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Chapter 80: A-Bio Cancer Laboratory (4)

“It feels like people are glaring,” Park Dong-Hyun said as he walked.

The scientists at Lab One weren’t hostile to Young-Joon, but they were staring at him like it bothered them quite a bit.

“Just ignore them,” Young-Joon said.

They walked through the hall and went up to the second floor. When they got off the elevator, there were thirteen of the Anticancer Drug Research Department’s labs. The only way to get to the Mobile Diagnostic Device Department’s labs was to go past them.

Click.

As they were on their way, a scientist popped out of Room 211.

“Oh…”

It was Senior Scientist Kim Hyun-Seok. He was Young-Joon’s sunbae that used the desk next to him when he worked as a Scientist at the Anticancer Drug Research Department. He froze when he saw Young-Joon.

“It’s been a while, Senior Kim. How have you been doing?” Young-Joon greeted him.

“God, Doctor Ry… I mean, Sir. How have you been doing?”

“Well.”

“... What brings you to Lab One?”

Kim Hyun-Seok glanced at Young-Joon like he was trying to figure it out.

“I just have some business to take care of.”

“I heard that you are developing a pancreatic cancer cure. Is it related to that?” Kim Hyun-Seok asked cautiously.

The idea and experiment strategy Young-Joon was going to use to cure pancreatic cancer hadn’t been revealed yet because of security reasons. But the word that he was developing a cure had traveled fast, and everyone in the industry knew.

Kim Hyun-Seok was always wary of this situation where Young-Joon was going to put out a cure and target the anticancer drug field. Because if so, he would be competing with the Anticancer Drug Research Department. This department at A-Gen was home to the world’s greatest intellectuals, but to be honest, Kim Hyun-Seok wasn’t confident he could beat Young-Joon.

“It is related to that,” Young-Joon replied.

A bit of relief came onto Kim Hyun-Seok’s tense face.

“You’re going to co-develop the pancreatic cancer cure with us?” Kim Hyun-Seok asked.

Even if Young-Joon was a genius, cancer was going to be difficult. He probably couldn’t have developed a cure like that by himself. He probably tried a few different things and then came to the Anticancer Drug Research Department because it wasn’t working out, as this department at Lab One was one of the labs with the most accumulated results and know-hows in the world when it came to anticancer drug development.

“No.” Young-Joon calmly shook his head. “We are almost done developing it already. The reason we came to Lab One is to meet the Mobile Diagnostic Device Department.”

“The Diagnostic Department?”

Kim Hyun-Seok tilted his head in confusion at the unexpected answer.

“Yes. Well, I’ll be on my way since I have to go do experiments. We should grab a coffee next time,” said Young-Joon briefly, then walked past Kim Hyun-Seok.

As he and the Life Creation Team walked through the hallway, the Diagnostics Department’s labs showed up. Young-Joon went into the lab.

“Hello. We’re from A-Bio.” Young-Joon greeted the scientists at the entrance.

“Welcome. I heard that you were coming from the director,” Principal Scientist Song Yu-Ra greeted Young-Joon.

“I won’t bother you too much. Please help us with the PDMS biochip, and please put a talented hands-on scientist on us.”

When Young-Joon stepped inside, Song Yu-Ra gave them a scientist to work with. They were a doctor-level Scientist who had the best technique in the Diagnostic Department and majored in developing the lab-on-a-chip using PDMS. It was Park So-Yeon.

She gasped in surprise when she saw Young-Joon, but he was unfazed by her at all.

“T-This way,” Park So-Yeon said.

She took Young-Joon and the Life Creation Team and moved to one side of the lab. When she took out the various types of PDMS chips from the tank, he chose the one that was three millimeters wide.

“I would like to make a path for the plasma to flow through on the PDMS chip. Can we do that?” Young-Joon asked.

Park So-Yeon put the chip in the mold and stamped it to make the lines. Young-Joon cut the unnecessary parts on the edges with a knife. He punched a groove in the middle. Then, he boiled agarose, pipetted a few ten microliter drops into the gap of the line that Park So-Yeon made, and let it harden.

On the other side, he hung up a suctioning equipment. If he pulled blood into it and made it go through the path inside the PDMS, they would be able to filter out the blood cells with agarose’s fine mesh and separate the plasma.

“Can we make a microchamber at these locations?” asked Young-Joon as he pointed to a few places.

Park So-Yeon made a chamber with a fine-movement puncher at the desired locations on the line where the plasma moved through.

“Thanks.”

The separated plasma all moved to separate microchambers. Young-Joon added the freeze-dried Cas9 and other samples into the chambers.

“Please dry the samples.”

As Young-Joon held out the chip, Park So-Yeon blew all the solvent from the sample from the dryer.

The two people did not discuss anything other than work. All Park So-Yeon did was silently follow Young-Joon’s orders. He was also focused on the experiment.

