Chapter 118: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (5)

“Rosaline?” Park Dong-Hyun asked.

“Yes.”

As Young-Joon nodded, Jung Hae-Rim interrupted from beside them.

“We didn’t give it the name, but I think it is from Rosalind Franklin.”

“Really?”

“Rosaline Franklin is the one who took a picture of a DNA crystal with X-rays, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“We don’t know in detail either, but apparently, there was a female scientist who volunteered to come to the Life Creation Department. Crazy, right? Apparently, she came because she wanted to make an organism.”

“Because she wanted to make an organism?”

“Yes. And she probably named the artificial cell she made Rosaline v1.0.”

“Hm...”

“We’ve never seen her either. We don’t know her name. There were many other artificial cell candidates when she was working, but after Principal Cheon came in, they were all wrapped up except for Rosaline. They just took the one that had the highest potential and studied it to death. That’s why they ended up only doing Rosaline.”

“I see.”

“But from what I heard from Principal Cheon, she always talked about Rosalind Franklin, saying that she discovered the structure of DNA but died before being rewarded, and she felt bad for her.”

“...”

“So maybe Rosaline came from Rosalind Franklin?”

“Do you happen to know her name?”

“No. We’ve never seen her. You should ask Principal Cheon.”

“Alright.”

Park Dong-hyun, who was listening to Jung Hae-Rim’s explanation, interrupted.

“I don’t know why she named the cell Rosaline, but Principal Cheon also told us Rosalind Franklin’s story. So we are very attached to the name Rosaline as well.”

“Really?”

“Rosalind Franklin was not just an unlucky person. She faced extreme discrimination.”

“Discrimination?”

“There is still some sex discrimination in science, but it was way worse back then.”

Michael Wilkis was awarded the Nobel Prize along with Jamie Anderson and Francis Crick. It was for his contribution to the identification of the structure of DNA. He was a colleague of Franklin’s, but they were not on good terms. “Dark Lady” was what Michael Wilkis called Franklin; it was a slang referring to women with darker hair and skin—women who were not traditionally beautiful. Wilkis hated Franklin and was condescending to her, and he treated her like she was his subordinate. Sex discrimination was extreme at King’s College in Britain, her workplace, as it followed the tradition of the Church of England. It wasn’t easy for women to obtain a degree, and Franklin had to eat with students as she could not enter the faculty’s cafeteria.

“The courage to carry out one’s research through such systematic discrimination and contempt is not something that an ordinary person can do,” said Park Dong-Hyun.

“...”

“That was similar to us, the Life Creation Department. That’s why we all liked Rosaline.”

Young-Joon slowly nodded.

‘I didn’t know there was a story like this behind Rosaline’s name.’

“Principal Cheon will tell you more about it if you ask him,” Jung Hae-Rim said.

“Alright. Thank you.”

“Oh, sir.”

Park Dong-Hyun stopped Young-Joon, who was about to leave.

“I saw a few people from Celligener earlier during the lecture.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. There seemed to be about ten people including Doctor Song.”

“I see. Well, they were part of developing the pancreatic cure and they made Cellicure, so maybe they are more confident and interested in developing anticancer drugs.”

“I guess immunotherapy is a hot topic in the anticancer field.”

“I should say ‘Hi’ if I run into them. Thank you for letting me know.”

* * *

“It’s a good picture,” said Bennett, the research professor from MIT, as he showed Jamie Anderson the photo of Young-Joon and him together.

“Thanks.”

Jamie Anderson smiled faintly.

𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

“But why did you give Doctor Ryu the GSC membership?” Bennett asked.

“Because he is smart. He has the right to join the GSC.”

“That’s true, but...”

“Because he’s Asian?”

“Yes.”

“Haha, that’s right. He is Asian. That’s the fascinating part,” Jamie Anderson said. “Before, I said that outstanding scientists do not come from Asia because their research infrastructure is lacking and because the East and the West started science at different points in their history, right? But we know that is not true.”

“It’s a genetic difference.”

“That’s right. Is there any other reason why White people have come to rule this land? The same goes for black people. People who predict the future of Africa optimistically say that under the assumption that black people are as intelligent as us, but people who have worked with them know that that’s not true. I was the director at Cold Spring Laboratory for forty years; I have met several different races, but there is certainly a biological difference between them.”

“...”

“Just as men perform better in mathematics and engineering than women, genetic differences between races certainly make a difference when performing in STEM. I mean, that’s the case from my experience. It’s like how black people are better at short-distance running because of their high expression of the actinin gene, and therefore most Olympic short-distance runners are black. It’s no coincidence that most of the leading scientists in the scientific world are White.”

“Then, why Ryu Young-Joon...”

“Isn’t it fascinating? Imagine a short little Asian kid who knows how to run incredibly fast standing at the same line as those black people and waiting for the pistol signal. How fascinating is that?”

Jamie Anderson chuckled.

“He’s incredible for an Asian. This is the mystery of biology. The true beauty of biology is that a mutant that escapes the general theory always arises in any group. And Ryu Young-Joon is the best among them.”

“That’s the only reason you gave it to him? But the GSC is too powerful to give him a membership like that. Most companies will go crazy for you if you say you are a GSC member, and governments in various countries will expect good advice as well.”

“It’s alright. Ninety-nine percent of the GSC is White anyways. It’s fun to have at least one maverick among us. And he has the right, too. Plus, we need to have someone like that so that the world does not challenge us on the equity of our group.”

“Ah.”

“Isn’t this such a frustrating world? Those illiterates who know nothing about science. They make a blanket statement that there are no differences between races, and that sexes and races are the same without any evidence or knowledge. Do they know how big the genetic differences between them are? How can they have the naive conviction that those differences don’t affect brain activity?”

Click.

