Chapter 162: Ebola (5)

The Democratic Republic of Congo was one of Belgium’s colonies during the early 1880’s. At the time, they were ruthlessly exploited and oppressed by King Leopold II of Belgium. Congo finally succeeded in gaining independence from Belgium in 1960, but the country wasn’t stable.

“There were constant dictatorships, civil wars, terrors, coups, and assassinations,” Michelle said. “There were people in ethnic conflicts already, and a military government that controls them by force can’t last very long. When civil wars and dictatorships are prolonged, assassinations follow naturally. A total of four million people died in the civil wars before 2003.”

“Four million?”

Young-Joon was absolutely shocked.

“It’s a common number of casualties in Africa. The president was assassinated during the war, and Joseph Kibli, his son, became the president. He was a dictator for eighteen years.”

“...”

“The people are tired of the military government and dictators fighting. They want peace and democracy,” Michelle said. “A lot of people wanted to vote for the president. We had an election, but there was a problem.”

“The vote count manipulation you talked about?”

“Yes. Plus, there were two candidates from the opposition party in the first place. One was Phillip, who is now the president, and the other was Commissioner Paulo. There was an election, and Paulo won,” Michelle said. “Then, Phillip left the party and ran as an independent. The presidential election was a three-way race, including the candidate from the ruling party.”

“If there was a candidate from the ruling party and the former President manipulated the voting, wouldn’t the ruling party candidate have won?”

“That was never going to happen because the public’s heart had turned away from President Kablie already. It was basically just a battle between Phillip and Paulo.”

“And you’re saying that Commissioner Phillip became the president?”

“Yes.”

Michelle nodded.

“Paulo was someone who was trying to destroy the government officials of the dictatorship, including President Kabilie. Phillip was more about bringing everyone together.”

“Oh... So, he helped the person who was the least threatening?”

“Yes. In fact, Phillip had a private meeting with President Kabilie before the election. After that, they prevented Maibi, a city of two million people, from voting.”

“...”

“The support for Commissioner Paulo at Maibi was close to eighty percent.”

“And they said the reason they prevented them from voting was because of Ebola.”

“That’s right. But there is another problem, Doctor Ryu.”

“What is it?”

“There aren’t a lot of people who have Ebola in Congo right now. There were four people in Maibi.”

“It’s a relief that there aren't a lot of patients. But it might be in its incubation period.”

“That’s right. However, you have to understand what this means.”

“What do you mean?”

“To the people of Congo, Ebola is an evil excuse, something that is nothing but a legend.”

“...”

“The Congolese people can’t accept that Ebola is back because they don’t actually see anyone dying from it.”

“Then...”

“What will people think if we go around saying that we will provide Ebola vaccines and Ebola treatments?”

“No...”

Young-Joon’s jaw dropped.

“Yes, it’s exactly what you think. They will think we are President Phillip’s minions. They might mistake us as a force trying to defend the voting disruption that happened in Maibi.”

“...”

This was trouble. Congo already had problems with religion, anti-science, and low education levels. But now, another problem had popped up.

“Is it true that the government manipulated the election by disrupting voting? Please be honest,” Young-Joon said.

“I don’t know,” Michelle said calmly. “Doctor Ryu, I am a scientist. I am not good enough to focus on anything other than that.”

* * *

There was an unexpected guest at the Protein Purification Research Department’s entrance at Lab Three.

“Senior Jung Hae-Rim.”

The scientists who were at the department approached her.

Jung Hae-Rim fought Song Pan-Sup in court after accusing of sexual harassment, then was shunned by the rest of the department. She was banished to the Life Creation Department, and she never thought that she would have to see them ever again except at the year-end seminar.

But then, Jung Hae-Rim received a huge award with Young-Joon at the year-end seminar and went to A-Bio. Now, she was back here as an employee of Young-Joon, a director.

“Hello, it’s been a while,” Jung Hae-Rim said brightly as she walked in. “I’ll be working for a little bit. Thank you.”

