Chapter 101: Laboratory One (3)

This happened around two weeks ago when Young-Joon was clinging to Lee Yoon-Ahs clinical trial. Yoon Dae-Sung, the CEO of A-Gen, called Kim Hyun-Taek, the lab director of Laboratory One, for a meeting. When Kim Hyun-Taek heard what Yoon Dae-Sung was saying, he trembled in anger.

Sir, what are you talking about? Kim Hyun-Taek asked.

Yoon Dae-Sung lowered his head like he was sorry.

Theres nothing we can do. Let Doctor Ryu do as he wants.

You want me to give Ryu Young-Joon the Mobile Diagnostic Device Research Department?

Were not transferring the department itself; Im saying that we send the scientists at the department like a task force. And its just for the duration of the project. Its two to three years at most.

That isnt a short period of time, right? And do you think they will adjust well when they come back to me if they work with Young-Joon for that long? That department is my department. This is complete nonsense.

Doctor Ryu said that he would share the commercialization strategy of the animal disease treatments he patented.

Damn it, of course he has to do that! Was he going to sell the commercialization strategy to a different company when hes a director at A-Gen?

Ryu Young-Joon is a director at A-Gen, but he is also the CEO of A-Bio, and those patents are all privately owned by him. From his perspective, it doesnt matter whether it is produced by A-Gen or Conson & Colson; all that matters is that it gets produced and he receives royalties.

But wouldnt he also be criticized by A-Gen shareholders if he handed that over to Conson & Colson?

Would he really be? What are we going to do if he says that he had no choice because we didnt meet his demands? Would the shareholders still attack Doctor Ryu?

...

And wasnt that demand of his asking us to lend him the manpower needed to carry out a huge project like the Genome Project of the entire race after he bought two hundred pieces of Illeminas equipment from the United States for cheap? The shareholders attacking a director who works hard and is good at his job? Do you think they will?

No, but

Who do you think the shareholders will criticize if Doctor Ryu, who was offended because you didnt cooperate with him to keep his power in check, decides to not align with A-Gen and sells the commercialization strategies of one hundred twenty-two patents to America?

...

Kim Hyun-Taek sighed.

Let Doctor Ryu do what he wants. We have no other choice.

Sir, I was fine when you asked me to hand over the building Lab One had so ABio could use as their company building, Kim Hyun-Taek said. I let him use AGens Research Support Center, Experimental Animal Resource Center, and the Clinical Trial Management Center like they were his toys. I allowed him to use the facilities at Lab One. I even let him make that shitty diagnostic kit in our lab with our departments technicians!

Calm down.

Do you think I can? We let him do all that, and now, this snake is stepping on the line because of his endless greed. And now he wants a department? A

department?

Didnt Doctor Ryu do everything you said after paying the fair price? Dont talk about it like he stole it from you.

Sir, whose side are you on? How can you be so calm when this company that we sacrificed our life to grow is going to go into someone elses hands?

Doctor Ryu is proceeding with this not as the CEO of ABio, but as a director of AGen. It will help the reputation of AGen a lot if he makes the Genome Project in our name. Its not a bad thing for us either.

It is bad. This precedent, which shows him that he can steal other departments from us, is bad! Kim Hyun-Taek shouted.

Then what do you want me to do? What Doctor Ryu requested is logical. There is no way for me to refuse. And to be honest, the Diagnostic Device Department doesnt have any important projects going on, do they?

Important projects?

Kim Hyun-Taeks eyes widened.

Wait. Sir, lets think about this

He crossed his arms and tapped on his lip.

What are you trying to do? asked Yoon Dae-Sung.

I cant just let him do that to me, can I?

Dont try anything weird. Everyone who tried to keep Doctor Ryu in check all failed and were defeated.

This isnt even trying to do that. I can act in self-defense against someone who is trying to steal my hands and feets, right? Kim Hyun-Taek said.

After ending his meeting with Yoon Dae-Sung, Kim Hyun-Taek returned to Lab One. He went straight into the lab directors office, and immediately began looking through the project documents. He picked out a few useful ones among the random ideas and old proposals.

I am going to get a national project.

The contest that had the closest deadline was the one that was closing in three days.

20th MSIT

[1]

New Materials Competition 2020.

* * *

Park So-Yeon, who confessed everything to Young-Joon and wrapped things up, was now waiting to quit A-Gen. She only had two weeks left as an A-Gen employee, so she had to complete all the diagnostic kits within that time. And one additional task was created; this wasnt given to her by Kim Hyun-Taek or Young-Joon, but she made it herself.

As soon as she arrived at work, she looked through the departmental project documents file as she drank her coffee. Then, she began to carefully read through the most recently created project proposal.

[Development of a highly efficient waterproof new material based on the DNA of lotus leaves.]

Because there are fine protrusions on the surface of lotus leaves, water is not absorbed even when it rains. The water droplets trickle off the surface and wash off dust. This self-cleaning mechanism is called the lotus effect. Many studies have been conducted in the past to develop a material with the lotus effect, but no efficient new material has not been created. This research aims to transform the clothing industry by developing this new material through analysis of the DNA of lotus leaves and extracting the fibers in the structure of the leaf. This project

Hm.

Park So-Yeon rested her hand on her chin and thought. The idea itself wasnt bad; a new clothing material that had the lotus effect was a goal that many ambitious scientists dreamt of from a long time ago.

But its only a basic idea.

All that was in the proposal was that they were going to find the gene that created the epidermal fibers of lotus leaves and artificially express it. Ideas about how they were going to find that gene or how they were going to express it were flimsy. It was an incomplete document in the eyes of a doctorate-level scientist.

