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Chapter 127: The American Cancer Conference (3)

Bae Sun-Mi, Park Dong-Hyun, Jung Hae-Rim, and Koh Soon-Yeols chest was puffed up with pride.

No wonder. You were all so triumphant when you walked in here that I knew something happened.

Young-Joon smiled.

Great work, Life Creation Team. Could you explain the data please?

As requested, Cheon Ji-Myung went over the slides one by one.

Our team had two goals: one was to make a liver organoid, and the other was to expand the small intestine organoid that we succeeded in growing last time to produce an artificial organ.

Young-Joon nodded.

We succeeded in the liver organoid a few times, but the experimental results were shaky because it required such difficult techniques. So, we couldnt say that we finished it.

It was something that Rosaline could not help with, as those difficult techniques were so simple and easy for Rosaline. She could manipulate every muscle fiber in Young-Joons hand and do an experiment so intricately as if she were carving a jewel.

However, this had to be commercialized. Rosaline couldnt borrow Young-Joons arms and do all the experiments for all the patients at the next-generation Hospital. The only way was to decrease the difficulty of the techniques so that regular scientists could do it.

But our team worked a lot with diagnostic device development at Lab One, right? When we were working there, we saw that the Diagnostic Device Department has a very powerful robot arm.

A robot arm?

Youve probably never seen it. Its deep inside the department, and its a robot arm in a big hood that can hold a pipette.

The picture of the equipment showed up when Cheon Ji-Myung went to the next slide. A claw machine-like robot arm was inside a huge sterile hood.

The Diagnostic Device Department said that they used equipment like this to create microcircuits because they designed microchips, Cheon Ji-Myung said.

But no matter how intricate a robot arm is, its difficult for it to be more precise than your hands, Young-Joon said.

There were a lot of cases where robot arms were used for experiments, but its precision wasnt as high as one expected. They were usually used to carry out simple, repetitive tasks, not for precision.

However, like he was prepared for this question, he answered, Not this equipment. This is the newest model developed by an American company called AutoTron, and its more precise than a human hand. It can control things up to the nanometer.

Really?

But its pretty expensive. 2.1 billion won.

Director Kim bought something very expensive.

Yeah. So, we asked Lab One for their cooperation and experimented with this robot arm. The results Boom! Twenty out of twenty tries succeeded.

Cheon Ji-Myung showed Young-Joon the liver organoid creation data, which was organized in an Excel sheet.

So, its possible to create a liver organoid if we buy a 2.1 billion won equipment.

Yes.

Alright. Well buy one for our hospital. Lets harvest tissue from patients who come to our hospital with liver problems and make organoids for customized treatment.

Before, the same drug was prescribed to patients who suffered from some kind of liver disease. It worked well in some patients, but it didnt in some. Of course, the patient suffered a great deal during the trial and error of testing out drugs one by one.

However, it was completely different if they could make organoids. They could create a liver organoid of the patient as they administered the first drug. This liver organoid was a mini experimental liver that had the exact characteristics of the patients actual liver. Then, they could treat it with the second and third drugs they were planning to administer. This was a future technology of medicine called precision medicine.

Only the small intestine organoid is being used in the A-Bio Next-Generation Hospital, right? Young-Joon asked.

Thats right.

Good. This was difficult, but you succeeded. Great work. Should we plan our next goal?

Before that, we have to report on something else we succeeded in, Cheon Ji-Myung said boastfully.

Another one?

We succeeded in enlarging the small intestine organoid.

Young-Joons jaw dropped. He hadnt analyzed this work with Rosaline, and he hadnt given them any information on it.

How?

In order to enlarge it before the tissue was destroyed, there was a need to increase the number of cells and grow the tissue by promoting cell division.

Probably, but how

We used hyperprogression.

Hyperprogression? Young-Joon asked.

Park Dong-Hyun, who seemed like he couldnt hold it in any longer, interrupted.

Ha, sir. I pitched the idea. Watching your work in Sweden and the report on hyperprogression, I thought that maybe we could grow an organoid to the size of an artificial organ if we quickly grow the tissue and enlarge it by using EGFR well.

And you succeeded?

Cheon Ji-Myung moved on to the next slide. A cylindrical tissue that was in a three-dimensional cell culture appeared. It was the first-ever artificial organ in humanity.

Oh my god

Perhaps these people would have been the true geniuses if Young-Joon didnt have Rosaline.

What state have these people reached as they went through all kinds of experiments and trial and error at the Life Creation Department?

Could we use this to treat patients with short bowel syndrome?

Severe dyspepsia occurred in cases where more than half of the small intestine was removed by surgery; this was called short bowel syndrome. Babies who were born with intestinal production or rotation problems also suffered from short bowel syndrome as they had to resect their small intestines. Short bowel syndrome was quite common as it occurred in twenty-four people out of one hundred thousand. Not only did quality of life decrease significantly, but it showed a thirty percent mortality rate in children.

I think it will be possible, Cheon Ji-Myung said.

Good.

Young-Joon took a few sips of his coffee.

I have a proposal for everyone.

A proposal?

Lets go to the American Cancer Conference together.

All of a sudden? Bae Sun-Mi asked like she didnt understand.

Why does a liver organoid and an artificial small intestine lead to a cancer conference Cheon Ji-Myung was confused.

Theres someone there you should meet. Im thinking of starting a new project, and I need your help.

