Break into the microbial world
/kloc-at the age of 0/3, Tang left his hometown to study in Changsha, the provincial capital, and attended Changsha Middle Road Normal School. After graduating from high school, I was admitted to Hunan Lijia Industrial School to study gold engineering, and then I could carefully check my hobbies. At that time, the major of metal engineering, like the major of machinery now, had to deal with textbooks such as metallurgy, mechanics and cartography all day, and there were a series of new terms. Tang began to feel that knowledge was like an endless ocean, and he was like a bird foraging in the ocean. He is curious about everything and wants to taste it. In addition to the courses prescribed by the department of metalworking, he often borrows medical books and handouts from students of Xiangya Medical College, whether it is internal medicine, surgery, physiology or bacteriology. The more he borrows, the more excited he becomes. During this period, he also made many friends who love medicine, and often talked with them about his ambition to become a doctor and devote himself to medical career in the future. Two years later, he finally made up his mind to give up his job to study medicine and apply for Xiangya Medical College.
Xiangya Medical College is an American missionary school, and all examinations and teaching are conducted in English. When Tang applied for Xiangya Medical College, the first difficulty he encountered was that he could not read English test papers, let alone use English answer sheets. He summoned up his courage and asked the school to allow him to answer the paper in Chinese. The school saw that he was eager to study medicine and made an exception and approved it. He did well in the exam and was admitted as a preppie.
During the seven years of studying in Xiangya Medical College, Tang shouldered two burdens: one was heavy study tasks, especially to improve his English and catch up with other students. He always carries an English dictionary with him, stays up late at night, and opens his eyes in the morning to read it again. In less than two years, a brand-new English dictionary was worn out. Another burden is economic difficulties. 17 years old, an unexpected accident happened at home, and the whole family's life was gone. From then on, he not only couldn't get help from home, but also sent money to help from home. As a result, he had to attend classes during the day, tutor at night, or do chores in the school pharmacy, and study and work for more than ten hours every day.
However, he also had his own fun, and a new world fascinated him. This new world is not a fantasy life, not an individual apprentice, but various forms of microscopic life under the microscope. Microscope became his best friend. He spent a lot of time under the microscope except for classes, classes and work. At that time, compared with now, although the magnification and resolution of the microscope were not high, the new knowledge attracted him and fascinated him. He began to understand that microorganisms include bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, bacteriophages, viruses, algae and protozoa, which are distributed in air, water, soil and human and animals. He also knows that although some microorganisms can bring diseases to human beings, most types of microorganisms are beneficial to human beings. For example, whether the soil is fertile or not depends largely on the activities of microorganisms.
"I am still too ignorant of the strange world of microorganisms." Don always urges himself to explore. Among the students, he has been lying on the microscope for the longest time. On Sunday, the students went to Yuelu Mountain in twos and threes, and he was fascinated by it under the microscope. During the festival, students went to the streets to play, and he was reluctant to leave the microscope to kill time. A strong sense of responsibility prompted him to make up his mind to learn more about microorganisms, find out why those little things that endanger human health have such great skills, how they live and what their habits are, and try to subdue them. Don Fan Fei realized that understanding microbes was a complicated and arduous undertaking, but he was full of confidence.
192 1 year, after graduating from Hunan Xiangya Medical College, Tang worked as a teaching assistant in Peking Union Medical College and began to study bacteriology. The instructor is a famous American professor, Professor Tian Bolu. He requires students to be very strict, pay attention to the mastery of basic knowledge and emphasize the training of basic skills. It was here that Don learned a superb skill of isolating and cultivating a single bacterium under a microscope.
At that time, medical university graduates generally thought that working in the culture medium room (that is, broth and agar for cultivating bacteria) and the strain room was overqualified. And Tang is willing to "serve" bacteria in the culture medium room. He is diligent, conscientious, thoughtful and never careless about trifles. After he finished his experiments, he always scrubbed every glass bottle and test tube and put them in order. After a few quiet observations, the professor deliberately asked him to do other trivial things, and he did them happily and neatly. The professor likes him very much and thinks that he has the basic qualities to be an excellent scientific worker, so he is transferred to his side and trained as a direct assistant. Three years later, Tang made achievements in bacteriology research and obtained a doctorate.
