goes First (Asking for Favorites, Asking for Follows)

To be fair, the Medical Basic Cell Experiment Technique Package is genuinely easy to use. It contains all the operations for common cell experiments.

After raising all of them to Level 2, Fang Ziye's corresponding proficiency is at least not less than that of a typical mature Academic Master's graduate student.

Let's put it this way as an analogy.

Fang Ziye worked diligently in the Training Room for two years before his Medical Basic Operational Skills reached Level 2; the Level 2 proficiency in Medical Basic Cell Experiment Technique is equivalent to an Academic Master's student achieving proficiency after diligently culturing cells in the Cell Room for two years.

Yuan Weihong took the Professional Master's route — Professional Master's, Professional Doctorate — so he actually didn't spend that much time soaking in the lab; therefore, his corresponding proficiency isn't very high either.

Fang Ziye specifically went downstairs to buy a pair of shoes for Luo Tingzhu and another pair for himself.

No way around it — the teacher came, his slippers had already retired; for a while before he wore random junk into the lab, and now that the student was right there in the lab, he just happened to wear Fang Ziye's shoes.

Fang Ziye accidentally slipped Luo Tingzhu's shoes onto his own feet; Yuan Weihong returned the shoes, and Fang Ziye didn't mind, but if he returned the slippers himself, the girl might not see it that way.

So he simply threw away Luo Tingzhu's slippers and bought two new pairs to bring up.

Threw away Luo Tingzhu's shoes.

"Are you really proficient, or just pretending? Tingzhu's preliminary experiments are for a grant application — there can't be any slip-ups. What if you don't know how?" Yuan Weihong reminded him just as Fang Ziye was about to begin.

"Master, why don't you go back first and come check when the time's up?" Fang Ziye, wanting to make up for his earlier oversight, suggested his teacher Yuan Weihong take a rest.

In a typical Transwell chamber experiment, the chamber interior is usually called the Upper Chamber, the interior of the culture plate is called the Lower Chamber, the chamber bottom is a polycarbonate microporous membrane, and a layer of Matrigel (Basement Membrane Matrix) is laid on the membrane.

Basement Membrane Matrix is a matrix component extracted from mouse sarcoma rich in extracellular matrix proteins; its main components include Laminin, Type IV Collagen, Entactin, and many growth factors. Basement Membrane Matrix gels at room temperature into a biologically active three-dimensional matrix that can simulate the extracellular matrix; similar to in vivo tumor cell metastasis, cells with invasive capability secrete Matrix Metalloproteinase to degrade the Basement Membrane Matrix and migrate further outward.

Right now, Fang Ziye has already completed the dilution of Serum-free Medium and Basement Membrane Matrix, and is currently performing the Ice Bath Operation.

This operation uses Serum-free Medium on ice to dilute Basement Membrane Matrix at a ratio of roughly 1:8, adds it to the Upper Chamber at 100µL per well to cover the bottom, and places it in the Cell Incubator for 1–4 hours of incubation.

Yuan Weihong doesn't need to stay here waiting during this waiting process.

But for the operation four hours later, Fang Ziye and Luo Tingzhu will need to wait here. The time is still relatively early.

Laymen watch the spectacle; experts watch the technique. Seeing that Fang Ziye's operational proficiency was passable, Yuan Weihong looked around, then nodded.

He said: "When you do things, be a bit more careful."

"If you don't understand, learn from your Junior Sister; ask more — asking doesn't cost you money." Yuan Weihong admonished him, then walked off with his hands behind his back.

The moment Yuan Weihong left, Luo Tingzhu turned her head nervously and asked: "Senior Brother Fang, have you been in the lab before? How come your operations are this proficient?"

Just as Yuan Weihong said, these experiments of hers are preliminary experiments for a grant application; funding is not much, and they can't afford too many failures — otherwise she wouldn't have asked Teacher Yuan Weihong for help.

Only, Luo Tingzhu never expected that Fang Ziye, who was even more of a newbie than herself, would have such high proficiency.

But it's probably just surface-level newbie; Fang Ziye might have secretly been in the lab before.

After all, he's a Master's third-year student and has been in Orthopedics for this long.

Every operation has a process from knowing how to do it, to being unskilled, then to maturity.

Fang Ziye glanced at the 4×6 twenty-four-well culture plate, saw no major issues, and replied: "I've watched a few times, but there shouldn't be a problem. Junior Sister Luo, while we have this time, let's go to the Training Room."

"Just waiting here isn't a solution either. Your booked operation time today is pretty long, right?" Fang Ziye asked.

Both the operation bench and the Cell Operation Room require booking.

Luo Tingzhu nodded; her own matters, she certainly cared about.

"Then no problem. Let's go to the Training Room together. In four hours, we'll come back, add Serum-free Medium then Complete Medium, and continue culturing for 24–48 hours — that'll do it." Fang Ziye knew it by heart.

It was also the previous success of the Scratch Assay that gave Fang Ziye a certain confidence now.

"Okay!" Seeing Fang Ziye unworried, Luo Tingzhu's mood also relaxed a little.

Fang Ziye isn't a reckless person; his carefulness is not less than her own. Before, helping Fang Ziye secretly take photos was actually just Luo Tingzhu doing it conveniently; she didn't even dare remind Fang Ziye.

After all, the time points Fang Ziye recorded himself had literature as reference. Standardized record-taking photos were just to have more experimental materials, with no special significance — they wouldn't appear in the paper.

If there's literature support, the Editorial Department might not even require images of time points without reference significance; it's just that Yuan Weihong has relatively high expectations for Fang Ziye, so he required a bit more.

Walking together toward the Training Room, Luo Tingzhu asked with a bit of worry: "Senior Brother Fang, will you apply for university-level and city-level grants too?"

Fang Ziye is also a Master's graduate student, also a Han City University student.

What Luo Tingzhu can apply for, Fang Ziye's qualifications are not inferior in the slightest; plus Fang Ziye has basic-type papers as a foundation, stronger capability, and higher operational proficiency — preliminary experiments can be done better.

If they compete head-on, Luo Tingzhu estimates she might not necessarily beat Fang Ziye; she only hopes Fang Ziye picks just one.

"I should also try, do some projects during my PhD." Fang Ziye replied from the heart, but seeing Luo Tingzhu's expression change slightly, he added: "Junior Sister Luo, as long as the project quality is good enough, there definitely won't be a problem."

"There's also no rule saying the fund only supports one Orthopedics-related project."

Fang Ziye knew Luo Tingzhu badly needed the grant to do experiments; only by doing good experiments and publishing papers could she possibly stay at the hospital.

Luo Tingzhu, however, smiled faintly and shook her head at Fang Ziye. She looked generous, but her body curled up slightly — whether from fear or a subconscious defense, who knew.

Even seeing Luo Tingzhu like this, Fang Ziye's heart barely rippled.

Luo Tingzhu needs grant money for experiments; Fang Ziye likewise needs project experience to thicken his resume. Both are ordinary people running around — who dares feel pity and say "I'll give you the opportunity"?

And Luo Tingzhu didn't speak the whole way; after entering the Training Room, she just told Fang Ziye she'd go practice first, and the two each took their positions.

(Chapter End)