2 . DNA testing is one of modern medicine’s most significant breakthroughs. Today, anyone can receive personalized information about their genes (基因) and ancestry with just a little saliva (唾液). Now, a Seattle-based company is working to bring equally deep analysis to the trillions of proteins within our bodies.

Nautilus Biotechnology, a company founded in 2016 by Seattle’s Sujal Patel and the San Francisco Bay Area’s Parag Mallick, is developing a device to identify and count 95% of the different types of proteins in a biological sample.

Human cells can contain roughly 20,000 different types of proteins, with crucial functions ranging from digestion to disease protection. Each cell has a varying amount of each protein. The company wants to measure the key machinery (机制) inside cells with a level of detail that has never been done before. Existing tools, it says. can only measure up to 8% of the different types of proteins in blood samples.

So why count proteins at all? Research shows healthy cells and diseased cells have differing amounts and forms of each protein. For example, cancer cells may have more of Protein A than Protein B. Knowing that might help in two ways: First, doctors could look for higher Protein A levels to detect cancer early. Second, researchers could better design drugs to target Protein A.

Nautilus says such protein measurements, which are unique to every person and change throughout people’s lives, will not only help doctors identify more specific forms of disease but also help pharmaceutical (制药) companies find more precise drugs with fewer side effects.

While other companies also are building new protein analysis machines, experts and prospective customers have expressed excitement over Nautilus’s approach. Mallick, chief scientist of Nautilus and the brain behind its technology, is confident: “It’s not every day when you get…to work on something. That’s the opportunity to change all of biology.”

3 . Wu Ming, a young German born after 1995, is a big fan of Chinese culture. As he thought some diseases can’t be treated _______ with Western medicine, he decided to _______traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In 2015, Wu came to Henan province, where a strong TCM culture can be _______. After a year of learning, he _______ the language barrier and started to learn Chinese medicine. Wu always _______ some Chinese herbal medicine by himself to know their flavours and effects, just like Shen Nong, a character in Chinese legend. In Wu’s opinion, TCM is one of the best-preserved _______ of Chinese culture.

Studying TCM also _______ Wu’s mind and lifestyle. He used to be _______ to electronic devices, playing video games every night. Instead of being trapped in the fast-paced but unhealthy daily _______, he now lives a(n) ________ and peaceful life, practicing good habits like drinking tea and reading.

Wu ________ what he has learned to help his family. He always provides his family members with some advice about staying fit after ________ their skin or tongues online. Over time, his family gradually began to understand his ________ for TCM.

Wu thinks there’s no big difference between China and Western countries. “________ comes from being out of touch”, said Wu. He plans to run a traditional Chinese clinic in Germany, which could serve as a(n) ________ between the two countries and publicize TCM and its culture.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a health care system in which patients     1     (treat) with natural plant, animal, and mineral remedies (药物). It is assumed, for a person to be healthy,     2     yin and yang forces should he in balance. Imbalance causes illness or injury. TCM is about     3     (restore) the balance between yin and yang forces in patients. It has been a major part of traditional Chinese culture and continues to play     4     vital role in medical treatment in China today.

According to the World Health Organization, nearly 80 percent of the world's population depends for its primary health care needs    5     medicines from plants and animals. This is especially true in countries where traditional medicines are     6     (wide) used.

Increasingly, however, modern medicines also contain substances from animals and plants. Given growing populations, increasing wealth, and the spreading    7     (popular) of natural remedies around the world, the demand for these medicines and remedies     8     (rise) now. The rising demand,     9     (combine) with reduced habitat, has caused an alarming increase in the number of plant and animal species used for medicinal purposes at risk for many years. For instance, TCM uses about 1,000 plant and 36 animal species, including the tiger, rhinoceros, and sea horse,     10     are all in danger.

TCM is short for Traditional Chinese Medicine. TCM, which has a history of more than 2,500 years in China,     1     (play) a big role in treating patients infected with COVID-19 so far. Let’s look at     2     it works. TCM cannot kill the virus,     3     it can treat patients by removing the trash which causes illness out of human body.     4     the trash, the virus will have no room to survive.

In early February, 102 mild patients in Wuhan received therapy with Jinhua Qinggan Granule (颗粒). As     5     result, it took only one and a half days for most patients taking it    6     (reduce) fever. An experiment of 710 cases     7     (conduct) by over 30 hospitals showed the Xuebijing Injection (注射剂), combined with regular     8     (treat), can reduce the mortality rate of severe patients by 8.8 percent.    9     (basic), TCM is believed to be more effective for disease prevention, while western medicine is     10     (good) for serious illnesses.

9 . Metin Sitti at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany, and his colleagues have developed tiny robots called “microrollers” that can carry cancer drugs and selectively target human breast cancer cells. The team drew inspiration for the design of the robots from white blood cells in the human body, which can move along the walls of blood vessels (血管) against the direction of blood flow.

The microrollers are round and made from glass microparticles. One half of the robot was coated with a thin magnetic nanofilm (磁性纳米膜) made from nickel and gold. The other half was coated with the cancer drug doxorubicin as well as molecules that recognize cancer cells.

The team tested the robots using mouse blood and artificial channels lined with human endothelial cells—the kind of cells that line the inner walls of our blood vessels. The robots were exposed to a mixture of cancerous and healthy tissue. The microrollers selectively attached to the cancer cells and were activated using UV light to release the doxorubicin.

By applying magnetic fields, the team was able to control the movement of the microrollers, both with and against the flow of blood. The microrollers can reach a speed of up to 600 micrometers per second. “If you come to a spot where you need to take the right path and if you miss it, then you could go back and go to the right one,” says Setti.

In future, the researchers want to use other methods to start the drug release, such as heat or near-infrared light. They also plan to try making microrollers out of materials that would break down in the body over a few weeks or months.

The team hopes to test the microrollers in animals soon. “The rollers need to carry enough cancer drugs, which is why we need to have them in large numbers,” says Setti. “But since we can locally take drugs to the right target, we don’t need huge dosages (剂量).”

10 . An Arkansas doctor, T. Atiq helped his former patients face the New Year with less debt, voiding (使无效) more than $650,000 of unpaid medical bills for those once under his care. Each patient received a card with a personal greeting from their doctor. The note thanked each patient for trusting Dr. Atiq with their care followed by the generous surprise. “If this gave them a little bit of assistance then I am grateful to have had the opportunity to do so,” the physician said.

Nearly 30 years ago, Dr. Atiq founded the Arkansas Cancer Clinic in the community of Pine Bluffto make cancer care available for the economically disadvantaged. Before its opening, Pine Bluff cancer patients traveled at least 50 miles for treatment. Dr. Atiq was clear that his patients’ needs were always his top concern—not their ability to pay.

Dr. Atiq knew all too well the huge financial pressure often faced by patients. Although he wished all of his patients could simply focus on recovery from disease, many were simply not in a position to—even if they had insurance. And, most of his patients had to work while receiving treatment. Some of his patients, including elderly grandmothers, were already working two jobs before getting sick.

In the same spirit of generosity that Dr. Atiq opened his clinic, he is now closing its doors to begin a new chapter. Dr. Atiq is a full-time professor of Head and Neck Surgery at the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, part of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. His patients safely transitioned to a hospital to continue their cancer care.

Dr. Atiq feels his act of kindness was a small gesture in comparison to what his patients have given to him over the years. “The courage and resilience (适应力) that I have learned from my patients are invaluable,” he says. “The issue is their health. I am hoping that they can be cured of cancer. Or, it is controlled well to where they are living productive, happy lives with their families, their friends, and their loved ones.”