The doors to the office opened, and Professor Oliver came in.

“Professor Kakeguni is giving his lecture right now. Don’t you have to go listen to it?” Oliver asked.

“External judges and you have to listen to Kakeguni’s lecture, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“How bothersome. Is Doctor Ryu there as well?”

“Yes.”

With a groan, Jamie Anderson got up from his seat.

“The Nobel Prize Committee is such a rigid and boring group. Oliver is going to get the Nobel Prize anyways, so I don’t know what they are contemplating. Kakeguni did good research as well, but... What I’m saying is...” Jamie Anderson looked at Oliver. “You wrote those papers at Cold Spring Laboratory. You published papers with my name as the corresponding author.”

“Yes.”

“And the Karolinska Institute Faculty Council dares to judge Cold Spring? Not even funny.”

“...”

“Let’s go. We still have to listen to Kakeguni’s lecture.”

* * *

Young-Joon went into Kakeguni’s lecture. He sat at the back of the lecture room and listened to the presentation.

“... As such, the dendritic cells process antigenic substances, then express them on their surface and show them to T-cells,” Kakeguni said. “If a cancer cell occurs in the body, these dendritic cells collect the mutated materials from cancer cells and explain it to immune cells. Immune cells that were activated like this track the mutated materials that the dendritic cells showed them and find cancer cells to destroy them.”

The scientists in the room wrote down Kakeguni’s explanation in their notes. Then, Kakeguni put up a structure of a chemical on the monitor.

“This chemical acts on the receptor of dendritic cells, and it optimizes the process by which dendritic cells communicate with immune cells. In other words, more immune cells are more strongly activated in patients who have taken this drug, and cancer cells are more easily found and destroyed.”

After about ten minutes, Kakeguni finished his lecture. Song Ji-Hyun, who had listened to the lecture at the very front, was burning with questions.

‘This technology can potentially be linked to Ryu Young-Joon’s chimeric immunotherapy.’

It would show incredible synergy if these two technologies combined. Song Ji-Hyun wanted to confirm this possibility with Professor Kakeguni.

“Professor, I have a ques...”

The moment she was about to ask, someone hopped onto the stage. It was Young-Joon.

“Great lecture, professor,” he said to Kakeguni.

“Thank you for listening.”

“Professor, the content you just presented is what you will be evaluated on, right?”

“That’s right.”

“...”

It was definitely powerful. Dendritic cells have not been the main targets when developing anticancer drugs because the immune cells that actually attacked the cancer cells were T-cells. However, dendritic cells were sort of like the commanding officers that gave T-cells orders. This anticancer treatment was targeting dendritic cells to enhance the fighting ability of T-cells.

“I see that it is difficult for you and Doctor Oliver to share the Nobel Prize because the technologies you developed are contradictory.”

“Yes.”

Young-Joon thought for a moment. The technology Oliver developed was outstanding, but...

“With technology like this, I believe that you will be able to surpass Doctor Oli...”

“Great lecture.”

Someone spoke from the back of the room. Song Ji-Hyun, who hadn’t left the lecture room yet, turned to where the voice was coming from. She was shocked when she saw who it was. It was Jamie Anderson.

‘How come biology’s living fossil is here?’

Song Ji-Hyun had never seen him in person before. She took a step back without even realizing. Now that she looked at it, the three people standing here were a Nobel laureate, a Nobel Prize nominee, and Young-Joon, who was surely going to receive the Nobel Prize sometime in the future.

‘...’

She wanted to leave the tension, but her curiosity won. She was so curious as to what kind of conversation the three of them would have together. Song Ji-Hyun quietly listened to their conversation from an awkward distance.

Jamie Anderson approached Kakeguni and Young-Joon.

“Can immune cells that were activated by this method kill solid tumors for sure, Doctor Kakeguni?”

“It was effective on breast cancer when we tested it,” Kakeguni replied.

“Any side effects?”

“There were a small number of patients who developed rashes as a side effect because the immunity became too strong.”

Jamie Anderson smiled.

“You know the technology that Doctor Oliver made, right?”

“The immune checkpoint inhibitor...”

“That’s right.”

Oliver was the inventor of the immune checkpoint inhibitor in immune cells.

When someone had cancer, the immune cells would search for the cancer cells and try to destroy it. If the cancer cells were in a tumor state, the immune cells would be embedded into the tumor, like a beehive; the immune cells were stuck on the tumor tissue as they were trying to destroy it.

However, a large portion of those immune cells were known to be inactive. They weren’t destroying the cancer cells, but just staying still with their activity stopped.

What was making immune cells, which had come all the way to the tumor to destroy cancer cells, so stupid? This was a long-standing mystery in the scientific community.

The truth that was revealed at last was extremely shocking. Cancer was so clever that it was creating a signal that ordered immune cells to stop working. As such, the immune cells that got close to the tumor received that signal, became inactive, and just stood there.

What Oliver designed was an antibody that disrupted the inactivation signal the cancer cells sent. The immune cells were able to continuously attack the cancer cells in patients who received this antibody, and they had succeeded in erasing cancer as well. The greatest part about this technology was that it had no side effects.

“Increasing the activity of immune cells, and stopping its inactivation,” Jamie Anderson said. “They look similar from a glance, but they are different in terms of side effects. The latter is much more stable, since we are only talking about this in cancer cells.”

“...”

“Professor Kakeguni, you might have better luck next time.”

Kakeguni gulped.

Jamie Anderson said, “There’s nothing you can do; the technology that Doctor Oliver developed has no side effects.”

—It seems like that’s how it’s known.

Rosaline sent Young-Joon a message.

[Synchronization Mode: Observe the hyperprogression mechanism in cancer cells that occurs when using immune checkpoint inhibitors. Fitness consumption: 8.5.]