Then, the professor recommended him to Harvard University in the United States to continue his studies under Qin Se, a master of bacteriology. This master has made great discoveries, and is also famous for his extensive reading and profound knowledge. He has a unique way to train scientific talents. He encourages students to widely read topics and scientific papers related to topics, and holds regular reading meetings. Everyone will express their opinions, discuss them, and then give key guidance. In the past three years, Tang studied hard day and night, read a lot of books, enriched his knowledge of bacteriology and became a proofreader among his classmates. At every reading meeting, his extensive solicitation and profound insights surprised teachers and classmates. Once, in front of everyone, the teacher said half jokingly, "In today's world, apart from me, Tang is one of the people who really study hard."
Tang Yue has the ability and honor. The more he misses his motherland, the more he wants to contribute to its prosperity. When he was about to finish his research work at Harvard University, one day, the teacher called him and advised him to stay in the United States and find a good job. There is a high salary and ideal working conditions here. The teacher said, "This is what many people want. Don't miss this opportunity. "
Without much thought, Tang answered the teacher, "I must go back to my motherland." "What's the reason?" The teacher doesn't understand. Tang talked about his own ideas: my country is now backward in science and technology, especially microbiology. I was the first to go abroad to specialize in microbiology. The motherland needs me, and I have the responsibility to contribute to the scientific cause of the motherland. This is what I long for.
The teacher was moved. He held Don's hand tightly and said nothing.
From 65438 to 0929, Tang returned to the motherland, where he served as a professor at the School of Medicine of Shanghai Central University and the Institute of Medicine of Redstone, and concurrently served as the head of the Department of Bacteriology.
At that time, the microbial science of the motherland was still a wilderness, and there was a lot of work to be done. What research topic should be chosen to serve the motherland and the people? Memories of childhood come to Tang's mind. After careful consideration, he decided to concentrate on trachoma.
1934 Tang wrote in an article: "The harm of trachoma to human beings and the economic losses caused by it have become a major problem all over the world, especially in China." His eagerness to solve the problem at that time was vividly on the paper.
The struggle against trachoma
Trachoma is an infectious conjunctival disease. The clinical manifestations are fear of light, pain and secretion of a lot of tears. Suffering from this kind of eye disease is very painful, which can lead to blindness in severe cases. What is the pathogen of trachoma? This is a subject that medical circles all over the world are paying attention to and studying. Tang read a lot of medical books and research papers, and became familiar with the history of trachoma pathogen research: in the pioneering period of microbiology, people attached great importance to trachoma pathogen research. At the end of 19, Koho, a German scientist and one of the founders of microbiology, put forward the "bacterial pathogen theory" of trachoma. In the 1920s, French scholar Nicollet proved that trachoma substances could still be infected after being filtered by sand sticks and bacteria were removed, which overturned the "bacterial pathogen theory" and put forward the "viral pathogen theory" for the first time, but it was not confirmed in the end. 1928, a Japanese scholar Noguchi isolated a kind of bacteria called trachoma from trachoma and put forward the theory of bacterial pathogen again.
At that time, Tang was studying microorganisms such as rickettsia and mycoplasma. According to his own observation, he thinks that the pathogen of trachoma may be a big virus similar to rickettsia. What is Rickettsia? It is one of many microorganisms, which was first discovered and described by American pathologist Keats. Rickettsia is between bacteria and viruses, and there are many forms under the microscope. Can't grow on general culture medium, but can only grow and reproduce in living cells with poor metabolism; In nature, most of them are parasitic in rodents; Generally, arthropods such as lice and fleas are used as transmission media, causing human and animal diseases. Is trachoma the result of rickettsia infection? Experiments have proved that rickettsia is similar to trachoma virus discovered by Tang et al. later, but it is not the pathogen of trachoma.
For decades, biologists and doctors all over the world have been trying to explore the pathogen of trachoma, but no one has isolated a virus. In the face of this problem, some people wavered, some people retreated, and some people changed careers. However, young Tang bravely took trachoma as his first research topic. He said, "The courage and responsibility of scientists is to face difficulties and solve the most urgent problems for mankind."
He conducted research and experiments while teaching. Soon, I wrote my first research paper, entitled "Trachoma and Trachoma Research". This paper overthrew the wrong "bacterial pathogen theory" with personal experiments; It laid a foundation for him to study trachoma pathogens and established firm confidence. However, due to the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the research was interrupted.
