Chapter 84: The Diagnostic Kit (1)

Kim Hyun-Taek stared at Park So-Yeon like perhaps he heard her wrong. There was a moment of silence between the both of them, and she just lowered her head, unable to say anything.

“What did you just say?”

“It is against research ethics...”

Park So-Yeon was basically mumbling because she was so scared, but Kim Hyun-Taek

understood what she said.

“Research ethics.”

Kim Hyun Taek scoffed like this was ridiculous.

“That damn research ethics. My ears are going to fall off. Do you know how the structure of work management works? Hey, So-Yeon-ssi, what department are you part of?”

“The Mobile Diagnostic Device Research Department...”

“What lab is that department part of?”

“Lab One...”

“And who is the director of Lab One?”

“...”

“I have a right to know about the work that you do and the department does. You just give the lab director the data if they ask for it. Why are you talking about research ethics?”

“...”

“Stop talking nonsense and open the data.”

Park So-Yeon clenched her eyes shut. To be honest, there would be nothing wrong with giving him the data right now. The diagnostic kit was near completion already. Even if Kim Hyun-Taek saw part of the data, there was nothing he could do.

But this was about Park So-Yeon’s own responsibility for her research ethics. The day Young-Joon went against Kim Hyun-Taek and was kicked out of the lab with punishment, she let go of him. This was only just a few months ago. After that, she regretted it like hell.

The current Park So-Yeon was different. She was still new to the workforce, but she wasn’t a complete newcomer who had just joined the company like when the incident happened. Back then, she was walking on eggshells around her superiors from one minor mistake and worrying whether she would make a bad impression on anyone at the company.

‘I was scared, too.’

Everyone at the lab basically knew that she and Young-Joon were dating. But he didn’t fight with just some department head, he fought with the lab director—the future candidate for the CTO position. If she took his side, what kind of burden would she have to have taken on?

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

This was the first company she joined after studying for a total of ten years, from her bachelor’s to her doctorate, and finally graduating. It was also Lab One, the most famous lab at A-Gen, the best pharmaceutical company in the country. It was a reward for her ten years of studying, and she did not want to give up on the wonderful dream and life that would unfold from this great position. She was just scared of everything.

Park So-Yeon was still scared. But now, she had the courage to overcome that fear.

“This is not a co-research project,” Park So-Yeon said. “Mr. Ryu borrowed the facilities here, and I was dispatched as research support for the development of the PDMS lab-on-a-chip. Our department and lab do not have any rights about that project. Mr. Ryu has all the authority, and I cannot share the data at will.”

“Ah, are you going to be troublesome like that?” Kim Hyun-Taek said irritably. “Excuse me, So-Yeon-ssi, why are you being sensitive about something so stupid? As long as Doctor Ryu experiments here, he probably knows that all the data produced here can be shared with me.”

Kim Hyun-Taek snapped at her.

“You don’t think I know research ethics? I worked in this field thirty years more than you. Who are you trying to teach?”

“...”

“It’s alright in practice. Then, do I have to go to Doctor Ryu because I want to see the data and get permission? When

my

subordinate at

my

lab has that data? When it’s obvious that he’ll say that I can see the kind of data that Park So-Yeon-ssi has?”

“Then request it from Mr. Ryu...” Park So-Yeon said.

“What?”

“Come find me after getting Mr. Ryu’s permission. That’s the proper procedure...”

“...”

Kim Hyun-Taek grabbed the back of his neck in anger as he grit his teeth. The other scientists were staring at him, then quickly turned away when he looked back up. But he could hear people whispering, “What’s So-Yeon-ssi going to do...”.

“Damn it.”

He let out a sigh. Park So-Yeon still looked scared, but it seemed like she wasn’t going to back down easily. He knew that this wouldn’t happen even if he yelled at her.

“Whatever. I don’t need that data,” Kim Hyun-Taek said. “I will never forget this. I didn’t know that a rookie doctor who doesn’t know what she’s doing would screw me over like this.”

“...”

Thud!!

Kim Hyun-Taek slammed the door behind him and left.

“

Sigh

...”

Park So-Yeon, who was no longer tense, sat back down. Her legs trembled. Suddenly, she felt tears in her eyes. She pulled out a handkerchief and wiped her eyes. She covered her face with her hands and thought in silence.