“I heard the news,” Song Pan-Sup suddenly interrupted. “I was in some hot water when you accused me of something so ridiculous. But now we’re working together again. Such a small world, isn’t it?”

“... Which bench can I work at?” Jung Hae-Rim said, ignoring Song Pan-Sup.

Song Pan-Sup frowned a little.

“It’s at the end over there. In front of the clean bench,” one of the scientists said.

“Thank you.”

Song Pan-Sup followed Jung Hae-Rim as she walked over to the bench.

“Hey, Hae-Rim, we should talk.”

“What is it?”

“I think what happened before was because of a misunderstanding. Let’s forget everything that has happened and start fresh.”

Jung Hae-Rim frowned. It was ridiculous, and she knew exactly what Song Pan-Sup was up to. He was thinking about Young-Joon, who was responsible for the sudden surge in A-Gen’s stock prices and was ushering in a new era. It was because he knew that Young-Joon and Jung Hae-Rim were close and that Young-Joon was extremely strict about unethical things that happened in the scientific community. Although it was unclear whether Young-Joon would become the CEO, there was a good chance that A-Gen and A-Bio would merge one day. Additionally, Young-Joon was also already an executive of A-Gen and the director of Lab One. Song Pan-Sup was wary of his power.

“Be honest. It wasn’t a simple misunderstanding,” Jung Hae-Rim said. “You should apologize if you want to make this relationship better. And I don’t know if I will even accept that.”

𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Song Pan-Sup flinched a little.

“...”

He glared at Jung Hae-Rim, then said, “I know what you’re doing because I got a call from Mr. Ryu as well. Hae-Rim, you’re trying to make a standard blood serum for Ebola, right?”

“Yes.”

“With just ten milliliters?”

“That’s right.”

“It won’t be easy. I will help you. You know that I’m the best in the world in protein purification, right?”

“I don’t need your help,” Jung Hae-Rim said right away, irritated.

“Excuse me, Senior Jung. What are you going to do if you blow a ten milliliter sample? Just give it to me.”

“...”

“This is the lab protocol?” Song Pan-Sup asked as he read the paper Jung Hae-Rim printed out beforehand.

“Give it to me.”

“Did you write it?”

“No.”

“Who wrote this? It’s a mess. Hae-Rim, you’re not going to have anything left at the end of the purification if you do it like this.”

Snap!

Jung Hae-Rim forcibly took the paper from Song Pan-Sup’s hand. She tried to ignore him and started the experiment.

Jung Hae-Rim put the tube containing ten milliliters of blood into the microfuge to separate the plasma. Then, she took out a container with various types of salts from the shelf and began making a solution.

“Is that the binding buffer?” Song Pan-Sup interrupted. “Are you going to treat it with a two hundred millimolar solution of NaCl? You’ll denature all your antibody structures. You’re really going to do that?”

“...”

Jung Hae-Rim silently focused on the experiment. Song Pan-Sup continuously made doubtful comments as she conducted her experiment.

“Are you sure you want to use magnetic beads in that buffer?”

“You’re going to use the spin plate?”

“You’re using Sigma’s FPLC cartridge? The fifteen centimeter one?”

To be honest, Jung Hae-Rim was also doubtful. The experiment protocol that Young-Joon gave her was too dramatic. The process of purifying antibodies required extreme care and caution; it was like sending a glass cup through mail. Young-Joon’s experiment method was overprotective of the antibody being purified. While his method certainly protected each glass, it greatly reduced the number that could be shipped at a time. At only ten milliliters, it was doubtful they would be able to extract enough. But Jung Hae-Rim had faith in Young-Joon.

“Hae-Rim, change the protocol now when you can. I don’t know if someone wrote it for you or you did, but you’re not going to get anything if you stick to this.”

“Please be quiet.”

This experiment required a little bit of a tricky technique. Jung Hae-Rim tried not to make a mistake through Song Pan-Sup’s chatter and criticism.

And during the FPLC, the last stage, Jung Hae-Rim and Song Pan-Sup froze when they saw the peak in protein quantitation. There was a huge amount of antibodies.

