Chapter 1454: Chapter 1082: Going to Raise Pigs with an Organizational Quota Chapter 1454: Chapter 1082: Going to Raise Pigs with an Organizational Quota Cultivating cells was Tang Shun’s forte. He and Li Yingtong were among the world’s top young talents in stem cells, and cultivating NK cells was a piece of cake for them.

The experiment was a sequence of interconnected steps. Recombining genes in K cells was a task for the Nandu Medical University Genetics Laboratory. Once they had completed their part, they sent the NK seed cells over to Sanbo Hospital. Using these seed cells, Tang Shun would carry out cultivation, which is to say, expansion, causing these cells to divide exponentially, splitting from one into two, two into four, four into eight… and so on, until the desired quantity was reached.

With his persuasive eloquence and international experience from his travels abroad, Tang Shun was able to recruit a group of the top talents who had studied overseas. Now nearly every researcher in his laboratory holds a Doctorate from a top European or American university.

It’s not to say that domestic universities are inferior, but they started out later. In terms of foundation research, especially in the field of basic medical biological research, they lag far behind Europe and America. For instance, in pharmaceuticals, we have few original drugs of our own; artemisinin stands out as an exceptional representative. But the vast majority of drugs we encounter are originated in Europe and America, and we are merely replicating followers, sometimes without a full understanding of the drugs we are copying. Some pharmaceutical giants in Europe and America have produced several Nobel Prize winners, which reveals their formidable R&D capabilities. Compared to the R&D power of these pharmaceutical titans, the R&D of our domestic pharmaceutical companies seems rather elementary. Both the willingness and the capability for R&D are incredibly feeble, so in this regard, we have a long way to go. We must recognize the gaps and strive to catch up.

R&D is a systemic engineering feat requiring a solid foundation: talent, capital, management, and culture–all are indispensable. With only talent and capital and no scientific management, funds get wasted and talents cannot perform effectively. Without a culture of innovation, even huge investments in funds and manpower will be mere flashes in the pan, lacking sustainable R&D capabilities. Money will be spent in vain, and eventually, the team will have to be disbanded.

Therefore, building a complete R&D system is of paramount importance. Even with various resources now at Yang Ping’s disposal, establishing a world-class laboratory requires taking one step at a time; success will not come overnight.

It takes about 12 days to expand NK cells. After 12 days, the seed cells can proliferate into millions of NK cells, reaching the quantities required for therapeutic use, ready to be injected into the human body for treatment.

Over at Nandu Medical University’s Virology Laboratory, Professor Zhang Zhiwei has also been busy. They are continuing their research on K virus treatments because Professor Zhang believes that using a virus as a carrier for anti-tumor therapy has greater prospects than cellular treatments, especially for solid tumors. Viruses can infiltrate tumor cells and any potential embedding factor can be introduced into the tumor cells due to this advantage.

Zhang Zhiwei and Tang Shun are each focusing on different tech trees. It’s too soon to tell which one will shape the future. With ample resources, Yang Ping does not want to choose; he wants to pursue both pathways.

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The committee at Sanbo Hospital decided through a vote to relocate the office buildings. They planned to construct temporary structures in two corners of the hospital grounds–one to accommodate the administrative staff offices and another for the animal laboratory. This would free up two buildings: one for expanding clinical wards and the other for Yang Ping’s laboratory.

This decision, once announced, left many administrative staff members deeply dissatisfied. They were management; why should they be housed in temporary structures? And with the animal lab also being in a similar structure, were they being equated to pigs? As dignified hospital managers, surely some members of the leadership, they thought there must be a better way to handle this.

The younger staff were somewhat more accepting of the decision, but the older employees, especially the women over forty, who had some connections when they had joined and held permanent positions, strongly resisted.

To persuade these administrative staff members, Dean Xia held a mobilization meeting to explain the need to vacate the office buildings and why everyone should relocate to temporary structures.

After a long discussion, many administrative staff members still failed to understand and were resistant, privately criticizing the decision. Dean Xia slammed his hand on the table during the meeting.

“Do you really see yourselves as masters? Even a reasonable explanation doesn’t get through to you, and I have to resort to harsh words. What exactly do you manage? Let me tell you, if we fired all our administrative staff, including myself, hospital operations wouldn’t be affected in the slightest. Appointments would run as scheduled, surgeries would still be performed, and perhaps things would even run more smoothly at a lower operational cost. But if you fire even one doctor, especially an experienced one, that department’s work would suffer. And if you fired a heavyweight expert, the department would collapse immediately. If we fired a super-expert like Yang Ping, Sanbo Hospital would revert overnight to what it was before. Is it you or the clinical doctors who built Sanbo Hospital? You need to have the right attitude. We are service workers, not officials, not leaders, not high-and-mighty so-called managers. Anyone with such delusions should get out early. Go manage somewhere else, where you might be paid more than a clinical doctor. But at Sanbo Hospital, that attitude is unacceptable.”

That was Dean Xia’s temper–courteous one moment, forceful the next, frustrated with these idle freeloaders who really thought they were the lords of the manor.

“Let’s do this: Since everyone is resistant to relocation, we also have an alternative plan,” Dean Xia added, softening his tone after his outburst.

Upon hearing there was an alternate plan, everyone immediately felt there might be a turn for the better. Usually, they all sat in the office with air conditioning, playing with their phones, and now moving to prefab houses would be a suffering–announcing that would be laughable.

Administrative staff from other hospitals all lived comfortably; even when doctors had no money for salaries, administrative staff would still get theirs, many of whom earned more than clinical doctors.

“Let’s welcome Dean Sun to discuss the alternate plan,” Dean Xia invited Dean Sun to the podium.

Dean Sun strode to the podium, cleared his throat, and said, “Actually, you all don’t necessarily have to move. You can still stay in the administrative building…”

A round of applause erupted from everyone!

“However, we need to downsize the office space, by at least two-thirds, keeping only one-third. Correspondingly, we have to downsize the staff as well, reducing to one-third of the current number,” Dean Sun declared.

An upset middle-aged woman in the audience immediately retorted, “I have a permanent position, dare you lay me off?”

Dean Sun replied leisurely, “Of course, there won’t be any layoffs. You’re a long-term employee with a permanent position, how could we lay you off? There’s no such thing. We’ve discussed it and decided to offer everyone an easier job. Our hospital plans to run a large-scale pig farm which would provide pigs for animal experiments as well as generate income through breeding. Two-thirds of the administrative staff will be reassigned to the pig farm, receiving only their basic salary, with bonuses coming from the annual income of selling pigs. Rest assured, everyone has a permanent position; we wouldn’t dare, nor have the authority, to touch that.”

Is this for real? Everyone was baffled. This wasn’t the kind of occasion for jokes–after all, the ones on the stage were deans and vice-deans.

“In the future, we will establish a three-dimensional, modernized pig farm, take a look–this is the projected effect…”

A 3D rendering of the pig farm was projected on the white wall of the meeting room.

“Dean Sun, are we just relocating temporarily, only to move back in after new buildings are erected?” The same middle-aged woman grew a bit fearful, knowing well that if there really was a transfer, she might be the first to go to the pig farm.

“We value democracy; everyone should make a careful choice, not rush into any decisions,” Dean Sun said seriously and sternly.

“Let’s move! For the hospital’s development, staying in prefab houses for a while is nothing.”

“If the deans are staying in prefab houses, we’ve got nothing else to say.”

“Yes, agreed!”

“Agreed!”

Typically, older employees were more eager than anyone, afraid that their voices wouldn’t be loud enough for the deans to hear.