After breaking up with Young-Joon, she was in pain every time she hung out with the people from Lab One. Until Young-Joon turned around the company atmosphere with a powerful performance at the year-end seminar, they all talked badly about and laughed at Young-Joon. They weren’t really careful because they were around Park So-Yeon, his ex-girlfriend. And she usually joined them in talking behind Young-Joon’s back. Whenever she did, she felt uncomfortable in the back of her mind as if she had an upset stomach or something. She didn’t even wish him congratulations for his success. Considering her hardships, regret, and how sorry she felt, she thought that she would rather fall out of favor with Kim Hyun-Taek.

* * *

The birnavirus was originally a virus that caused infectious pancreatic necrosis in fish of the salmon family. Young-Joon’s strategy was to change the structure of this virus so that it only infected cancer cells in the pancreas. For this, he made a transferrin receptor and a ligand for ERBB2 on the surface of this virus, and he removed the BVP3 gene so that the virus could not multiply in the body. The pancreatic cancer cure team was the one who was in charge of it up to this point. It took A-Gen’s Research Support Center to get their hands on the birnavirus because it was such a unique virus. It also took a long time to manipulate the genes and confirm the structure.

But there was another step. Because the virus would be destroyed by stomach acid, they had to make it pass through the stomach with a capsule coating, go through the pylorus, and allow the coating to dissolve in bile that is secreted from the pancreas. Celligener was the one responsible for the capsule coating technology.

It took a long time as it was a project that started with a very creative idea and had compiled all kinds of new technologies.

“But we successfully finished the first phase of clinical trials,” Young-Joon said on the podium with a glass of wine in his hand.

Below him, around twenty people gathered to hear Young-Joon’s speech after drinking the glasses distributed by the servers. It was a congratulatory dinner party. He had brought Principal Scientist Lee Jae-Chun’s team that was in charge of developing the pancreatic cancer cure and five scientists under Song Ji-Hyun from Celligener to a hotel restaurant.

“The establishment of the A-Bio Cancer Laboratory is all thanks to you. I congratulate and thank you for this success.”

Clink!

They all clinked their glasses and took a sip of wine.

—I will detoxify the alcohol.

Rosaline sent him a message.

‘I kind of want to get drunk today.’

—If you would like a calming effect, I will control your serotonin level. Let’s just get rid of the alcohol because it is harmful to your body.

‘It’s been months since I’ve had a day off. Can you just leave it?’

—I don’t want to use the same blood vessels as alcohol.

‘So picky... Do whatever you want.’

Rosaline began breaking down the alcohol.

“Doctor Ryu.”

Song Ji-Hyun approached Young-Joon.

“I saw the speech you have at the groundbreaking ceremony for the cancer lab. You said you were going to conquer a variety of cancers one by one...”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Is the clinical trial for Cellicure going to start now?”

“Um...”

Young-Joon looked a little hesitant. To be honest, he didn’t want to continue Cellicure’s clinical trial in this state. It was a good drug, but Rosaline could develop it into a better form.

Right now, Cellicure was effective in destroying liver cancer cells and didn’t really have any side effects, but there was one drawback. It was that it broke down too much in the liver. So to increase the efficacy, they had to increase the amount while keeping in mind the amount that was broken down. However, they had to increase the number of doses instead of the intake as an increase in a single dose could damage regular cells. Patients would have to take the cure six times a day, which was a pretty severe drawback for a new drug. It was pretty bothersome that they would have to keep to a schedule in everyday life. People living in the busy and hectic modern society could easily forget their intake time.

But Young-Joon could rectify the drawback if he changed a few things about Cellicure. He just had to make the drug only go into cancer cells and not regular liver cells. Then, they could decrease the breakdown, and they could see a better efficacy with less of the drug and fewer doses.

‘I should tell her, right?’

“Actually, I...”

“About Cellicure...”

The two people began talking at the same time, then stopped together.

“Oh, go ahead,” Young-Joon said with a smile.

“Yes, sir. This is something I’ve been thinking about while working on the pancreatic cancer cure coating, but what if we coat Cellicure with an exosome and attach a receptor that targets liver cancer cells on the surface of the exosome? Then, we can send Cellicure only to the liver, which would decrease the number of doses and increase the efficacy...”

Young-Joon’s eyes widened. Song Ji-Hyun flinched a little when she saw his face. Pitching an idea to a genius like Young-Joon needed a bit of courage.

Song Ji-Hyun’s ears reddened.