At the end of a two-hour job, Young-Joon dropped his blood onto the PMDS chip. After watching the reaction for a moment, he said, “Can you please hand me the nuclease-free water?”

It was the most sterile distilled water used in the lab. Park So-Yeon handed him the water, which was stored in a small vial, and Young-Joon used that to melt and collect the DNA.

“Please analyze this with NGS.[1]”

Park So-Yeon calmly took it when Young-Joon handed her the DNA.

“Yes.”

The experiment proceeded at a rapid pace.

* * *

Young-Joon and the Life Creation Team worked hard on the experiment all day with the help of Park So-Yeon. In just one morning, they had almost finished the key technology of the diagnostic kit. People would have fainted if they heard about how fast they were progressing, but this wasn’t a big deal to the Life Creation Team anymore.

When they finished the experiment and left the building, it was already past seven in the evening.

“Should we grab some dinner? It’s on me,” Young-Joon said.

“That sounds good. Should we go to the place where we had our first dinner as a department?” Bae Sun-Mi asked.

Coincidentally, they weren’t too far from the restaurant. It was the first barbeque restaurant they went to after presenting their results at the year-end seminar.

[You a Fool If You Ain’t Been Here]

“Reminds me of the good old days,” Young-Joon said as he grilled some beef. “It was really exhilarating when we dropped the bomb about the iPSCs at the year-end seminar, right?”

“Yes. And we didn’t know that this would happen back then. Who would have imagined Doctor Ryu would have become a director, made an affiliate company, and we would be working under him?” said Cheon Ji-Myung with a chuckle.

“You can talk informally now. We’re off work now, and it’s an informal setting. Park Joo-Hyuk even swears at me when it’s just the two of us. It’s more awkward for me to see him be formal when other people are around.”

“Haha.. Yes… sir?” Cheon Ji-Myung raised the end of his sentence awkwardly.

“To be honest, I don’t like dividing ranks and creating authority in the company… I think that scientists who have been educated enough should know how to respect each other, but Park Joo-Hyuk nagged me that organizations don’t work that way.”

“That’s right. Organizations don’t work like that. In a formal setting, you must be treated as the CEO,” Cheon Ji-Myung said.

Young-Joon didn’t really agree, but he didn’t say anything because he felt like he would be pressuring him even more.

“But we really succeeded in just six months,” Park Dong-Hyun said. “Do you all remember when Doctor Ryu said he was going to swallow up A-Gen and be their biggest shareholder and whatever?”

“I don\'t know if I should say this, but honestly, I thought you were crazy at the time. But now, it’s really on the verge of coming true. You’re set to being the biggest shareholder of A-Gen if you trade it with them. It was like a dream back then,” Jung Hae-Rim said.

“Didn’t Dong-Hyun say that he believed in Doctor Ryu? Saying that it looked possible,” Cheon Ji-Myung said.

“Ah, well, I was half in doubt, but I had to ally myself with him at least in words, right? You don’t know how life will turn out.”

“Alright, now I know how you really feel,” said Young-Joon with a smile.

Park Dong-Hyun playfully hit him on the shoulder.

“No, I’m kidding. I love you, sir.”

“Please give your love to your wife and babies at home. I’m good.”

To Young-Joon, the Life Creation Team members were like his hometown friends. They hadn’t known each other for long, but the fact that they knew the Young-Joon during his Scientist days gave him a sense of relief that was unexplainable with words. And since they didn’t fall behind among the talented individuals that came to A-Bio from all over the world, they were honestly the best team for him. They were people who he could trust more with projects that were more creative and difficult and people he could rely on personally.

As their glasses emptied one by one, the night deepened.

“But Doctor Ryu…” Jung Hae-Rim said with a twisted tongue.

“Yes?”

“Uh… Can I say this? Um… About Ms. So-Yeon.”

“Yes.”

“I think she still has feelings for you.”

Park Dong-Hyun, who was sitting beside her, strongly nodded.

“The way she looked at you when you were doing the experiment was like something out of a drama.”

“Was it?”

“Yes. Even Mr. Soon-Yeol, who is the slowest out of all of us, probably noticed.”

Park Dong-Hyun pointed at Koh Soon-Yeol. He calmly nodded his head.

“I can tell now that I’m dating Ms. Yoon-Ju, but her face definitely looked like she had feelings for you…”

Young-Joon shrugged.

“But what can you do? To be honest, I am not interested in Park So-Yeon at all. I have no affection left, and I don’t like her or even hate her. I just don’t have any kind of opinion about her now,” Young-Joon said.

“Woah… Cold guy.” Cheon Ji-Myung chuckled.

“But I want Doctor Ryu to enjoy life and date people, even if it’s not Ms. Park So-Yeon,” Bae Sun-Mi said. “You’re still young. Working is great, but there are things that you can only enjoy right now.”

“That’s right. If I was your age, not married, and I had your fame and money? Then it would be insane. Hehe,” Park Dong-Hyun said.

