This year marks the 44th anniversary of the artificial synthesis of crystalline bovine insulin by scientists in China. On September 17th, 1965, after more than six years' hard work, the Institute of Biochemistry of China Academy of Sciences and other units synthesized a bioactive protein, crystalline bovine insulin, for the first time. As the pride of China people, many people think that this is the closest time for China scientists to win the Nobel Prize. Like the "two bombs and one satellite" research, it is also the face of China people in the field of science-it not only proves that China people are smart and enhance the self-confidence of the Chinese nation, but also proves that China can compete with western developed countries in the field of scientific research, and even make world-class achievements on the basis of poverty.

over the past 4 years, there have been thousands of reports in various forms around this work. However, in this 67-year study, there are still some little-known stories, among which the "big corps battle" around 196 may be the least explored.

Scientist-centered

The project of synthetic insulin was officially launched at the end of December 1958. Because the work is very difficult and the workload is very heavy, and I lack experience in organic synthesis and lack of manpower, at the beginning, the Institute of Biochemistry of China Academy of Sciences, the initiator of the project, has requested cooperation with the Institute of Organic Chemistry of China Academy of Sciences and the Organic Teaching and Research Department of Peking University Department of Chemistry. The Institute refused to join, and Peking University soon agreed. After several rounds of consultations, in March 1959, the Institute of Biochemistry and the Department of Chemistry of Peking University signed a cooperation agreement. The biochemistry teaching and research section of the biology department of Fudan University, which was just established in 1958 with the assistance of the Institute of Biochemistry, also wants to participate in insulin synthesis. The Institute of Biochemistry was reluctant, only agreed to let it participate in the preparation of natural insulin, and did not list it as a formal collaboration unit.

Peking University's related work is led by Professor Xing Qiyi, director of the Organic Teaching and Research Section, and Professor Zhang Pang, head of the research team. Together with four young teachers, including Lu Depei, and four graduate students, including Ji Aixue, they led more than ten fresh graduates majoring in organic science to carry out synthesis research in the form of graduation thesis. The Institute of Biochemistry has established five research groups, which are respectively responsible by Zou Chenglu, Niu Jingyi, Cao Tianqin, Shen Zhaowen, etc. They each brought a group of young researchers to explore the road separately-only the natural insulin disassembly and assembly group in charge of Zou Chenglu and the insulin peptide chain organic synthesis group in charge of Niu Jingyi have survived because of the success of exploring the road.

after a year's exploration, by the end of 1959, although they failed to complete the insulin work as planned earlier, they had achieved several important achievements such as disassembling and combining natural insulin. This not only basically solved the problem of the big path of synthesis work, but also gave some leading cadres the impression that only the "peptide stacking" technology was left in this research.

Peking University launched a mass movement

At this moment, the "anti-Right" movement came head on. Just as the "Great Leap Forward" movement led to the topic of insulin synthesis, the "anti-right deviation" movement in 1959 also affected the research methods of insulin work. As a direct fuse, it has brought a scientific research method with the characteristics of the times to insulin work-"large corps combat".

For many years, Peking University has been at the center of the whirlpool of the times. This time, it took the lead in responding to the call of its superiors and launched a vigorous mass movement at the earliest. At the end of 1959, under the leadership of the newly transferred Party branch secretary of the Department, the students of the Department of Chemistry launched a fierce criticism on their teachers, criticizing them for lack of confidence, self-restraint, step-by-step, fame and fortune, pursuing the road of "crawling", small collectivism and selfish departmentalism, engaging in mysticism in scientific research, and making scientific research work "dull and boring" and "cold and clear"

One of the critical results is that the leading group of insulin synthesis has been completely reorganized: among the original leaders, Zhang Pang was expelled from the insulin synthesis team, and Xing Qiyi, who stayed behind, no longer had a say in this work because he was "not active in insulin synthesis". Instead, a young teacher who graduated in 1958 was in charge of professional work; In April 196, more than a dozen students graduated three months in advance and joined the leadership team as members of the Party branch of the "Battle Group"; The new secretary of the General Party Branch of the Department leads them directly. Under the command of these new teams lacking scientific research experience, about 3 "revolutionary teachers and students" from the Department of Chemistry and a few from the Department of Biology of Peking University * * * participated in this scientific research war, and a large number of young teachers and students in the third, fourth and fifth grades who didn't even know amino acid symbols became "leading soldiers" in insulin research and became "the main force of scientific research". They "never attended the meeting from scratch" and "don't know how to study, but learn Chairman Mao's works when they encounter difficulties".