The poor and backward motherland was ravaged by the invaders. Japanese militarism's aggression and plunder left the people of China in dire straits. At this moment of national survival, Tang can no longer live an academic life with peace of mind. He walked out of the laboratory and took part in the Red Cross rescue work. And resolutely decided to leave Shanghai and go to the southwest. Soon, he was sent to Kunming to rebuild the "Central Epidemic Prevention Station" in Beiping.
1939, he came to Kunming and lived in the hospital. At that time, human, material and financial resources were very difficult. In order to build a microbial research base as soon as possible, as a scientist, he had to take overall responsibility, take care of everything and run. Need an engineering designer, he personally invited a friend who is an engineer; Without building materials, he traveled by car on the Yunnan-Guizhou line; The construction has started, and he is busy on the construction site every day. Finally, at the foot of Xishan Mountain, on a barren beach near Dianchi Lake, Kunming Health and Epidemic Prevention Institute was built, and it soon made outstanding achievements. A large number of vaccines and serum produced here not only meet the needs of epidemic prevention in southwest China, but also support the liberated areas in northern Shaanxi; It is also a unique research base of microbiology and immunology. In the war environment, the research work in this field almost stopped, and the health and epidemic prevention department in Kunming, like a small oasis in the desert, attracted the attention of the world scientific community.
Dr Joseph Needham, a world-famous scientist and historian of science, once published an article praising Tang's work here. Another place in Kunming is the National Central Health and Epidemic Prevention Office, which is presided over by Dr Tang, the most talented bacteriologist in China, with the assistance of Huang Youwei and a large number of staff. Five million typhoid vaccines are produced here a year. Smallpox, diphtheria vaccine, tetanus toxoid and many other drugs are also produced here, including antigens needed for the diagnosis of typhoid fever and syphilis.
The typhus vaccine is being produced here, and there is also a penicillin test workshop. Tang's factory has always maintained a high standard. Although there is no running water, the stables and animal houses are clean. There is also an efficient culture, bottling and inspection system. What is particularly interesting is that this factory includes a complete glass factory, which uses local raw materials to make neutral glass, blows it into ampoules and capillaries, and makes various shapes of flasks, glass tubes and condensers. The story about this factory is an epic in itself.
For several months, there was only one boiler in this factory, and it still leaked water. After it was used up, it had to be overhauled every night. It is this boiler that disinfects all appliances and supplies distilled water.
A set of equipment for recycling waste agar represents the tradition of this factory. Dialysis in the lake with a broken wooden boat. Later, dialysis tanks were installed on the land with limited materials. When the supply of proteolytic enzymes is interrupted, they raise pigs themselves and fatten them with special feed to improve the quality of gastric enzymes. The Institute now provides serum to United Nations troops and China troops in the Far East.
Don Fan Fei spread scientific knowledge all over the country like sowing seeds. He set up a health and epidemic prevention sub-office in Guiyang; After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he returned to Beijing and personally presided over the construction of the Tiantan Center Health Laboratory. In addition to producing vaccines and serum, we also set up an antibiotic room, introduced a set of small production equipment, and began to produce penicillin. This is the earliest facility for producing and researching antibiotics in China. At the same time, an experimental animal farm was established to carry out scientific feeding management and research on animal health and diseases, thus creating the cause of experimental animals in China.
In turbulent and difficult years, Tang never stopped studying and researching for a day. No matter how tired he is, he always insists on reading for two or three hours in the evening. In order to train more microbiology research talents, no matter how difficult the funds are, some funds should be allocated to subscribe books and magazines for everyone to read. A literature reading meeting is held once a week, so that everyone can make reading reports in turn, learn about foreign academic trends and exchange academic views. Researchers often come from all over the world to study and practice. Today, many research backbones of biological products, microbiology and immunology all over the country have worked or studied in the health and epidemic prevention departments in Kunming or Beiping. Tang is not only one of the founders of microbiology in China, but also a diligent and fearless entrepreneur. From the first day Tang set foot on the road of science, he firmly remembered the words of Pasteur, the pioneer of conquering bacteria: "Let me tell you the secret of my goal." My only strength is my perseverance. "
Studying the pathogen of trachoma requires a tough spirit.
