Geneticism, if you know it, please explain its principles and content, theoretical explanation, thank you

Wang Jian: Crazy Genetist

December 31, 2014 20:57 Economic Observer Weibo collected this article

Liu Yan

Wang Jian, who likes to talk about "life economy", does not like others to call him "Mr. Wang". Everyone at BGI (hereinafter referred to as "BGI") calls him "Teacher Wang" or "Lao Wang". In fact, he also has another identity: a doctoral supervisor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Playing against common sense

BGI’s main business is dealing with genes. Wang Jian calls himself a geneticist, “The moment when a fertilized egg combines is when life is born. What is inherited is the genes of the parents, and nothing else can be amplified. It is impossible for one to change into two or two into four." He was fascinated by the origin of life and regarded this as his lifelong career. He believes that biogenetic technology will give rise to a new revolution in agriculture, and it is no longer a delusion for humans to live to be 100 years old.

When the United States announced the Human Genome Project, Wang Jian was at the University of Washington. His mission was awakened. Wang Jian and Yang Huanming (one of the founders of BGI and chairman of BGI) still decided to participate. This grand plan. Wang Jiang returned to China and set up a company in Beijing with 40 million as a mortgage. This was the time when BGI was most short of money, and wages could not be paid. In order to complete the Chinese part of the Human Genome Project, some employees even borrowed money from family members for temporary assistance. , when the project was launched, many employees cried. "I never think about what will happen if I win. I just think about the worst possible outcome. I have thought about bankruptcy and jail. But whether I can leave an article like "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond" (that's what I really care about)" Afterwards, the history of China’s participation in the Human Genome Project was engraved into the corridor of the China Millennium Monument and also written into textbooks.

Wang Jian is an unfettered person. Barely wearing formal attire and even trying to cut off other people's ties. Previously, a reporter participated in an interview organized by BGI. A journal needed to take photos after the interview and asked BGI to wear formal attire. The other party expressed helplessness. After several discussions, it was decided to let Wang Jian change into work clothes with collars the next day, and the task of "supervising" Teacher Wang to cut his hair fell to Zhu Yanmei, deputy director of the BGI Strategic Planning Committee. Early the next morning, an energetic Wang Jian appeared in the conference room, and Zhu Yanmei raised her right hand in a victory pose.

Wang Jian, who is in his 60s, has an active mind. Chatting with him is a brain-consuming task, covering five thousand years, astronomy, geography, nature and humanities. In the eyes of some investors, Wang Jian is very eloquent. He himself once joked, "If you are quick, you will win, if you are slow, you will be defeated, and if you fool Pizza Hut [Weibo]".

Wang Jian always plays against common sense. I asked him what he thought of the changes in China's economy in 2014. He said bluntly: "I don't know."

He likes sports and photography. , there are large photos of him and Wang Shi climbing Mount Everest as well as photos of the scenery he took on the wall of Huada’s tea room. At Wang Jian's office, a bicycle is parked, with rings hanging from the roof. A BGI staff member said: “Whenever I go to work, Teacher Wang always rides here.”

Using big data to reveal the mysteries of human beings

Wang Jian claimed that he was full and was holding on, “ At this point in China's development, a group of people will definitely come out and do some incredible things. I think one of the easiest things in the world is to make money, but it is difficult to reveal the mysteries of human beings."

Gene sequencing is "reading" the mysteries of life. The language of life expresses various external characteristics of human beings through the arrangement and combination of 3 billion base letters. The purpose of detecting genes is to analyze how such a phenotype is obtained through internal combination operation.

This is a process of reading and writing at the same time. Since most characterizations are the result of the interaction of multiple genes, determining the correlation between gene mutations and phenotypes requires a sufficient number of samples for statistical analysis. Therefore, testing institutions need a large number of samples to distinguish normal and abnormal genes. Expression differences. Most rare diseases are caused by mutations in a single gene, so we collect a large number of samples from different rare diseases to detect and analyze the gene expression of these people, find the differences between them and healthy people, accumulate data, and piece together an "abnormal" picture. Gene map, reverse breakthrough.

In August, BGI launched a website called "Tongxianlian", intending to build it into a link between rare disease patients and their families and institutions like BGI, clinicians, experts, scholars and A platform for public welfare people to communicate and exchange ideas. Yin Ye, CEO of BGI Medicine, said that in the past, whenever they saw rare diseases reported in the news, they would look for them and get free testing to find solutions. "It's a bit like a puzzle. If many single-gene diseases are analyzed, many human diseases will actually be understood. We should thank these people. The pain is on these people, but scientific understanding has discovered from these people that this is A big data process." Zhu Yanmei sighed deeply.

The most dazzling thing about BGI is that it has greatly reduced the cost of gene sequencing, allowing this service to gradually realize the expectation of "flying into the homes of ordinary people".

In the life economic story told by Wang Jian, he always emphasized "people-oriented". The BGI Nuggets also revolve around the "life and death industrial chain." Yin Ye said: "Life and death are rigid needs. If you can't wait, you will basically count down if you get a tumor; if you are pregnant, the baby will be born at 38 weeks.

”

The price of each case of non-invasive prenatal genetic testing approved by BGI in July is controlled within 2,000 yuan, which is only 1/10 of that in the United States. It is the same as the price of traditional amniocentesis to diagnose Down syndrome. The difference is almost the same, but traditional methods cause varying degrees of harm to the fetus and pregnant women, and even face the risk of miscarriage, while non-invasive methods only require a few milliliters of blood from pregnant women. The cost of genetic screening for cervical cancer, the second cancer killer of women, has been high. Control it within 100 yuan.

