The situation of the K Therapy being in short supply soon erged.
The production process of the K Factor is complex, with limited capacity. dical systems in many European and Arican countries began discussing the priority usage standards, while insurance companies urgently evaluated coverage plans. Rumors in the black market suggest that the price of a single K Factor has skyrocketed to $500,000.
And all of this spotlighted the theorist—Yang Ping and his leadership at the Sanbo Research Institute.
The first wave of visitors was a joint delegation from the Harvard-MIT Broad Institute, consisting of six world-class cancer genomics and systems biology experts. They ca with dozens of sharp questions, planning a three-day academic exchange.
Yang Ping did not receive them in the eting room but directly brought them into the laboratory.
"The theory is on paper, the evidence is here." He pointed to the high-throughput surface proteomics platform, the cryo-electron microscopy room, and the single-cell sequencer in operation, "You can ask questions about any part and check any raw data."
The first day was fiercely debated. An MIT professor fundantally questioned the concept of the "base protocol": "This sounds like teleology. Evolution does not preset a ’protocol’; only the chanisms left by natural selection exist."
Yang Ping called up embryonic developnt data: "In vertebrate limb developnt, if a digit bud cell is mispositioned, it is cleared through a specific apoptosis program. Isn’t that a preset ’protocol’? When tadpoles transform into frogs, the orderly death of tail cells, isn’t it a preset ’protocol’? The complexity of multicellular organisms requires cells not only to grow but also to know when to stop growing, change identities, and self-clear. Isn’t the logical frawork of these programs written into developntal programming?"
"But that with cancer..."
"What cancer hijacks are precisely these programs that maintain normal tissue." Yang Ping showed the expression comparison of TIM in embryonic and cancer tissues, "The TIM family is involved in cell identity definition and boundary formation during embryonic developnt. Cancer cells reactivate and misuse this system."
The debate continued late into the night. But on the second day, when the delegation witnessed the dynamic conformational changes of TIM captured by cryo-electron microscopy and the synchronized activation of the "apoptosis-preparation components" genes after K Factor treatnt in single-cell data, doubts began to turn into in-depth discussions.
On the third day of departure, the delegation leader, a Nobel Prize winner known for being demanding, shook Yang Ping’s hand and said, "I still do not fully agree with your philosophical frawork, but I cannot deny the chain of evidence you presented. You are on a unique path; please keep going. We will try to replicate so key experints in our own laboratories."
This beca a common pattern for the following visitors: coming with skepticism, leaving in awe.
The pursuit by the academic world was just the beginning; the real pursuit ca from families directly threatened by cancer, especially those with wealth and resources.
The administrative office of the Sanbo Research Institute began receiving a flood of emails. From ancient European families, Middle Eastern royalty, Silicon Valley tycoons, and Asian conglorates. The content was largely the sa: willing to provide any amount of donations, the only request being that a family mber receives K Therapy treatnt or joins the latest clinical trial. This response was much stronger than when K Therapy was first launched.
The institute set up a dedicated team to handle these requests, strictly following dical and scientific ethics, but pressure was pervasive.
A private jet from a U.S. tech giant landed directly at Nandu Airport, with the chief dical officer bringing a complete dical record to Sanbo, proposing to donate one hundred million dollars to establish a joint research center, hoping to design a personalized K Factor for his wife at a late stage.
"We understand your feelings," Song Zimo patiently explained, "But the developnt of a personalized K Factor takes ti and must follow research procedures..."
"Money is not the problem, ti is the problem." The other party said bluntly, "She might only have a few months. We are willing to bear all risks and sign any waiver docunts."
Yang Ping eventually participated in the eting in person. He did not promise treatnt but agreed to have the team analyze the patient’s tumor sample’s TIM characteristics and include it in the "Life Logic Simulator" verification queue. "If the theoretical predictions show a suitable strategy, and it ets ethical review, we will consider it, but this is not a transaction; it is scientific exploration."
The visitor left behind a $50 million check as an unconditional research donation. "Whether or not to treat my wife, please continue your research work; you may be the hope for many."
In this storm, Yang Ping did sothing that surprised many: he published a paper on his own hosted journal, "dical," that had nothing to do with cancer.
The paper was titled "dicine as Dialogue: A Philosophical Shift from Confrontational Model to System Repair Model."
This was an interdisciplinary thought piece, integrating dical history, philosophy of science, and systems theory. Yang Ping suggested that modern dicine has long been dominated by a "war taphor": diseases are enemies, drugs are weapons, and treatnt is a battle. This taphor, though powerful, has its limitations; it may lead to overtreatnt, neglecting the body’s self-repair capabilities, placing patients in a passive position.
And the potential chanism of K Therapy hinted at another possibility: dicine as a dialogue with the body’s system, mobilizing the body’s powerful life chanisms.
"When a doctor uses antibiotics, he introduces external forces to kill bacteria; but when using the K Factor, he sends a ssage to the ’identity operating system’ of cancer cells that cannot be ignored. The forr is external intervention, the latter is the awakening and correction of the system’s internal logic.
The most ideal dical treatnt may not be the most powerful external attack, but the most precise internal regulation, helping the body restore its inherent balance and repair ability."
The article cited Traditional Chinese dicine’s concept of "supporting the righteous and dispelling evil," the modern immunological thought of balance, and the "self-organized criticality" from complex systems theory. Yang Ping did not denigrate traditional therapies but proposed an integrated vision: sotis "war" is needed (such as in acute infections), and sotis "dialogue" (such as in chronic diseases or cancer).
The concept of war is attack, whereas the ans of dialogue is regulation.
"The reason cancer is so difficult to treat may be that it is not an external invasion but a logical rebellion of the system itself. The way to quell the rebellion may not be fiercer attacks but more precise regulation, biologically restoring the normal function of the cell identity and order maintenance system."
The influence of this philosophical article unexpectedly surpassed that of the biological paper. It was reprinted in full by the New York Tis, made into a special docuntary by the BBC, and sparked widespread discussion in the dical humanities field.
A famous dical ethicist comnted: "Dr. Yang Ping reminds us that dicine is not only a science but also an art and philosophy. In the pursuit of technological breakthroughs, we should not forget that the essence of treatnt is to help life return to its rightful state, not just to eliminate anomalies."
The recruitnt email inbox of the Sanbo Research Institute received hundreds of resus daily, from top postdocs and young professors at Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge, and Heidelberg, willing to take pay cuts to join. Interviews filled Yang Ping’s schedule, and he had to hand over most of the initial screening to Song Zimo and Tang Shun.
Attack, regulation!
Yang Ping pondered repeatedly over these two words as he leaned back on his office chair, the basic knowledge from the book "Traditional Chinese dicine" he read during his studies continually surfacing in his mind.
Regulation, regulation, regulation!
Isn’t this precisely the concept of Traditional Chinese dicine?
Except in ancient tis, ancestors used herbs of the agrarian era to achieve this goal at a macro level, and now I realize this goal at the cellular level through biological science.
The ans are different, but the idea is the sa.
Traditional Chinese dicine is a vast treasure trove; Yang Ping now finally understands this statent.
Ultimately conquering tumors will definitely not be through attack but through regulation. Yang Ping felt he had touched a door, not just to treating tumors but potentially using this idea to cure many diseases, such as high blood pressure, or diabetes.
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