Chapter 52: Preston Research Institute

“So, what do you think?”

After touring the office building of Preston Company, the chairman declared proudly, “Although our company can’t compare to global powerhouses like Novartis and Roche, it’s still one of the top hundred companies in Zurich.”

“Not bad.”

Chen Chen nodded with a cool smile.

Most Swiss might think that Chen Chen truly felt it was not bad at all. Only Qian Wenhuan could know how Chen Chen felt.

This so-called Preston office building was, in truth, a small five-story building almost made entirely of glass. If this was Mainland China, it would merely be a standard building in a fifth-tier city.

Chen Chen was used to Grade A 5A office buildings with more than a hundred floors that were so common in Shangdu. He was already being gracious by not saying “This mud hut is pretty well built.”

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Other than its fresh air and exotic scenery everywhere in the city, Zurich truly looked just like a fifth-tier city.

Nonetheless, Chen Chen had chosen to open a branch in Switzerland, not because of how developed and bustling it was, but because of the overall institutional systems in the field of life sciences.

After all, Switzerland had always been the country with the highest rate of cancer survival in the world.

This was because Switzerland had a world-famous biological science institution, many pharmaceutical companies that focused on research and a large number of highly qualified researchers in the life sciences.

Compared to the foundation of life sciences in other parts of the world, Switzerland was more sophisticated.

Here, there were Roche and Novartis that were among the world’s top-ten as well as a huge number of world-class pharmaceutical companies.

These companies even eventually formed four “BioValleys” in Switzerland, similar to Silicon Valley in the United States.

Preston Company was located within BioValley Zurich.

In the end, the directors of Preston Company led Chen Chen to a zone that was similar to an industrial park in the outskirts of the city.

It was similar to an industrial park, only the buildings here were not various factories that ceaselessly spouted heavy smoke. Rather, they were biological research centers.

“This is BioValley Zurich.”

In the northern suburbs of Zurich, several cars stopped at an intersection. A group of people, with a young man at the center, got out of the vehicles.

Beneath the sapphire-blue sky, Mr. Wynn pointed to a scattered clump of buildings in the distance and said loudly, “Although it isn’t comparable to the large scale of BioValley Basel only dozens of kilometers away, the technology of our BioValley is not to be underestimated.”

“The perfect combination of technology and nature. What a lovely view.”

Chen Chen nodded. “I came here for this.”

“Hahahaha!”

When Mr. Wynn heard this, his heart finally settled down. “In that case, an old fogey like me should stop blabbering on. Let’s head to the research institute directly!”

With that, they got into their cars and drove straight to the Preston Life Sciences Research Institute.

The Preston Research Institute was a small building with only three floors. It was plain gray all over. From its appearance, one could not discern any link between this building and life sciences.

However, this was in line with the reserved, rigid style of Switzerland.

Online, the Swiss had been given the label of “Uptight Swiss”.

For instance: “I just parked my car slightly crookedly and that f*cking Swiss neighbor actually called the cops. Uptight Swiss!”

“Before using the toilet, I saw that I ran out of toilet paper. I wanted to quickly buy a roll in the supermarket, but only realized when I got out that there were no supermarkets open on Sundays in Switzerland. In the end, I could only drive over ten kilometers to the train station to buy one toilet roll. Uptight Swiss!”

…

Finally, the cars slotted seamlessly into the designated parking spaces. They got out of the cars again, but this time, Wynn was not smiling.

In front of the research institute, apart from a few employees scattered here and there, there was no one to greet them.

“Where’s Samuel? Give him a call.”

Wynn softly prodded Qian Wenhuan who was by his side, then turned to Chen Chen with an apologetic smile. “I apologize. I think our great scientists must’ve lost track of time due to their research.”

“It’s alright, Mr. Wynn.”

Chen Chen expressed his lack of concern while walking directly into the research institute.

The group swiftly followed behind.

When he entered the research institute, Chen Chen noticed that in the lobby, several people in large white coats were sitting before the bar, laughing and chatting.