“Haha, maybe not? It was just a thought. If it doesn’t work, you don’t...”

“No, it’s fine.”

It was exactly what Young-Joon was going to explain, even down to the idea of using exosomes.

“It’s a great idea,” Young-Joon said. “If we work on that, we could advance Cellicure a little more.”

Song Ji-Hyun’s expression brightened a little.

“Thank you.”

“Why don’t you work on it? We won’t have to repeat Phase One because it isn’t a change to the drug itself but only the delivery method. Let’s reinforce it and begin Phase Two.”

* * *

Kim Young-Hoon, a director at A-Gen, was someone the SG Group had put in. He wanted to put Young-Joon at the top of A-Gen.

‘Maybe Yoon Dae-Sung is fine, but Ryu Young-Joon is much better than someone like Yoon Bo-Hyun.’

To stop Yoon Dae-Sung from passing down his management rights and putting A-Gen in the possession of Young-Joon: Kim Young-Hoon even helped establish A-Bio for this goal. He was the one who sold the patent to the flu treatment that Young-Joon had to SG Pharmaceuticals so that he could secure capital for establishment. It was a win-win for everyone.

But recently, Kim Young-Hoon began starting more direct conversations. When the diagnostic kit was still in its early phases, Kim Young-Joon requested a meeting with Young-Joon, and he connected him to SG Electronics. That was how the smartphone-linking technology was born.

As Kim Young-Hoon was driving home, his heart beat in excitement.

‘Now, the world is going to be turned upside down.’

He had heard what stage the diagnostic kit was at when he called Young-Joon. It was almost done, and he had heard that it was going into mass production at A-Gen’s lab-on-a-chip production factory.

And everything was going to be revealed tomorrow. It was going to be on the cover of

Science

tomorrow, and it was going to be the main news on the Nine O’Clock News.

‘It will be on the headlines of every news article tomorrow.’

Kim Young-Hoon took the four diagnostic kits he received as a prototype and came home. He gave one to his family, who were watching the TV together.

“What is this?” asked Kim So-Jung, his daughter who was in high school, as she examined the kit.

“You want to take out the sterile blood-collecting needle and get a drop of blood from your finger?”

With a curious look, she opened the needle and poked the end of her finger. With a stinging pain, the blood started moving into the kit with the pressure from the built-in battery.

Kim Young-Hoon watched the kit in silence. Thankfully, there weren’t any signals.

“Oh my! Something is lighting up on mine!”

Kim Young-Hoon’s wife held up the kit and tilted her head in confusion. There was a green light from hole forty-eight.

“It’s because you have diabetes. That’s been diagnosed,” Kim Young-Hoon said.

“Diabetes?”

“This is the diagnostic kit that A-Bio developed.”

When Kim Young-Hoon was about to explain, the Nine O’Clock News started on the TV.

—Welcome to the Nine O’Clock News. Do you remember CEO Ryu Young-Joon, who drew attention for his HIV eradication project and the establishment of his cancer laboratory in the United States of America? At A-Bio, his company, they developed a real-time blood diagnostic kit.

The news anchor announced.

—This kit allows people to self-diagnose one hundred types of diseases, including various types of cancer, HIV, and the dengue virus, in three minutes.

The structure of the kit appeared on the screen.

—This kit finds and amplifies the disease-related DNA in the blood and uses the Cas9 system to determine the DNA sequence. It shows the diagnosis through a green light.

The anchor said.

—There are a total of one hundred disease diagnosis spots, and each of the spots show the presence of the disease through a green light. This kit can also be linked to a phone, and the application that A-Bio developed can automatically present a specific diagnosis and connect people with a nearby hospital.

“Holy crap...”

Kim So-Jung’s jaw dropped.

“Dad, can I take a picture of this kit and put it on Instagram? And the Ryu Young-Joon fan club...”

“Of course.”

Kim Young-Hoon chuckled.

—... And so, CEO Ryu Young-Joon commented that this diagnostic kit is being produced right now, and it will be available in convenience stores and grocery stores around the country in as fast as two weeks.

Kim Young-Hoon gulped.

The glaucoma cure and the pancreatic cancer cure weren’t items that affected the lives of healthy individuals. But this was different. This was no different from buying a doctor’s diagnostic services from the convenience store.

‘Was it Steve Jobs that said that the best innovation in the twenty-first century would come from the meeting point of technology and biology?’

This was the moment the world took a step towards that point.