Facing the sudden COVID-19 outbreak, Guangdong researchers raced against time with the virus. Company founder Cong Feng (then head of the New Detection Technology Center at the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Laboratory Animals) led his team to successfully express the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) N-protein expression strain, and decided to provide the strain free of charge to research institutes and biopharmaceutical companies nationwide. After the announcement on February 1, his phone rang off the hook. By February 4, more than 800 orders had been placed by domestic and foreign research institutes and biopharmaceutical companies, including those in Canada and Singapore, ultimately benefiting over 1,200 research teams worldwide.
The Value of the N-Protein Expression Strain
Around January 10, the full genome sequence of the novel coronavirus was submitted by the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center of Fudan University, in which bases 28,274–29,533 constitute the "N" gene, which can produce the viral nucleocapsid protein (N protein). Cong Feng explained: "The N protein has the potential to establish a method for rapidly detecting novel coronavirus serum antibodies, and can also be further used to prepare monoclonal antibodies or to analyze the protein's structure."
On January 17, the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Laboratory Animals urgently approved the project internally. The New Detection Technology Center team gave up the Spring Festival holiday, obtained the novel coronavirus N gene sequence through whole-gene synthesis, constructed the pET28a-N expression plasmid, and successfully expressed the novel coronavirus N-protein expression strain in E. coli.
In the Face of the Epidemic, Time Is Life
"The N-protein expression strain cannot directly fight the epidemic, but it is the cornerstone of subsequent research," said Cong Feng. For example, researchers can use this protein to prepare monoclonal antibodies, thereby making a rapid test card similar to a "pregnancy test stick," which is easy to operate, so that community hospitals, neighborhood entrances, or even ordinary people at home can detect whether they are infected with the virus.
"The key point is that synthesizing and characterizing the N-protein expression strain takes 7–10 days. Sharing this achievement can not only save precious R&D time but also reduce duplicated research funding," Cong Feng calculated: the synthesis cost of the N-protein expression strain is about 2,000-plus yuan; based on the current demand of 800 units, it can save more than 1.6 million yuan.
"Sharing" That Abandoned Commercial Value
This kind of nationwide "sharing" of scientific research results has been extremely rare in the past. After researchers obtain a strain that can express protein, they can keep culturing it, letting it continuously express new protein, and then sell it as a product. Once the strain is shared, it means giving away the "seed"—everyone can produce it independently, and the strain loses its commercial value.
"During epidemic prevention and control, Academician Zhong Nanshan, as the expert guidance leader of the Guangdong Provincial COVID-19 Scientific Research Tackling Group, proposed the 'sharing' initiative, requiring 'treatment first, research second.' Sharing this achievement is also a new way for researchers to contribute to the country and the scientific research cause under the epidemic," Cong Feng said.
People's Daily wrote twice praising this act as embodying the research aspiration of "caring nothing for personal gain and dedicating to the motherland," and as a microcosm of "writing papers on the land of the motherland." This open atmosphere of scientific research sharing has also become an important foundation of Qianxun Bio's corporate spirit of "we are serious and professional in animal disease control."