Chapter 125: The American Cancer Conference (1)

Young-Joon received a text message from Song Ji-Hyun on the way out of the Nobel Prize review debate.

[There’s a place that sells Swedish food near the Rostanga Lake. Do you want to go together?]

He was leaving in a few days. Young-Joon came to Sweden to see Kakeguni and attend other scientists’ lectures, but looking back, he barely had time to look around as he did experiments, made a new technology, and published a paper here.

[Sure.]

Young-Joon sent a reply. The review debate happened to have just ended. He drove to Rostanga Lake. He had arrived when the evening sunset was still lingering on the lake's surface. Song Ji-Hyun had already ordered a dish and was waiting at the restaurant; it was a traditional Swedish dish made with pickled herrings as the main component.

“Professor Forsberg recommended this restaurant,” Song Ji-Hyun said.

“Really?”

𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

“Yes. He told me about it when I went with Professor Marcus to analyze immune cell activity in his blood,” she replied.

Actually, Forsberg pestered Song Ji-Hyun about her and Young-Joon’s relationship, saying that it was natural for young, charming, and passionate scientists to fall in love as they studied together. Then, Forsberg recommended this restaurant to her in a playful voice; he told her to spend time with Young-Joon and not spend all their time working here.

Song Ji-Hyun did not tell Young-Joon about this backstory.

“I found out after coming here that Nordic food has a bit of a hearty taste to it,” said Young-Joon.

Song Ji-Hyun nodded.

“Since cooking methods have developed for stored food because of the cold and barren environment.”

“Do you know surstromming?”

“Fermented herring?”

Song Ji-Hyun frowned like it was painful to even think about.

“It is a Swedish food, but apparently it’s also pretty controversial here because of its reputation.”

“I heard it’s like fermented stingray.”

“Should we order it?” Young-Joon asked.

“Let’s not take on anything we can’t handle.”

Horrified, Song Ji-Hyun stopped him. She didn’t want to have a conversation with him in this good atmosphere while smelling like fermented herring.

“Okay,” Young-Joon replied.

Actually, he didn’t bring up surstromming because he wanted to eat it.

—I am curious.

Rosaline, who was walking around near the table, said.

—You make surstromming by sealing salted herring into a can without sterilization. As fermentation progresses, it becomes naturally sterilized as oxygen decreases and carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and carboxylic acid products increase. However, those gasses are released when it is opened. That is what causes the stench.

‘...’

—Aren’t you curious about a powerful gas mixture that can sterilize microorganisms?

‘Not here. Go look at it in the kitchen.’

—Hmph. There aren’t any open cans in the kitchen.

Rosaline climbed down from the chair, complaining.

As they continued with their meal, Song Ji-Hyun said, “But I like that Swedish food has a lot of food with fish, potatoes, and beans.”

“Do you like them?”

“No. Actually... I’m on a vegetarian diet.”

“Really?”

Young-Joon tilted his head in puzzlement as it was unexpected.

“I remember you enjoying the steak before.”

“It hasn’t been long.”

“But why, all of a sudden? Is it for your health?”

“No.”

“Then, is it for animal rights?”

“It’s because of food production efficiency. They say that twenty times more land resources are consumed to produce meat compared to grain production.”

“I see.”

“But I don’t criticize people who eat meat or anything. I actually want to eat it, too.”

Song Ji-Hyun laughed in embarrassment.

“It’s just that everyone chooses different things. It’s not like there’s a chance that the hunger crisis in underdeveloped countries will be solved just because I don’t eat meat, right? It’s just for my satisfaction. I chose that satisfaction over eating meat. And I eat fish for that same reason.”

She pointed to the herring.

“I see. I understand. It would be good if the cultured meat technology developed faster,” Young-Joon said as he put some herring on his plate.

Cultured meat technology was artificially creating meat from laboratory culture dishes. This was already quite advanced, and there were labs that actually made hamburgers with this.

However, the cost of production was unimaginable, since it cost almost one million won to make the patties for a Big Mac.

“Wouldn’t it be possible to end the hunger crisis if the cultured meat technology advances and plant seeds become reformed enough?” Song Ji-Hyun said.

“Maybe And even if it’s not about the hunger crisis, we need this technology. The moment when population growth exceeds food production will come soon,” Young-Joon said.

“Yes. I saw a FAO report that it will come in about twenty years. So, there seem to be some attempts to use bugs as protein.”

