Chapter 155: Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (10)

The national park tour vehicle went around the bonobo reserve and found about eighteen different groups. Rosaline was able to determine which ones had schizophrenia within seconds of finding a new group. Then, she would...

—There’s none here.

Either wave her hand...

—It’s that one.

Or she would point at one.

‘The one with the white spot in front of its eyebrow?’

—No. That one is just anxious. The one to the right of it. The male that is balding.

“Please get the male over there that’s balding,” Young-Joon asked the ranger.

The rangers used the tranquilizer gun to make the bonobo go unconscious and moved them into cages. By the evening, they had captured twenty bonobos. Young-Joon also included six normal animals as a control group.

Back at the hotel, Young-Joon worked out a transportation plan with Michelle.

“We’ll send them to A-Bio on a flight the next morning. You should tell your employees to pick them up at the airport,” Michelle said.

“Thank you.”

“Us GSC members should help each other out. You really helped Congo, no, the entire region of Africa.”

“With the HIV cure?”

“That’s right.”

Michelle smiled brightly.

“You will be surprised if you knew what kind of changes have happened in sub-Saharan Africa.”

“Has it become a lot better?”

“The infection rate of HIV has become negative, and that’s very significant. A negative value means that it’s not spreading anymore and those who were already infected are being cured,” Michelle said. “By the time you get your Nobel Prize, Doctor Ryu, Africa will have made so much progress that it will be difficult to find HIV patients here.”

“That’s a relief.”

Michelle smiled deviously.

“Doctor Ryu, did you know that bonobos only live in Congo, even in Africa?”

“I heard.”

“In our country, they are an endangered animal.”

“Don’t worry. We will return them to Congo safely after treatment.”

“I’m saying that exportation itself is illegal. However, I fiercely convinced the President, and we were able to hastily pass a special law to allow the exportation of bonobos.”

“...”

‘Here it comes.’

Most successful scientists that were from Africa did not live in Africa. If Harvard offered them a tenured post, why would they come back and work in their home country that was likely to be in a civil war? Most of them would assimilate into Western civilization and continue their studies in the amazing infrastructure while receiving high salaries. That was the privilege that great scientists had. Among those great scientists, Michelle was someone who had such great accomplishments that she was able to join the GSC.

However, she returned to Congo, her home country. Congo was so dangerous that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Korea advised against traveling here. It wasn’t difficult to figure out why she returned; it was because Michelle was that famous. She had devoted her entire life to advancing science in Africa.

‘I’m sure she will ask for something in return for giving me the bonobos. Maybe collaborative research...’

As he sipped his tea, Young-Joon said, “Please feel free to tell me if there’s anything I can do to help, Doctor Michelle. I will do my best to help.”

“Thank you.”

That was when Michelle pulled out a file from her bag.

“This is a copy of the data that the Ministry of Public Health in Congo has been collecting on a certain disease,” Michelle said as she handed Young-Joon the file. “It’s the ebola virus.”

“Ebola?”

“It’s a virus that spreads by human contact, but it’s also spread by bats. The Congolese government hasn’t been able to control it completely. We’re using this treatment called Gmapp, but it’s not very effective.”

“Hm...”

“I am just telling you about it since you’ve conquered so many diseases so quickly. If it’s possible, we would like to develop a cure or a vaccine with you.”

“I understand.”

Young-Joon put the file in his bag.

“I will visit Congo after this is over.”

* * *

Rosaline was observing the mitochondria that had become a bacteria again. This had been an organism billions of years ago, became a non living organism after becoming part of an eukaryotic cell, and it had become an organism again. It was like a human arm that had been cut off had become an organism and could now find food, reproduce, and move on its own.

It was probably a strange thought from a conventional biological point of view, which thought of one human as one life, but it wasn’t for Rosaline. As a cellular organism, it wasn’t fascinating that a mitochondria became an organism again. She only had one question.

‘Can I survive outside of Young-Joon’s body?’

Rosaline, the greatest life form in the world and the second naturally occurring life form on Earth, could not leave Young-Joon’s body. She glanced back at Young-Joon. He had wrestled the bonobos while trying to administer the treatment through the nasal passages. Now, he was lying face-down on the lab table and sleeping.

‘My creator.’

Rosaline approached Young-Joon and stared at his face as he was sleeping.

‘Did I become a part of Young-Joon’s body, like the mitochondria?’

Perhaps. Rosaline did not have a sense of self when she first entered Young-Joon’s body. But at some point, she started growing and now, she had acquired an independent self. And now, she had Ryu Sae Yi’s mind and sense as well. Now, Rosaline could even leave Young-Joon’s body for a certain amount of time every day and travel freely to wherever she wanted.

‘Will I leave Ryu Young-Joon’s body one day and become independent like this bacterium?’

Click

.

The door to the lab opened softly. Jung Hae-Rim walked in.

“Sir...”