The expressions of the directors turned even darker.

“Where’s Samuel?” As the general manager, Wynn could only brace himself and step forward. “Didn’t he receive the notice from the company?”

“I’m here, Mr. Wynn.”

Before Wynn could go on, a blonde man with a serious look on his face came out from a side room.

Wynn held back his rage and said to Chen Chen dryly, “This is Samuel who oversees the institute. He has five patents for genetic modification and three for stem cells.”

“Mr. Samuel.” Chen Chen nodded in greeting.

“How do you do, Mr. Chen.” Samuel managed to squeeze out a smile on his stiff face, but he still looked somewhat arrogant and insincere no matter what.

Chen Chen shook hands with the man. He knew that researchers like this one would be treated with esteem anywhere they went. There were even some small companies that fully relied upon a few preeminent researchers. If they left, the company would collapse.

Moreover, Chen Chen had been informed long ago that Samuel played an indispensable role in Preston Company’s growth to its current level.

Nonetheless, it appeared that this person had become rather bossy because of his crucial contributions.

When the introductions were done, Chen Chen started to tour the institute, accompanied by the group.

“Our company’s main business comprises two types of tissue engineering technology – ‘cell anti-aging’ and ‘stem cell anti-aging’. Therefore, the internal laboratories mostly consist of cell and stem cell laboratories.”

At this point, an employee from the research institute had replaced Wynn in providing commentary. “The laboratories of the institute had been accredited by the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation, with first-rate professionalism on an international level…”

After saying this, the employee said confidently, “Do you wish to take a sample tour or tour based on the projects?”

“I won’t go in. Looking in through the windows will be fine.”

Chen Chen waved his hand.

Many people would always assume that sugarcoating one’s image was a cultural habit in Mainland China. However, it would be too naïve to think that this did not happen in other countries too.

Currently, Chen Chen had arrived with great fanfare. Even if there were flaws in the laboratories, they would have been concealed. No matter how carefully he inspected, what could he possibly find?

Thus, Chen Chen did not intend to tour the laboratories at all. He turned and said, “Tell me what research results the labs have churned out lately.”

The employee was momentarily stunned and turned to look at Samuel.

Samuel nodded slightly.

“Very well. Nevertheless, the terms we used might be rather academic. If you don’t understand something, please feel free to ask.”

The researcher thought for a moment before saying in detail, “In terms of cell anti-aging, we’ve achieved the perfect commercialization of fibroblasts for removing scars and wrinkles. Oh, right, you know what ‘fibroblasts’ are? It’s something in ‘loose connective tissue’, evolved from ‘fibroblast precursor cells’. Its main function is to fill in cuts and defects in tissues to heal wounds.

“However, it’s been found a long time ago that the collagenase secreted by fibroblast precursor cells has the ability to remodel tissues. Thus, we only have to extract a piece of skin tissue, about 9 cubic millimeters, from a body, then separate and purify the fibroblast precursor cells. After that, we add those to a specific culture medium, growing them into a large clump of fibroblasts. Following that, we add a certain volume of trypsin solution and centrifuge it several times to manufacture fibroblast suspension.”

The researcher shot a pleased glance at Chen Chen. “The advantage of this is that the prepared cells are passaged for no more than 5 times, so they’re all in the active phase. Whether in terms of removing scars on a body or eliminating wrinkles, there’s a certain degree of effectiveness as a treatment.”

Chen Chen furrowed his brow. “The purification you mentioned in the first step – that uses the method of differential separation, right?”

“Uh, that’s right…” The researcher nodded instinctively.

“Then, what’s the composition of the specific culture medium?” Chen Chen asked again.

“It’s…” The researcher turned blank. How could he remember all this?

“We add 15% fetal bovine serum to non-autoclavable MEM cell culture medium.”

On one side, Samuel suddenly spoke in a steady voice.

“That’s not a bad method.”

Chen Chen nodded. “Still, I think the fetal bovine serum can be increased to 30%. Besides that, 2.5g/L glucose and 50mg/L human insulin can be added.”