In the eyes of these people, synthetic peptides is a very simple thing: "When two polypeptides are poured together, it is called synthesizing a new polypeptide-without asking whether there is a reaction or not, and what is the specific product." Xing Qiyi and other "old" scientists and young teachers who were more "right" didn't agree with those practices, but they dared not say that they could only carry out their own work according to the instructions of the group leader and group leader. As a result, Peking University's progress is extremely fast, "four peptide segments of 4, 7, 5 and 5 were completed in just two weeks"; It took another two weeks until February 17, 196, when "the 12 peptides on insulin A chain were synthesized simultaneously by two methods"; Subsequently, the A chain was synthesized on April 22nd.

inspired by the mass movement of the Department of Chemistry of Peking University, in late January 196, "on the basis of rectification against Right Deviation", the Institute of Biochemistry also began to deploy a large number of staff to support the original two research groups. After several "bitter battles for ten days and nights", they also "synthesized B-chain 3 peptide" before April 2th.

Fudan University joins the competition

Just as the scientific research "competition" between the Department of Chemistry and the Institute of Biochemistry of Peking University was in full swing, the Biology Department of Fudan University jumped in. On January 3, 196, with the support of Shanghai Municipal Committee, Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission and Fudan University Party Committee, a member of a Party branch of Fudan University's Biology Department organized 6 or 7 teachers and students (2/3 of whom were students in the first to third grades) to start a new stove and plan the artificial synthesis of insulin independently. On March 25th, "in order to welcome the convening of the municipal industrial conference", they "further launched a mass movement" and organized 12 teachers and students, including about 8 students in the fourth grade of the Department of Biology, Fudan University, to "learn by doing" and carry out insulin synthesis in full swing day and night. The method is similar to that of the students in the Department of Chemistry of Peking University. They don't separate and identify the intermediate products, but try their best to catch up later. At that time, Associate Professor Shen Renquan, director of the biochemistry teaching and research section of the biology department, was an expert, but she was put aside and had no say in the work. As a result, the progress reported by Fudan University is also very fast, "the B chain 3 peptide was completed on April 22nd".

from April 19 to 26, 196, the third academic conference of China Academy of Sciences was held in Shanghai. At this meeting, the drama of insulin synthesis, starring the Institute of Biochemistry of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Department of Chemistry of Peking University, and the Department of Biology of Fudan University, reached a climax: they presented gifts to the conference of the department, and announced that they had preliminarily synthesized artificial insulin B chain, A chain and B and A chains respectively! Representatives of Peking University also brought their own synthetic A chain by plane. Hearing these exciting news, Nie Rongzhen, Guo Moruo and other leaders were very excited. They not only gave a warm speech, but also held a grand celebration banquet for all relevant personnel in the Sino-Soviet Friendship Building that evening, leaving only Du Yucang and Zhang Youshang, who split and assembled the team, to conduct the total synthesis of artificial insulin A chain and artificial insulin B chain in the laboratory. Nie Rongzhen and everyone were waiting there, asking them to report the good news as soon as they got a result. Xinhua News Agency has also written a report titled "Unveiling the Mystery of Life Phenomenon". Everything is just waiting for their good news. But until the end of the party, they didn't leave the lab.

after 4 days, the disassembling and assembling groups still failed to synthesize artificial insulin. At this time, Fudan University broke the good news: they got the bioactive artificial insulin for the first time! The mayor of Shanghai immediately announced this happy event in People's Square. The news stimulated the Beijing Municipal Committee, and they sent instructions to Peking University, saying: Let's engage in Beijing brand insulin; China is so big, it is not too much to get two insulins; Can verify each other. Peking University is required to synthesize B chain and insulin separately. Therefore, Peking University had to "open up a second battlefield" on May 1, 196, set up a new B-chain group, and made great efforts to synthesize B-chains.

Academy of Sciences launches "Extraordinary Corps Battle"

The competition between Shanghai Municipal Committee and Beijing Municipal Committee has also brought great pressure to the leading group of China Academy of Sciences. In order to surpass the Ministry of Higher Education in the competition, under the personal supervision of Zhang Jinfu and Du Runsheng, the Party Secretary of Shanghai Branch of Chinese Academy of Sciences, on May 4, 196, Wang Zhongliang decided to take command personally, and organized Bian Boming, the Party branch secretary of Organic Institute, as the deputy commander, Wang Yinglai, the director of Organic Institute, Wang You, the deputy director of Biochemical Institute, Cao Tianqin as the chief of staff, and Li Zaiping, a young scientific and technological worker of Biochemical Institute. Wang Zhiya, secretary of the Party branch of the Institute of Biochemistry, is in charge of the headquarters of logistics support, directing five research institutes, including the Institute of Biochemistry, the Institute of Organic Chemistry, the Institute of Medicine, the Institute of Cell Biology and the Institute of Physiology, to carry out "extra large corps operations". At the "first headquarters meeting" held that night, the Party branch of the Institute of Biochemistry proposed that "it will take 2 days to complete the artificial total synthesis". Wang Zhongliang demanded to seize the time and complete the full synthesis within half a month. Wang Yan, who refused to take part in the work at first, went on to say: "Since the branch party Committee decided, we will start immediately ... half a month is too long, and it will be completed within one week." In this way, under the urging of the leaders concerned that "this is a major political task" and "if you can't get it off, you will be delisted", the Shanghai Branch of the Academy of Sciences began a vigorous mass movement.