The huge cost reduction comes from the application of second-generation Qualcomm sequencing technology. In 2010, BGI purchased 128 sequencers from I-Iumina, becoming the world’s largest Genetic testing and data analysis center. In 2013, BGI acquired the American sequencing technology company Complete Genomics. Since then, the core technology of sequencing is no longer controlled by others. It is reported that BGI has begun to develop and manufacture new gene sequencing platforms based on market demand.

Gene sequencing is a real big data industry. The most direct result of sequencing is data. These data hide the password of life. BGI is currently developing an APP called Genebook to achieve personal health management. Wang Jian's data alone is 4T. In comparison, the entire data capacity of Peking University Hospital, which has the highest level of informatization in China, is 60T. BGI has established a cooperation with Tianhe Supercomputing Center to realize the computing and storage of huge amounts of data.

It’s not “similar to each other”, it’s “similar to everything”

BGI, Tencent and Huawei are collectively known as the Three Treasures of Shenzhen. Its office is located in Yantian District, Shenzhen, with an office building. The old shoe factory was renovated. All departments work in a "workshop" with neatly arranged fluorescent lamps hanging overhead. If it were not divided into workstations by blue partitions, the place would look a bit empty. Workstations are also among them. There are no walls and doors to separate them. To find a colleague, you only need to wave.

In 2003, the sequencing work of the Human Genome Project was successfully completed. Wang Jian and Yang Huanming were in Beijing. The established BGI gained official recognition. Wang Jian impromptuly said a series of words, "BGI genes: complete structure, well-equipped, outstanding military achievements, advancing with the times, accepting recruitment, and creating greater glory." "Zhu Yanmei, who was sitting aside, blurted out: "I won't accept recruitment now. ”

Not long after, in 2007, they chose to leave the system and settle in Shenzhen. He explained: “We are very stubborn and would rather stand and make money than bend down to pick it up.” . "BGI believed that its existence was reasonable, and it wanted to conduct whole-genome research, escaping the country's strategic policy on functional gene research.

Wang Jian said before leaving, "Backed by green mountains, facing the sea, flowers bloom all year round." He joked: "I don't have any complaints, I chose to live a 'corrupt' life in Shenzhen. "

BGI, which was born out of a research institution, has now become a behemoth that is somewhat "chaotic" in the eyes of the outside world. So far, some of the names of BGI's institutions still use the names of the research institutes.

Zhu Yanmei joined BGI in early 2012. Before that, she was a scholar at Tongji University focusing on strategic technology management. She had investigated BGI from a scholar’s ??perspective and believed that BGI has multiple sectors. This phenomenon is a special case in China and is called the "four dissimilarities". Wang Jianli immediately responded: "We are similar in everything, what can I do wrong? ”

BGI has research institutions, companies, public welfare organizations, and even educational institutions. This form of existence is called “a different way of living” within BGI.

Yin Ye said: "In the trinity, scientific discovery, technological invention, and industrial development must first be achieved before profits can be made. Industry is driven by science and driven by the huge needs of the people. It is meaningless to do research alone. This is what we do every time. It is a completely new way of development. ”

Among them, BGI Technology and BGI Medicine are the main sources of BGI’s revenue. Through cooperation with global universities, research institutes, and pharmaceutical companies, BGI Technology was the first to achieve profitability; while BGI Medicine It mainly cooperates with hospitals. The current revenue contribution of the two companies is about half. In recent years, BGI's annual revenue is about 1 billion. Excluding operating expenses, the remaining part is used to support BGI's other non-revenue-generating sectors, mainly research and development. .

In Wang Jian’s plan, BGI’s road map is “four steps”: scientific research services – scientific and technological services – medical services – everyone’s services. BGI believes that it has reached the “everyone’s service” stage. The market size will reach one trillion.

BGI’s characteristic is to conduct scientific research based on social needs, and to quickly transform scientific research into applications is BGI’s strength. “What BGI has been doing is strengthening research and development based on demand. , whether it is medical or civilian, the entire BGI R&D system will be more open in the future and become a platform to which all links of the industrial chain can be connected. Zhu Yanmei said.

Not long ago, BGI cooperated with Southern University of Science and Technology and the University of Copenhagen to establish a special college. One of the cooperation contents is industrial incubation. Wang Jun, dean of BGI Research Institute, said, The cooperation will focus on some very important needs of human society, develop some scientific research plans that can solve practical problems, and then carry out industrial incubation.

On December 17, 2014, "Nature" magazine published a China supplement. , analyzed the publication of Chinese papers in 68 natural science journals in 2014. BGI ranked 48th among Chinese scientific research institutions and 15th in the field of life sciences.

In the publication index rankings of "Nature" and "Science", BGI ranked fifth.

Q&A

Economic Observer: What do you think of the changes in China’s economy in 2014?

Wang Jian: I don’t know what changes have taken place in China’s economy.

Economic Observer: In such a period of economic change, what thoughts have you made on corporate transformation?

Wang Jian: The global industry is now slowing down, so I am not optimistic about material production. The future is a life economy. The era of people dying for money and birds dying for food has passed. The era of life, old age, sickness and death, and resignation to fate has also passed. Why don't I rate it? Because these economies are outdated. Only an economy centered around "people-centered" is fundamental. There will be no problem for people to meet their needs for wealth in the future, but it will still take a long time to meet their needs for happiness, health and longevity.

Economic Observer: How do you understand the significance of innovation to an enterprise in this era? What is your company’s biggest innovation challenge?

Wang Jian: We have always been innovating without encountering challenges. Innovation is our lifeblood.

Economic Observer: According to your judgment, what changes are happening and are about to happen in your industry? What opportunities does this change bring to you?

Wang Jian: Our industry is a new industry, led by us.