“What is...” Song Pan-Sup murmured. “You need dozens of liters of blood to get this amount... How... What happened?”

Jung Hae-Rim gulped. Even if he asked her, she didn’t know how. All she did was conduct the experiment Young-Joon ordered her to without any mistakes. There was probably an unimaginable level of biology and chemistry happening at the molecular level.

“Then, I’ll be on my way.”

Jung Hae-Rim put the protein in a little flask. As she was about to leave, Jung Hae-Rim ran into someone as they suddenly came into the entrance. It was Oh Jun-Tae, the director of Lab Three.

“D–Director?”

“Hm. It’s been a while, Senior Jung.”

Oh Jun-Tae came into the room clenching his jaw. Now that she saw, there were a few more people standing outside.

“Someone may contact you soon,” Oh Jun-Tae said.

“What do you mean?”

“It was a long time ago, but... Doctor Ryu reported it to the internal audit team.”

“...”

“Principal Song!” Oh Jun-Tae shouted.

“Come out here. Let’s have a chat with the audit team.”

Oh Jun-Tae called Song Pan-Sup irritatedly. Then, in a softer voice, “You can go now, Senior Jung. And please let him know... Ugh.”

* * *

Young-Joon borrowed a lab at the University of Kinshasa, which was affiliated with the Congolese government’s Ministry of Public Health. Nicholas Kim had sent him the data on anthracis. Young-Joon was reviewing it with Rosaline.

—The genome of anthracis is much larger than the Ebola virus, but it isn’t difficult to analyze.

Rosaline said.

—However, this research will be very different from taking a few receptors from viruses. The cilia of anthracis is a complex of much more diverse cells and extracellular matrix.

“Probably.”

The extracellular matrix was a messy tangle of mucus membranes and the cell skeleton secreted outside the membrane. Now, Young-Joon and Rosaline were trying to rip off a part of it.

—It’s a good thing we have this much data. It would have consumed a lot of fitness if we went into this blindly.

Rosaline picked out a few genes while slowly analyzing the data. There were seven in total.

—Put these in a cloning vector, recombine them, and express them. Send them back to Doctor Jung for purification.

Rosaline said.

—Then, you just have to attach the DNase to it.[ref]DNase is a DNA-destroying substance.

“Great.”

Young-Joon gathered some more genome information.

“Doctor Ryu!”

One of the employees at the Ministry of Public Health showed up to the lab with a huge package. It was big enough to fit a mini refrigerator.

“It came for you. What is this?”

Young-Joon smiled when he read the name. It was from Jung Hae-Rim.

The box was the definition of overpackaging. There was a large styrofoam box when he opened it, and it was full of dry ice. The actual sample was a small sterile tube the size of a finger. The rest of it was dry ice to keep the sample at negative twenty degrees Celsius during the international shipping.

“This is the weapon to make the vaccine. Please call all the scientists here, and Michelle, too,” Young-Joon said.

As people were crowding in, Young-Joon called Jung Hae-Rim.

“We got the antibody. It would have been a pretty difficult experiment, but you did well. Thank you,” Young-Joon said.

—I just did what you told me to do.

“If the recipe is hard, it all depends on the cook, no matter how well-written the recipe is. Good work.”

—Thank you. Did you report Song Pan-Sup to A-Gen’s internal audit team?”

“Yes. He harassed you, right?”

—Well... Yes. But it’s been so long...

“I can’t stand something like that happening in the lab. Go ask our legal team for help regarding the legal stuff. You can talk to our attorney, Park Joo-Hyuk. You can file an appeal or do anything you want, but just make sure to let out all your frustration. The company will support you.”

—...

“Of course, you don’t have to do it right now if you don’t feel comfortable doing so. It’s up to you.”

—Thank you.

Jung Hae-Rim said.

—I am so lucky to have met you at the Life Creation Department, Doctor Ryu.

“I am grateful for you. I received the antibodies. I think we will make a lot of progress thanks to you. I’ve got to go back to work,” Young-Joon said.

Michelle and other scientists were coming in.