“... When that time comes, maybe surstromming will not be available...”

“Yeah. If we could reform cultured meat technology and grow meat on a plate quickly...”

“Oh!”

Young-Joon shouted all of a sudden.

“Hyperprogression!”

“What?”

“We can use hyperprogression! That made a tumor double in size in six hours. If we apply that growth speed to cultured meat cells...”

“Oh...”

Song Ji-Hyun’s eyes widened.

“I should test it when I get back.”

One of the fun things about science was that there was no telling how a new discovery would be used in the future. Hyperprogression, a tumor proliferation phenomenon that threatened human life, was a target of eradication in the context of anti-cancer drug development. However, extracting only the cell growth mechanism from hyperprogression and applying it to cultured meat technology could result in increasing production.

—It is possible.

Rosaline said.

—Actually, that is not very difficult compared to curing cancer. You can make meat from grilled pork skin[1] to prime Hanwoo[2] hanger steak.

‘...’

However, this could lead to a war with the livestock industry if he messed with this.

“But do you have time to work on that?” Song Ji-Hyun asked.

“Well, I can make the time.”

“A cancer conference is happening in the United States soon, right? You will probably be invited because you attacked the immune checkpoint inhibitor...”

“Well, probably. It’s going to be a mess. But I might not be invited because the paper might not be published until then, since it will take months,” Young-Joon said.

* * *

Unlike Young-Joon’s expectation that it was going to take months, the paper was published in three days. This was an unusual speed even considering that Young-Joon, who had published numerous papers in

Science

, was the corresponding author on numerous papers in

Science.

This was because the paper did not undergo any review or editing process.

Normally, a paper went through the following when it was sent to a journal.

1. Peer review. In this stage, the manuscript was sent to prominent scientists in the field for evaluation. Other scientists could ask for further experiments on wrong or confusing parts of the paper.

2. Revision. The authors of the paper revised and improved the paper by conducting additional experiments at the request of fellow scientists and the editor.

3. Preparation to be published in the chosen journal. In this stage, the final, completed paper went under another review. After evaluating whether the authors fulfilled their fellow scientist’s requests or not, the paper was edited and published in the journal.

These three stages took a couple of months to over a year. However, Samuel, the chief editor for

Science

, boldly skipped it entirely.

[This paper reports on the immune checkpoint inhibitor’s fatal countereffect. As this drug has already been commercialized and is currently being used in many hospitals, informing the risk of the treatment was judged to be the top priority. As such, the peer review and editing process was omitted, and the draft manuscript was published.]

This news was like an exploding bomb hitting Oliver, Jamie Anderson, and the Cold Spring Laboratory. Cancer expert scientists and executives of pharmaceutical companies all over the world read this shocking paper with interest.

“I knew it. I knew something was wrong with that. Look,” David, the CEO of Conson & Colson, said as he showed the directors the paper. “I said that we shouldn't buy the patent for the inhibitor, right? I said that something felt off. I knew this would happen.”

“But there’s talk about Mr. A, the clinical patient that hyperprogression occurred in, was Professor Forsberg,” said Benter, the CTO of Conson & Colson.

“That grandpa was still alive?” David asked while squinting.

“Apparently.”

“But he’s probably done with if hyperprogression occurred. But why am I not hearing anything when the master of Europe’s medicine has fallen?”

“Apparently, he didn’t die,” Benter replied.

“But hyperprogression occurred? And if you look at the published date, the tumor is probably in the kilograms right now.”

“This isn’t for sure, but apparently Doctor Ryu treated him.”

“...”

There were goosebumps on David’s head.

“He cured what?”

“Doctor Ryu cured the tumor undergoing hyperprogression in an eighty-eight-year-old elderly patient who had end-stage lung cancer...”

“Wait, I know Doctor Ryu has done unexplainable things before, but this is... He got rid of end-stage cancer in a young kid, and now he got rid of lung cancer in an elderly patient who is almost ninety? Hyperprogression?”

“It’s still just a rumor. But apparently, Doctor Ryu wrote that in the paper and published it in

Science

. Apparently, Samuel dances when he comes to work now.”

“Wait. Doctor Ryu is building A-Bio’s Cancer Lab beside the National Cancer Institute, right? How is that going?”

“It’s almost done.”