On the eve of liberation, the United States hired Don with a lot of money. He could take his family to the United States, but he refused. The Kuomintang government asked him to go to Taiwan Province Province, but he refused and stayed in Peiping to welcome liberation. In the early days of the People's Republic of China, some infectious diseases were still rampant. Tang is concerned about the country and the people. He led the comrades in the Institute of Biological Products to race against time to develop much-needed vaccines and serum. In order to have national supervision over biological products, it also proposed and presided over the formulation of the first "Regulations on Biological Products" in China. He is also the director of the National Culture Preservation Committee, the director of the Chinese Medical Association, the director of chinese society for microbiology and the director of the National Biological Products Committee. His work is very busy. By 1954, severe infectious diseases were under control, and the focus of epidemic prevention shifted to common diseases and frequently-occurring diseases. Tang resumed the research on trachoma pathogens that had been interrupted for more than ten years.
In 65438-0955, he and his assistant Huang, with the assistance of Professor Zhang from Beijing Tongren Hospital, selected trachoma specimens suitable for cultivation from the outpatient department of the hospital and provided them for cultivation.
He often discusses such problems with his colleagues; The pathogen of psittacosis is similar to that of trachoma and has been successfully isolated from mouse and chicken embryos for a long time. Why has no one been able to isolate a trachoma virus since the theory of trachoma virus was put forward for decades? One day, he suddenly thought of a new clue: trachoma virus could not be separated. Could it be the result of penicillin and streptomycin used in the experiment?
According to clinical experience, penicillin can inhibit the growth of gram-positive bacteria, while streptomycin can inhibit the growth of gram-negative bacteria. Virologists also agree that viruses are not sensitive to all antibiotics. So at that time, there was a routine for virus isolation at home and abroad, using penicillin and streptomycin. The isolation of trachoma virus is no exception. Penicillin and streptomycin should also be added when the conjunctival materials of trachoma patients are inoculated into chicken embryos to control bacterial infection in the conjunctiva.
All virologists are used to this routine, and no one has ever doubted it.
But Tang raised the question: Is trachoma virus as insensitive to antibiotics as other viruses? Is it possible that trachoma virus is sensitive to antibiotics and was killed by penicillin and streptomycin during the experiment, so it is impossible to isolate the virus strain? He understands that it is not enough to question only in scientific research, but also needs practice to verify.
He personally went to the hospital to understand the effect of penicillin and streptomycin in the treatment of trachoma, and went to the library to consult Chinese and foreign materials to master the clinical application of penicillin and streptomycin in the treatment of trachoma at home and abroad. Based on a large number of investigations, he got a preliminary impression: streptomycin is basically ineffective in treating trachoma, indicating that it has no harm to trachoma virus; Whether penicillin is effective in treating trachoma is uncertain. Tang continued to conduct a more in-depth and detailed investigation and study. One day, he went to the library to look up information. He turned page by page, read page by page, and read a lot of books from house to house. Finally, from an English medical book "Human Viral Diseases", he found a discussion about penicillin and virus, pointing out that penicillin can control the development of trachoma symptoms. Don is glad to find a basis! So he focused his research on the use of penicillin.
June 1956 12 is an unusual day. Early this morning, Tang and his assistant came to the laboratory. They wanted to do a unique experiment to isolate trachoma virus, that is, to reduce the injection of penicillin to obtain trachoma virus strains.
At the beginning of the experiment, he skillfully inoculated the conjunctival substance of trachoma, and then injected only one-fifth of the original dose of penicillin. Results The first trachoma virus was isolated! All the people present rejoiced and congratulated Professor Tang on his victory. Don immediately calmed down from the excitement. I said in my heart: there is only one success, and other accidental factors cannot be ruled out. Chance cannot be the basis of science. Then, they set out to prepare a new experiment, without penicillin at all, and doubled the dose of streptomycin to see if trachoma virus could be isolated again. The experiment succeeded again. Soon, they did the third and fourth experiments, and the trachoma virus was also isolated.
Trachoma can finally be conquered. Letters and calls came from all over the world to express congratulations and thanks to Tang. In order to respect Tang's contribution to mankind, trachoma virus is called "Down virus" internationally.