Chapter 53: Little Crawler (Requesting Favorites, Requesting Follows)

Under the microscope, the number of cells that had invaded through the membrane was quite encouraging.

Compared against the normal group, the quantity held a definite advantage; the cells had already been stained, and it was clear that the cells Luo Tingzhu treated showed stronger invasiveness than the normal group.

This phenomenon meant that Luo Tingzhu's cell babies were more aggressive than normal cell babies.

"Knowledge Points +28.6!"

When the massive Knowledge Point increase flashed, Fang Ziye was quite startled, yet also felt it was only natural.

Although this was only preliminary experimentation and not yet a systematic research project, it was still a new direction, and also represented a breakthrough certification of new knowledge.

"Junior Sister Luo, your preliminary experiment only goes as far as the transwell step, right?"

Luo Tingzhu's attention was entirely on the microscopic field of view; her reply carried a faint trace of emotion: "Continue doing it? There's no money for that, is there?"

But once she finished speaking, she realized this tone was inappropriate toward Fang Ziye — after all, her having no money for experiments had nothing whatsoever to do with Fang Ziye.

"Senior Brother Fang, thank you~" Luo Tingzhu turned her head and smiled; most of her dimples were hidden, but her clever, lively large eyes and fluttering lashes were full of kindness, showing their owner was very happy right now.

"It's nothing; I should also thank you for giving me a chance to practice — at any rate, I didn't mess it up."

"Then Junior Sister, you tally the data first; I'll go check on my revived cells." Fang Ziye didn't keep pressing Luo Tingzhu; he glanced twice more, saw no further Knowledge Point increase, and decisively switched to the cell incubator.

Every step of the experimental process, every cell line cultured, is the raw material of the experiment; once they enter the experimental group, the previous cell lines become experimental materials, can no longer be used, and must be disposed of — revival or culture must start anew.

After completing the scratch assay and proving that HK2 indeed plays a certain role in the metastasis of giant cell tumor of bone, what remained to be verified was HK2's promotive effect on the invasiveness of giant cell tumor of bone.

Luo Tingzhu continued observing and counting cells, preparing for the grant application.

Preliminary experiments are only part of the experiment; their main purpose is to show that one has already done some experiments, verifying the feasibility of the applied-for project — now only money is lacking, and results can be obtained.

But due to limited personal financial capacity, one cannot support one's project further; one needs support from school-level, city-level, provincial-level, or even national-level project funding groups.

Without money, trying to do a project purely on one's own is no different from a fool talking in his sleep.

No matter which experiment, the materials — cells, mice, rabbits to be raised, etc. — cost more than a graduate student's own monthly expenses; unless one's family is immensely wealthy, how could one possibly afford it?

Generally speaking, many universities, when recruiting talent, mention a substantial research startup fund — this is what allows you to have money for the preliminary research of applying for large projects.

Research startup funds are absolutely necessary; otherwise, you cannot step into this hall.

Even a clever housewife cannot cook without rice.

Luo Tingzhu, in fact, was only able to produce the current preliminary research because Teacher Deng Yong diverted a little bit of research startup fund to her; then, under Teacher Deng Yong's name or someone else's, she applied for a small project, got money, did some basic experiments, padded her resume, to prove her research ability, preparing for hospital retention.

Compared with Luo Tingzhu, Fang Ziye — a master's student with a young supervisor who holds no advantage in job hunting — if he can stay for a PhD, then the young supervisor having already secured a General Program Fund or Youth Fund becomes the economic pillar on which Fang Ziye can build extensively.

As long as Fang Ziye produces output, the funds within the project are at his free disposal.

Fang Ziye examined his once-again-cultured, HK2-knockout cell baby group — tiny adherent cell crawlers growing with extreme slowness.

Originally giant cell tumor of bone doesn't grow fast; he estimated this batch would need about ten more days to reach confluence, only then could the next round of experiments proceed.

If the experiment fails, another batch must be cultured — another ten-day cycle.

Many academic graduate students, whether master's or PhD, spend most of their time being consumed this way.

After checking his once-again-cultured cells, to be safe, Fang Ziye hesitated slightly, then decided to upgrade his cell basic experiment-related skills from Level 2 to Level 3.

Whether scratch assay or transwell invasion assay, they are the simplest components in cell experiment groups; subsequent flow cytometry counting and other experiments involve complex operations and many processing steps.

Moreover, Fang Ziye's own experiment time isn't fully abundant, so naturally he must err on the side of caution.

After adding points, the large sum of Knowledge Points gained today was nearly cleared out again; Knowledge Points balance left only 0.8.

Returning from the outpatient clinic it was 22.1; cell observation added 28.6, experimental operation added 0.1 Knowledge Points, just making up 0.8 — otherwise it would have been only 0.7.

Knowledge Points aren't enough, fundamentally not enough; daily gain of 40 to 50 points still isn't enough.

Fang Ziye watched Luo Tingzhu "click-click-click" taking photos repeatedly, recording all kinds of preliminary experiment data; he estimated the recorded fields of view were definitely more than three or five.

"Junior Sister Luo, actually there's no rush; school-level project applications are generally in December and June; city-level and provincial-level projects come after the General Program applications, in April or May." Fang Ziye offered a word of comfort.

"Mm, have to try them all; if only a school-level project is secured, it's at most twenty thousand yuan — doing this one small pathway would be extremely tight; if a city-level project can be obtained, maybe around fifty thousand, that would be good." Luo Tingzhu looked forward to it.

At the same time she carefully put her culture dishes away again, as if afraid her data records might be incomplete, leading to gaps later; after eating she'd have to continue taking a few more photos for the record.

Next, she still had to statistically process the invasion assay data.

Everyone has it hard.

If Fang Ziye's supervisor were not Yuan Weihong but Deng Yong, perhaps it wouldn't be as difficult as for Luo Tingzhu, but it still wouldn't be easy.

But choice is ultimately a double-edged sword!

Both left the cell room one after another, and after completing disinfection, hygiene, etc., they also put their shoes back in place, then changed into their own shoes, washed and disinfected hands, waiting for the takeout to arrive.

After the meal, Fang Ziye had nothing particularly pressing; he went to the training room first, while Luo Tingzhu remained in the laboratory, a little crawler processing data and running around for the project application.

In the elevator lobby, Fang Ziye glanced sideways at Luo Tingzhu, and could only silently pray for her in his heart.

The project funds the teacher secured are public assets of this one master's school; for people with no student-teacher relationship to the teacher, trying to scrape even a penny is almost impossible — this is the difference between a small research group and a big group.

Requesting data support, thank you all dear readers, explosive updates after premium launch to repay, currently at a critical juncture.

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(Chapter End)