on may 5th, 344 people from relevant research institutes participated in this work. They broke the normal organizational system of the original institutes, offices and groups, and formed a mixed formation with multiple "combat groups" under their command. The leader of the combat group is all young people, and the researcher who used to be the leader is changed to a team member; The leader of a peptide group in the Institute of Biochemistry is even an advanced student who has never seen a polypeptide and recently passed through Shanxi Branch of China Academy of Sciences. They "adopted the method of two shifts a day" and established a work assembly line. Although many people are reluctant to put down their original research and turn to this work, since the party's leading cadres are personally directing this work, they are generally very active. Many people "spend all their time beside the test bed except for a few hours of sleep every day"; "Some people even move their bedclothes into the laboratory", and they are not afraid of toxic drugs at all, regardless of their own health. There are also some backbone workers who "don't sleep for two days", so that the leaders decided that "it is necessary to arrange the backbone members to rest and sleep".

After all, synthetic insulin is a basic scientific research, which is different from military struggle and industrial and agricultural production. Here, "one person's work in 3 days is equal to one person's work in 3 days" does not hold water. So many people have been busy for 7 days, 15 days, 2 days and a month, and still have not achieved their original goals. After 5 days, the synthetic A and B chains finally "formally joined forces", which is very regrettable. "The overall situation is that there is no vitality in the total synthesis of human A and human B (editor's note: synthetic insulin A and B chains)." Not only that, but in the following 2 days, "synthetic A chain was tested three times for human A-day B (editor's note: synthetic insulin A chain and natural insulin B chain), and the results were all inactive".

Wang Yinglai has always been concerned about the biochemical cause of the whole country. He is anxious about this expensive, laborious and thankless research method and has long wanted to stop it. At the end of July, 196, he finally got up the courage to reflect his thoughts to the leaders of the Party Group of China Academy of Sciences, stressing that it was no good to have too many people, and that the professionals who were not in the right position would not play any role in it. Instead, we should reduce the number and make the team leaner, all of whom were familiar with the business, so that the progress would be faster. Zhang Jinfu and Du Runsheng are close friends with scientists. After launching a large corps to fight for a period of time, when the effect was not obvious, they seriously considered Wang Yinglai's suggestion.

So, "In July 196, Comrade Du Runsheng instructed that a large corps should be lean in fighting if it failed to grow". Subsequently, "after three days of conference, summing up the debate, the three institutes of physiology, biology and medicine were dismounted, leaving two institutes of biochemistry and organic." The number of participants in the remaining two institutes also gradually decreased. By the end of the year, there were only "nearly 2 lean teams" and "only 7 organic institutes".

After paying an expensive tuition fee of millions of yuan, the battle of the large corps of the Academy of Sciences was put to rest.

In 196, the students of chemistry and biology departments in Peking University did not have a normal summer vacation, and they continued to work until October. Finally, three batches of synthetic A chains were synthesized, and they were tested to be active, so they were sent to the biochemical institute. But when they got there, they lost their lives again! In late October, the Institute of Biochemistry decided to send Du Yucang and Zhang Youshang to "study" in the past. As expected, the test method used by Peking University is not standardized! No one knows what they "synthesized", the only thing that is certain is that it is not insulin A chain! The huge funds of 6, yuan have been exhausted, and the results are so unsatisfactory, and the injuries and injuries are quite serious-among them, three students were severely burned; More than 6 students have tuberculosis-of course, the work can't go on. Did not even make a summary, so the large corps of Peking University Department of Chemistry sounded the golden bell to retreat.

The situation of biology department of Fudan University is similar to that of Peking University, and it was also stopped in the second half of 196 because of financial problems.

Apart from the organic research institute, some of the products obtained in the "big corps combat" stage were still used for further purification and analysis. Later, several papers were sorted out one after another. Seven or eight hundred scientific and technological workers and students from other units worked hard for several months vigorously, and I am afraid what they gained was a lesson of failure.

As a unique way of scientific research in that era, "large-scale corps combat" itself is worthy of attention. It is a unique creation of China people in the way of scientific research, and it has indeed practiced the "proletarian scientific road" envisioned by some leaders at that time. But unfortunately, this research path does not work in insulin work.

Down-to-earth success

After the setback of "insulin attack by large corps", the country has also entered a period of adjustment. Under the guidance of the eight-character policy of "adjustment, enrichment, consolidation and improvement", researchers and teachers are allowed to do their own interesting work.