“Then, do you think he’s going to work on it more at the National Cancer Institute and commercialize that technology?”

“There’s a good possibility he will.”

“Damn it. We have a small share of that cancer lab, right?”

“We got a little on the condition of giving up chimeric immunotherapy, Conson & Colson’s future livelihood.”

“What a relief. I contemplated it at the time, but I guess that was the best I could do. Maybe a world where we are free from cancer will really come.”

David let out a sigh of relief.

“Wait. Director Benter, if Doctor Ryu cured Forsberg... Is he in Sweden right now?”

“Probably. I heard that he went to judge Kakeguni and Oliver.”

“Shit... Are you saying that he ripped apart the immune checkpoint inhibitor in Oliver’s face as Jamie Anderson was watching?”

“Aren’t you excited for the next cancer conference?”

“... Let’s bring some popcorn.”

* * *

It was the first week of October. Young-Joon attended the Nobel Prize ceremony. The professors chose the final candidate and sent a letter to the King of Sweden. Now, it was obvious that Kakeguni was going to receive the award, since they didn’t have to worry about Jamie Anderson thanks to

Science

publishing the paper first.

Kakeguni received all the votes. It was as Young-Joon predicted.

Professor Hariet read the award letter.

“Your Majesty, and ladies and gentlemen. The Royal Karolinska Institute is very pleased to have selected Doctor Kakeguni, a pioneer in immunology and currently the most distinguished scientist in the field. Although his work for this prize is only a part of his research, Doctor Kakeguni has led advances in medicine for the past few decades. ... As such, by discovering the mechanism by which immune cells migrate to the tumor, he marked an important milestone in the upcoming era of cancer immunotherapy. The indirect activation of immune cells using dendritic cells has also shown powerful therapeutic effects...”

SInce it was the Nobel Prize, the letter itself took more than ten minutes.

The A-Bio and A-Gen scientists who used their time off and were still in Sweden were in the hall. They had come to see it as it was a public event and anyone could attend.

Young-Joon heard the announcement with Song Ji-Hyun and the other employees.

However, something shocking happened after Kakeguni received the award. Suddenly, King Hubertus of Sweden grabbed the mic.

“In the final stages of selecting the Nobel Prize recipient, there was the birth of a new technology based on Doctor Kakeguni’s dendritic cell-bypass immunity promotion method. It hasn’t been published as a paper yet, but Doctor Forsberg here, a lifetime member of the academy, destroyed end-stage lung cancer thanks to that technology,” he said. “The faculty committee of the Karolinska Institute told me that the invention of this new technology was extremely important in the process of selecting the Nobel Prize recipient. And I heard that Doctor Ryu Young-Joon conducted the key research in developing this technology.”

“...”

“The Swedish Monarch and the Karolinska Institute evaluated the possibility of co-awarding the Nobel Prize. However, there are rules such as the Nobel Prize being awarded with a focus on the base research, and only candidates registered in the previous year being able to be selected as co-recipients.”

Everyone turned to look at Young-Joon as he was brought up.

Hubertus said, “We thought about an unusual way to change the rules, but we were concerned that receiving the award like that right now could reduce the value of the Nobel Prize that Doctor Ryu may receive in the future. This is because the authority and the value of the Nobel Prize will only shine if it is difficult to receive. For this reason, despite the infinite appreciation of the Swedish monarch, it is difficult under the current law to award the Nobel Prize to Doctor Ryu. In response, the Swedish monarch has looked for other ways.”

Young-Joon was baffled at the unexpected turn of events. All the scientists and dignitaries in the hall were already focused on Young-Joon. The reporters were done taking pictures of Kakeguni and were focusing on getting pictures of the king and Young-Joon.

‘What are they going to do?’

Staring directly at Young-Joon, who was baffled, Hubertus said, “In recognition of saving the life of Doctor Forsberg, the greatest doctor and scientist in this generation, and for reporting the adverse effects of new and existing treatments, the Swedish monarch has decided to award Doctor Ryu the Seraphim medal, the greatest honor of the Swedish monarch, and the title of duke. At the same time, Doctor Ryu Young-Joon is an honorary citizen of Sweden from now on, and the Swedish monarch and the government promise to do our best to protect Doctor Ryu’s rights in the country.”

1. a popular Korean BBQ meat made of marinated or salted pork skin ?

2. a breed of cattle native to Korea that is very expensive ?