Young-Joon chuckled.

“Thank you. But I don’t know if it’s because I’m addicted to work or something, but I like researching a lot more right now. And I don’t want to meet anyone anyways.”

* * *

The best advantage of a diagnostic kit was that it didn’t require a type of clinical trial where they had to inject drugs into someone’s body since all they had to do was harvest some blood and watch the reaction in a few minutes.

In just a few days, the members of the Life Creation Team got used to developing the diagnostic kit quickly. Now, they were at a point where they didn’t need Young-Joon’s help. Their progress of development was also pretty far ahead, so the basic type of the product was expected to be created soon.

But before that, big news that would surprise the entire world came out.

[A-Bio enters clinical trials for pancreatic cancer cure.]

[Phase One to be simultaneously done in Korea and the U.S.]

[The only experimental therapy that can cure pancreatic cancer that recurred after surgery.]

Even though the treatment difficulty of pancreatic cancer was extremely high, it was something that a lot of bio-venture companies actually undertook. There were two reasons for this.

One was that due to the nature of ventures, they started with at least one ingenious strategy. In other words, there was a vague expectation that this method could cure pancreatic cancer.

Another was that it was fairly easy to gather clinical trial volunteers; put another way, it meant that pancreatic cancer did not have a cure. There were volunteers who wanted to try an experimental therapy if they were going to die anyway. In particular, it was a significant incentive if it was a technology that was made by a company like A-Bio that had already shown a lot of innovations.

In Korea, the A-Bio Next-Generation Hospital conducted the clinical trial. In the U.S., Professor Feng Zhang of MIT’s medical department, who hadn’t yet joined A-Bio, agreed to supervise the clinical trial.

And about three weeks after A-Bio began to develop the kit, Young-Joon was in MIT professor Feng Zhang’s office.

“It’s been a while, Doctor Ryu.”

“Hello.”

“You look a little tired.”

“I still have jet lag. How is the clinical trial going?”

“It is revolutionary,” Feng Zhang said as if he was waiting for him to ask. His voice was full of excitement that he could barely hold back. “I should have gone to A-Bio earlier and worked on this!”

Feng Zhang was almost jumping up and down.

“Haha, don’t worry. We still have a lot of cancers to conquer. You are joining A-Bio in the second half of the year, right?”

“I want to go right now if I can.”

“Are the patients showing improvement?”

“The five-year survival rate of pancreatic cancer is only eight percent, right? There are a lot of cases where the cancer returns in end-stage patients even if we resect the pancreas with surgery. And for older patients, we can’t do surgery at all a lot of the time,” Feng Zhang said. “But because this cure doesn’t require surgery and it’s an oral drug, it’s easy to introduce it to the body. We’re testing it against fourteen patients, and almost ten are on the verge of being cured.”

“Really?”

“Yes. The other four patients are showing great improvement as well. The drug itself is quite strong. How did you make it? The drug is only finding the cancer cells in the pancreas, which is known to be hard to target, and killing them. Other than that, the drug works so fast that ninety percent of the tumor disappears in some patients just after five days.

“It’s a relief that it is working well.”

“Yes. In the case of end-stage pancreatic cancer patients, it’s difficult to treat because the cancer cells spread to other parts of the body, but… Well, there’s nothing we can do about that with current technology. It’s a miracle that we can treat it this efficiently.”

“Of course… It can spread when it becomes end-stage…” Young-Joon rested his chin on his hand and thought about what Feng Zhang said.

“There’s nothing we can do about it. But Conson & Colson and Illemina are saying that they will provide a quick diagnostic service for pancreatic cancer so that it doesn’t get to end-stage.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. I heard that CEO David of Conson & Colson cajoled Illemina to create a MOU and had it out with the director of the Office of Science and Technology. Each hospital will be supplied with Illemina’s equipment and technology, and the U.S. federal government will support it.”

“Hm.”

“It’s nothing but a rumor spreading behind the industry’s back, but I heard it from someone involved.”

Feng Zhang laughed in a friendly way.

“Someone involved?” Young-Joon asked.

“That is… Haha. Actually, I heard it from David himself. He said not to talk about it, but it should be fine, haha. He’s my senior from my undergrad, and we’re quite close,” Feng Zhang said. “Now, the number of people who will die from pancreatic cancer will drastically decrease if Conson & Colson diagnoses and A-Bio cures.”

“Conson & Colson thought well.”

“Yes, And David wants to meet you. If you’re okay with it, should I set it up?”

“That sounds great,” Young-Joon said without hesitation.

A-Bio was filled with scientists from all over the world. Of course Young-Joon heard about the rumor that was spreading behind the industry’s back.

“I will meet him if you set up the date,” Young-Joon said.

But actually, David was already on the list of people he was going to meet during this visit to America.

1. NGS is an acronym for next-generation sequencing. ☜