Jung Hae-Rim was about to call Young-Joon, but she stopped because she realized that he had fallen asleep on the table. She felt bad for him. In just a week, he had flown to Congo to get bonobos and began the experiment himself. Most of the scientists were already at their capacities and couldn’t afford to take on another project; since the experiment was just beginning and the bonobos couldn’t get hurt, Young-Joon put on a lab coat and did it himself.

‘He’s probably the only CEO that also does experiments as a frontline scientist.’

Young-Joon was also running A-Bio and Lab One at A-Gen; it was a superhuman amount of activity. Jung Hae-Rim had come here because she was worried about him, and he was just as she thought.

‘He was bound to pass out. He is human after all.’

Jung Hae-Rim did not wake Young-Joon up. She decided to look at the bonobos’ conditions for him.

Bzz.

She opened the automatic door to the animal lab that was at the back of the lab and went inside.

‘Huh...?’

The bonobos, which were anxiously pacing around the cage, were sitting still. They were all calm. One of the animal model behaviors of schizophrenia, excessive motor activity, had disappeared. Of course, this behavior could also be a symptom of other disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder or bipolar disorder. However, these bonobos had schizophrenia, as they measured the levels of several neurotransmitters like dopamine, glutamate, and serotonin when they arrived in Korea.

What was more surprising was the bonobos’ change in social behavior. Normal social animals expressed curiosity and intimacy to an unfamiliar individual by approaching and sniffing it, but animals with schizophrenia did not. This was a sign that they were negative for schizophrenia. Their aggression toward unfamiliar objects and avoidance of shared spaces had disappeared. Now, the bonobos were sitting close together or communicating by touching each other.

‘This is unbelievable.’

Jung Hae-Rim froze in shock.

“It worked.”

Then, she jumped at the voice coming from behind her. In the process, she slightly hit Young-Joon’s chin with the back of her head.

“Ack!”

“Oh, I’m sorry!”

“It’s alright.”

Rubbing his chin, Young-Joon stared at the bonobos.

“Hae-Rim-ssi, could you help me measure their dopamine levels?”

“Pardon? ... Oh, sure!”

Jung Hae-Rim, who was still a little shocked, began moving quickly.

“Please call a few more people if you can. This is the end point of the experiment, and there’s a lot of data to produce.”

* * *

The Clinical Trial Headquarters of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety was turned upside down in the morning. It was because Young-Joon himself was here.

“He’s definitely going to ask for approval for that schizophrenia drug or something.”

Fifteen staff were walking to the conference room. They were the evaluators, the principal officers, and the working officers. As they walked, they urgently checked each other’s plans.

“You have to say absolutely not. He’s going to say that he did his animal experiments like this and that, but deny it by saying that there is no way that is going to determine the complexity of the human mind.”

“If he threatens to do the clinical trial in the United States, tell him to do it.”

“It’s easier for us if he just does it overseas.”

“Everybody got it? The key word is the human mind. A rat doesn’t have a mind like humans, right? How can we approve a drug for a mental disorder based on a rat that doesn’t have a mind?”

They kept talking until they reached the conference room. They all stood there together.

“Be careful not to give away any loopholes.”

Heo Song-Hyuk, the principal officer, took a deep breath and opened the door.

“Hahaha. Doctor Ryu, hello. It’s been a while.”

He shook Young-Joon’s hand with a bright smile. After some formalities, the principal officer got to the point.

“I heard you’re here to get approval for a clinical trial of a drug for schizophrenia that A-Bio is developing. May I see some preclinical data?”

“Here it is.”

Young-Joon pulled out a file out of his bag and handed it to him.

“How many did you experiment with?”

“Twenty-six.”

“Isn’t that number too low for such a difficult disease? You should have done like fifty.”

“I wanted to, but it seemed like it was too much for Congo to give away that many subjects. I was happy with a statistically clear range.”

“Congo?”

Heo Song-Hyuk frowned.

“Yes,” Young-Joon replied.

“What about Congo? Didn’t you use beagles or rabbits?” Heo Song-Hyuk said.

“I used bonobos.”

A few people froze.

“Bonobono?”[1]

One of the employees tilted their head in confusion.

“No, bonobos. They are a type of primate, like a chimpanzee,” Young-Joon said with a chuckle.

The evaluators began whispering amongst themselves.

“Yes, and these bonobos have almost the same mind as humans. They can understand language and even start a fire.”

“...”

“I have obtained enough data to prove that the bonobos suffered from the same schizophrenia that humans suffer from. The expression levels of neurotransmitters are the same as those of patients with schizophrenia, and we have identified all the unusual behaviors,” Young-Joon said. “And out of the twenty bonobos, we gave ten of them the treatment and ten of them a placebo. The ones that were given treatment were cured, and the ones that received placebos are still suffering from the disorder.”

“...”

“We also did the same experiment with six normal bonobos, divided into two groups, and there was no effect on their health. We also found that the mitochondria in their brains that were used in the treatment were all dead and expelled.”

“No... That is... How...”

The evaluators were speechless.

“Please give me approval for the clinical trial,” Young-Joon said.

1. Bonobono is a character, a blue otter, from a Japanese manga. ☜