Pioneers of the research that led to one of the first COVID-19 vaccines (疫苗) say breakthroughs obtained in their studies could point the way toward developing a potential vaccine against cancer before the end of the decade.

Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci, co-founders of BioNTech said technology they had developed could aid the immune (免疫) system respond to cancer cells. The mRNA COVID-19 vaccine stimulates cells to generate spike proteins, which warn the body’s immune system about things to look out for and to attack.

It is hoped that this could be reworked using proteins found in cancer tumor (肿瘤) cells, causing a similar bodily defensive action.

BioNTech was founded in 2008 specifically to work on cancer treatments. “Our focus has always been on achieving the full potential of the body’s immune system to successfully help handle cancer and infectious diseases,” says the company website.

Some of those earlier cancer vaccine developments have reached the clinical trial stage. “As scientists we are always hesitant to say we will have a cure for cancer,” said Tureci. “We have gained a mass of breakthroughs and we will continue to work on them. . . this will definitely quicken also our cancer vaccine.”

Luke O’Neill, professor of biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin, said that such a breakthrough would be “the Holy Grail” of cancer research, He added that it enabled the body to recognize a cancer tumor as a foreign element, in the same way it had done with COVID-19, and to respond accordingly, so that the immune system could be “trained” to “hunt down” the abnormal presence.

What made the potential breakthrough even more inspiring, he said, was that any treatment could be personalized to work on an individual cancer patient’s specific circumstances. “You can take someone who’s got cancer, take their own tumor and make an RNA vaccine out of that and improve their own immune system specifically against their own tumor. That’s a really awesome thing to see,” he added.

Crew members of China’s Shenzhou XIII mission are scheduled to give a space-based lecture on Thursday afternoon from the orbiting Tiangong space station to students around the world, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

The agency said on Monday that the three astronauts—Major General Zhai Zhigang, Senior Colonel Wang Yaping and Senior Colonel Ye Guangfu—will begin the first lecture of the Tiangong Class, or Heavenly Palace Class, at 3:40 pm Thursday. The lecture will be broadcast live to audiences around the globe. The astronauts will show viewers how they live and work inside the station and then conduct some scientific experiments to show students how gravity works differently in space. They will also answer viewers’ questions at the end of the live-stream event, the agency said.

Groups of students in Beijing, Nanning in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Wenchuan in Sichuan province, as well as the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, will take part in video communications during the lecture.

The agency said last week that the coming lecture “will mark the launch of the Tiangong Class, China’s first extraterrestrial lecture series to popularize space science”. It added that such lectures will be based on the country’s manned spaceflights and will be presented by Chinese astronauts. Featuring interactive teaching, the activities will be mainly targeted at youngsters.

The three astronauts are scheduled to spend six months working in the station, making it China’s longest manned space mission.

In June 2013, Wang Yaping took part in the Shenzhou X mission that lasted nearly 15 days. During that mission, she carried out the nation’s first space-based lecture inside an experimental space station module to more than 60 million Chinese students. This made China the second country, following the United States, to hold a space-based class for students.

The total number of domestic (国内的) trips during the past May Day holiday was 274 million, up 70.83 percent than last year. and 119. 09 percent over the same period in 2019, generating 148.056 billion yuan ($21.44 billion) in tourism profits, up 128.90 percent than last year, and 100.66 percent over the same period in 2019. As the first May Day holiday after new pandemic (流行病) policies, it was expected that people’s long-controlled desire to travel would be satisfied, but no one expected it would do so to this extent.

The outstanding tourism performance during this year’s May Day holiday mainly resulted from the improvement of public services. Actually, even before the holiday, many places were improving tourism facilities to meet the increased stream of visitors. Zibo in Shandong province, popular for its barbecue, for example, opened parking lots and toilets for the public for free. Only by improving public services can a region keep attracting tourists all the time.

The explosive growth of tourism during the May Day holiday is a manifestation of China’s economic power, especially the power of the consumer market. It also shows the faster recovery of public confidence, which will not only stimulate the growth of service consumption, but also stimulate the expansion of demand in other industries, thus promoting the expansion of overall domestic demand and helping the economic recovery to speed up.

As long as the country focuses on expanding domestic demand and does what it can do to realize the potential of domestic consumption, the continuous development of China’s economy is certain.