* * *

Two weeks after preparing for a few things, Young-Joon and the Life Creation Team arrived in the city of Philadelphia in the northeastern United States. This region was one of the greatest bases in life science. Behind Philadelphia was the New York branch of Nature, one of its largest branches, and the American Association for Cancer Research. In Maryland, a little southwest of here, there was a huge institution called the National Institute for Health; it was a national institution that oversaw health care and health-related policies in the United States. There were twenty thousand employees, and they had research capabilities that could easily overpower most universities, labs, and pharmaceutical companies.

Above all, the National Cancer Institute, one of eleven affiliated organizations, was here. It comprehensively coordinated national cancer-related projects and directly conducted or supported all research and training of scientists related to cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

Additionally, there was an organization called the National Center for Biotechnology Information. The database that this organization held was a sort of textbook for scientists all over the world. If this place disappeared, research in all of biology could be stopped; that was how powerful their database was.

And its only an hours drive from the American Cancer Research Association in Philadelphia to the national institutions in Maryland, said Young-Joon as they moved.

Its very close.

Right? Thats how concentrated all the U.S. resources involved in cancer research are in this region. The closer you are with them, the more convenient it is to borrow their resources.

And did A-Bio enter the land of opportunity?

Thats right. The A-Bio Cancer Laboratory was built inside the U.S. National Institute of Health in Maryland. Its a separate institution, but it will be very easy to work with them since were in the middle of the organization, Young-Joon said.

But where are we going right now? Jung Hae-Rim asked.

The conference starts tomorrow, but we have someone to meet today.

Someone to meet?

All the team members stared at Young-Joon in curiosity.

They are a little high-ranking, but theres no need to be nervous. You just have to act like you usually do.

Are we going to see Jamie Anderson or something?

How is Jamie Anderson high-ranking?

Young-Joon laughed.

Park Dong-Hyun glanced at Kim Chul-Kwon, who was sitting with them in the limousine. He looked very nervous.

Where is this car going? Bae Sun-Mi asked.

Were going to Washington, D.C., Young-Joon said.

* * *

The Life Creation Team assumed the person they were meeting was going to have a high position since Young-Joon referred to them as high-ranking, but this was simply beyond imagination.

The car that the K-Cops security team was driving went into the White House. They took the Life Creation Team, who were frozen in shock, and escorted Young-Joon into the meeting room.

Its been a while, Doctor Ryu.

James Holdren, the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the United States, stood up and greeted him. Young-Joon lightly hugged him and introduced the Life Creation Team.

They are scientists from our lab.

Nice to meet you.

In order, James shook hands with Cheon Ji-Myung, Bae Sun-Mi, Park Dong-Hyun, Jung Hae-Rim, and Koh Soon-Yeol.

This is Doctor Collins, the director of the National Health Institute.

Then, James introduced someone new to Young-Joon. He was a friendly old man with white hair and glasses.

Ive heard a lot about you. Im Ryu Young-Joon.

Young-Joon shook hands with him.

Then, shall we talk business?

All the scientists here knew what the treatment method Young-Joon used in Sweden meant.

Doctor Ryu, I will ask you frankly. Please answer me honestly. The dendritic cell-bypassed chimeric immunotherapy: can we conquer all cancers if we develop that? James asked.

I believe it will be possible.

James and Collins had a look of joy on their faces.

Of course, it wont happen overnight. I think it will take a few years.

A few years? Thats not a big deal when were conquering cancer.

James laughed.

Young-Joon began explaining.

We used fourteen genes when we treated the lung cancer patient in Sweden, and that was a customized treatment for the patient.

Customized?

Yes. As such, even if we use my technology, if the patients genes change, the prescription to treat that changes as well. The technology that I made is gene surgery in immune cells. Its a fundamental technology.

Considering the period when surgery was developed for the first time, the baffling idea of cutting away the tumor and stitching up the belly had tremendous therapeutic potential. However, very obviously, they had to figure out how much of the lung to resect, what happened when the liver was resected, how dangerous short bowel syndrome was when the intestine was resected, and more. There was little that could be done by cutting the patients stomach with a scalpel without knowing this; that was not treatment.

We can conquer cancer. However, we have to figure out what genes of the immune cell to manipulate for each patient, Young-Joon said. As such, conquering cancer is synonymous with figuring out the gene variant types of all cancer patients. This requires vast amounts of patient data and personalized research.

And A-Gen is doing that right now? Collins asked keenly.

Thats right.

It seems like genome sequencing data of Asians are pouring out from there A Genome Project of sorts. It seems like most of it is composed of Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asian, and Russian data, but there is some Hispanic, Indian, and Middle Eastern data as well.

We are conducting it on a huge scale. But Im under the assumption that theres already a lot of genomic data on Western people, including the U.S., Young-Joon said.

There is. There is a lot of accumulated data at the National Cancer Institute under the NIH[1] and the National Center for Biotechnology Information, Collins replied.

External access is prohibited, right?

Thats right.

But in previous meetings with Director James, it was decided that the data would be shared with me as the A-Bio Cancer Laboratory was launched as a partnered institution.

Thats right, James said and nodded. Doctor Ryu, we will share all the resources of biology and medicine in Maryland and the northeastern region of the United States.

The three of them smiled in satisfaction.

Now, the important thing would be the division of results that come from the lab, Young-Joon said.

The atmosphere became a little tense. Park Dong-Hyun gulped as he watched them.

Young-Joon was given the essence of anticancer research that the United States had accumulated for decades. The United States government was going to use that to claim a certain percentage to the enormous achievements that the A-Bio Cancer Laboratory would make.

I had something in mind, Young-Joon said.

1. acronym for the National Health Institute