OREANDA-NEWS. In China, the owner of a small online store with no college degrees has taken up chemistry and genetic research to create a cure for his terminally ill son, according to the South China Morning Post.

The one-year-old son Xu Wei from Kunming City, located in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan, was diagnosed with a rare disease - Menkes disease, in which the cellular transport of copper is impaired. Life expectancy with this diagnosis usually does not exceed three years.

Owning a small online outlet for electrical outlets and only having a high school education, Xu Wei decided to create a medicine for his son on his own after experimental treatment at the clinic failed. Xu Wei was also unable to find access to copper histidine needed for treatment in China, and he could not order it in another country due to restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I did not study at the university, but that does not mean that I cannot study now. My son needs me, I will study and try all possible ways to save him," the publication quotes Xu Wei.

Xu Wei first contacted chemical companies, hoping they could produce copper histidine for him, but it proved too expensive and the regulatory approval process would take years. Then he independently began to study chemistry. Xu Wei took information from American scientific online journals.

Xu Wei also enrolled in public courses at several universities, where he studied pharmacology. Soon he set up a chemical laboratory in his apartment, which cost him $ 3,100, and began to create a medicine. After he tested the obtained copper histidine on rabbits and on himself and was convinced of its safety, he injected it to his son, and then brought him to the hospital to conduct tests and rule out possible complications.

Subsequently, Xu Wei created another drug that, according to some studies, helps with Menkes' disease - elesklomol, which he also tested on rabbits and himself. “The drugs didn’t cure my son, but they prevented his condition from getting worse,” he said.

Currently, Xu Wei is preparing to enter the university, where he will study genetic engineering.

He believes that he must do everything possible to save his son.