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A Chinese story I can't stop thinking about. Cai Lei was a vice president at JD.com — a workaholic who helped take the company public. In 2019, he was diagnosed with ALS and given two to five years to live. He didn't retreat. He called it his "final startup." He went on to build the world's largest grassroots ALS research platform: a patient database of over 20,000 people, hundreds of scientists working together, nearly 300 drug pathways pursued, more than 30 now in clinical trials. His wife Duan Rui left her partnership at an accounting firm to fund the research through livestreaming — over 100 million yuan invested, and she has never taken a cent in salary. This year, RAG-17, a homegrown drug he helped advance, completed Phase II trials. The findings, published in Nature Medicine: disease-causing proteins in patients' cerebrospinal fluid fell by nearly 60%, and the disease's progression was held back. Here's the part that stays with me. Cai Lei has sporadic ALS — the drug targets genetic mutations he doesn't have. The medicine he fought so hard for may never save him. His answer: I'm not trying to save myself. I'm trying to save others. Even if I fall in the darkness before dawn, I'll make sure the path is ready — so those who come after me can stand on my shoulders and step into the sunlight. Today, only his eyes can move. With an eye-tracking device he types around 60 words a minute and works ten-hour days. One detail worth noting: after his diagnosis, JD.com introduced a policy to cover the education and living expenses of any employee’s children if the employee suffers a serious tragedy while in service, continuing until the children turn 22. That policy exists because of Cai. Video: [credit @长歌人物志] | English subtitles auto-generated by AI