Park So-Yeon looked through the links that were on the proposal. A news article appeared.

[Selected proposal for the 20th MSIT New Materials Competition 2020.]

She was surprised.

Why is there a link to this proposal in the article?

When she pressed on the article, thinking that this couldnt be possible, she was shocked. Among the twenty selected projects, the [Development of a highly efficient waterproof new material based on the DNA of lotus leaves.] was nineteenth on the list.

No way.

The announcement of the selected projects was only a few days ago, but the submission deadline was two months ago as the decision took a long time. But how could the lotus leaf new materials project be selected for this?

How can a proposal that was written after the submission deadline be selected?

* * *

What technology among the ones A-Bio had were foreign countries most interested in? A-Bio had succeeded in curing huge diseases like Alzheimers, glaucoma, and diabetes, but there was a drug that was more popular than that. Its Cellicure, Young-Joon said to Park Joo-Hyuk.

Why?

Treatments based on stem cells are not exactly drugs, but therapies. It requires a technician who is skilled in complex cell culturing.

The diabetes cure or the pancreatic cancer one are drugs that dont need that, arent they?

The problem with the diabetes cure is that it has to be taken regularly, although that will be solved once we develop probiotics.

The administrations in charge of food and drug safety around the world were still a little reluctant about commercializing a live bacteria that had been genetically modified.

Anyways, since people have to take it every day when it is in the drug form, insulin injections still have a shot at competing even though oral drugs are more advanced.

Hm.

And for the pancreatic cancer cure, people are waiting around for more clinical cases to accumulate and looking for the right time since it uses live viruses.

People are more conservative than I thought.

The food and drug safety organizations in any country are one of the most conservative organizations in the world, although time will take care of it. But Cellicures safety has already been proven, and its a new drug that is overwhelmingly superior to all other liver cancer drugs. So everyone wants Cellicure.

Cellicure was already being called the miraculous liver cancer cure from places around the world. It was the drug that had succeeded in curing liver cancer that was so far along that nothing could be done; it was the drug that had no side effects even though it was highly toxic as it didnt touch normal cells.

Cellicure might finish Phase Three of clinical trials very quickly. Im going to release it as a product as soon as possible.

Hm.

And there was a lot that happened for the drug to get here, right? Investigate what illegal things happened at the point where Celligener completed Phase One and it was transferred to Lab One at A-Gen. From what I heard from Doctor Song in the past, I think Celligener was threatened as well.

Okay, Ill look into it. We have to set things straight so that there isnt any talk about it afterwards.

Yeah. I want to make sure that Celligener gets everything they rightfully deserve.

Young-Joon, who left his office after his meeting with Park Joo-Hyuk, found huge boxes that were piled up in the lobby. There were already thirty boxes stacked up, but more were coming in. The shipping company employees were carefully bringing them in, and a lot of A-Bio employees were watching the baffling situation.

Sir, what is all this? Park Dong-Hyun asked Young-Joon.

They are DNA analysis machines I bought from Illemina.

You bought thirty of these expensive machines?

I bought two hundred.

...

Park Dong-Hyuns jaw dropped to the floor.

Wait, why

We are going to do the Human Genome Project again. We are going to make a new, huge database that encompasses all races for future medicine.

Who is going to run two hundred of these?

Im going to bring in the Mobile Diagnostic Device Research Department from A-Gen. All of these experiments will be done at A-Gen. Dont worry Dong-Hyun-ssi, I wont make you do anything hard.

Park Dong-Hyun looked a little worried.

Sir, you know what kind of person Lab Director Kim Hyun-Taek is, right? Is he going to give up his department so easily?

Of course not, Young-Joon said.

He saw the article on the projects that the MSIT selected for 2020. From what he heard from Park So-Yeon as they developed the diagnostic kit and the other department scientists, there was no talk about a new project. But a national project all of a sudden? Of course, Kim Hyun-Taek had dug an escape hatch to protect his department from Young-Joon.

Actually, Im going to go to Lab One right now because of that, said Young-Joon.

Young-Joon walked past Illeminas equipment, which were being stacked neatly in the company lobby, and stepped into the K-Cops security teams car.

* * *

Thats what happened, said Kim Hyun-Taek. Mr. Ryu, this is a national project. This research is being funded by tax money, and because it is a public project, I cant cancel the research just because I want to or send participating personnel to external services.

Young-Joon nodded.

I understand.

It will take a while to finish as its a two-year research project. It is disappointing for you, but I think you will have to find different scientists or wait two years.

Two years?

Yes.

Kim Hyun-Taek smiled.

Im disappointed as well, Mr. Ryu, that I cant help you with something as big as the Human Genome Project. I am also upset; why didnt you consult me in advance before planning something this huge?

To be honest, I heard a lot of things as I visited the Diagnostic Device Department frequently while developing the diagnostic kit, but all the scientists said that there werent any projects that were going on or being planned, Young-Joon said. So, I thought that I would definitely be able to receive cooperation. I didnt know you would suddenly be put into a national project in such a short amount of time.

... Thats what happened, Kim Hyun-Taek replied.

Young-Joon smiled.

Director Kim.

Yes.

I believe the research on the development of a new material with the lotus effect is incredibly important. It will make peoples lives more convenient and prosperous. Not only will it just be used in the clothing sector, it will be applied in many industries that require waterproofing.

Of course.

Yes. If we take two years for something like that, commercialization will be pushed back two years as well, right? If I can run this project, I can finish it in two weeks.

What?

Lets do it together and push back the Genome Project for about two weeks. I felt bad about borrowing a department in your hands for a few years, but I think I would feel a lot better if I helped you get huge results.

1. acronym for Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology