Super Genius DNA

Park Seung-Won, a scientist who joined the company A-Gen during their second biannual recruitment period, was extremely nervous. He wasn’t this intimidated even when he took his doctoral comprehensive exam before graduation; he wasn’t this nervous during A-Gen’s interview. The only time he had been this nervous recently was his interview at A-Bio.

‘And I had to come to A-Gen because I didn’t get in.’

Park Seung-Won had applied to Lab One, but he was sent to Lab Three. However, he was certain that A-Gen would merge with A-Bio someday.

Also, Park Seung-Won was in Lab One today. The location of the year-end seminar was randomly picked between the six labs. Like last year, the grand conference hall at Lab One was chosen again.

“Seung-Won! It’s this way,” said Park Seung-Won’s senior, who had joined the company a few years earlier than him.

Park Seung-Won approached a huge lecture hall as he followed his senior. It was big enough to hold nearly one thousand people. And now, it was famous as the starting point of the Ryu Young-Joon phenomena.

‘I would have been able to see that legendary scene if I graduated a year early.’

Park Seung-Won thought it was a shame. However, he would be able to see Young-Joon as A-Bio was also attending this seminar.

‘A joint seminar to promote collaboration between companies.’

That was how Nicholas Kim, the CTO, explained it, but everyone knew that wasn’t true, as the two companies already worked together well. This joint seminar was about merging.

—This is the pancreatic cancer cure!

—This is a stem cell therapy to cure AIDS.

—This is a hair follicle tissue differentiation method that just finished preclinical trials.

—This is a diagnostic kit that allows an ordinary person to self-diagnose about one hundred diseases in three minutes.

The seminar was a battle among the stars of science. Of course, all those stars were from A-Bio. The scientists from A-Gen didn’t feel deflated or inferior because they knew the seminar would go like this. They knew that it wasn’t because they weren’t good enough, it was because A-Bio was too good.

Of course, there were scientists within A-Gen who could compete against A-Bio.

—... As such, we developed a plant-based pharmaceutical production method.

“Lab One hopped on the right gravy train and blew up.”

The scientists sitting beside Park Seung-Won whispered amongst each other. Everyone was waiting for Young-Joon to appear, but he never showed up to the seminar.

During the seminar, Young-Joon was in the lab with two scientists from the GSC and Tedros, the secretary-general of the World Health Organization.

“It was hard to get my hands on this,” Young-Joon said. “I got an earful from the Experiment Animal Resource Center because I was asking for mosquitoes this time around,” he said as he tapped on the large plastic container.

There were about two thousand Asian tiger mosquitoes in the container.

“It’s kind of gross,” Tedros said.

“Well, what can you do? We have to do it if we want to make a cure,” Young-Joon replied.

“You mentioned before that you were going to remove the Kpaf2 gene from the male mosquito’s seminal vesicles, right? Are you still going to do that?” Tedros asked.

“Yes, I am.”

“What are the effects of removing that gene?” Legion asked.

“Female mosquitoes that mate with these males will only lay male eggs,” Young-Joon said.

“...”

“And the male mosquitoes from them will also be mutant and have a nonfunctional Kpaf2 gene. Then, the imbalance in the sex ratio will rise exponentially over generations.”

“And the mosquitoes will go extinct after a little while?”

“That’s right.”

“It’s going to be a little tricky to remove the Kpaf2 gene,” Messelson interrupted.

“Tricky?”

“Yes. I mean, it’s true that Cas9 is the most efficient gene scissors for manipulating genes, but it seems like this experiment will be quite challenging because you’re manipulating a mosquito’s seminal vesicles.”

“That’s true, and that’s why I would like to add some details to the experimental methods,” Young-Joon said. “Let’s use a bacteria called Wolbachia to deliver the Cas9 into the seminal vesicles. We can easily infect the mosquitoes with the bacteria by spraying the culture on the larvae, and it will deliver the Cas9 to the seminal vesicles on their own.”

“Wolbachia?”

“It’s a bacteria that causes an epidemic in mosquitoes. It doesn’t harm humans or other animals, but it shortens the lifespan of mosquitoes to twenty-one days instead of fifty days,” Young-Joon said.

“You said it causes an epidemic in mosquitoes. If you use the bacteria, does it spread among mosquitoes?” Messelson asked.

“That’s right. It’s a type of sexually transmitted infection and a genetic condition in mosquitoes. If a female mosquito mates with a male mosquito infected with Wolbachia, it will be transmitted to the female. And if the female lays eggs, it will be inherited to the progeny as well.”

“Oh...”

A terrifying picture flashed through Legion’s mind. Wolbachia, an epidemic among mosquitoes, would carry Cas9 into the seminal vesicles of male mosquitoes. These genetic modifications would spread like a plague among the mosquitoes. The result of this genetic modification was the destruction of the sex ratio. As the number of females rapidly decreased, more male mosquitoes would flock to the few remaining female mosquitoes; in turn, the female mosquitoes would be more likely to encounter male mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia.

‘How many generations will they last?’

Legion, the world’s leading scientist in insect ecology, could really picture it.

‘Making thirteen different species of mosquitoes go extinct... Is this ecologically safe?’

* * *

About three months had passed since Young-Joon’s meeting with Legion, Messelson, and Tedros. It was mid-February, and it was still a little chilly.

The merger between A-Gen and A-Bio was going as planned. Both companies wanted to merge; they were hoping for a pharmaceutical giant that would be born as A-Bio’s technology and A-Gen’s research and production facilities combined.

“Are you dead?” Young-Joon said to Park Joo-Hyuk, who was lying face-down on the desk.

“Yeah...” Park Joo-Hyuk replied, still lying down. “I died of exhaustion after having an eleven-hour meeting with the investment company. Didn’t you know?”

“So this thing in front of me is a zombie?”

“Uhhh...” Park Joo-Hyuk moaned like a zombie.

“It looks like you’re fine since you’re joking around.”

“How could you leave something as big as a company merger to me?” Park Joo-Hyuk asked with only his head up.

“It’s because I trust you,” Young-Joon replied.

“You should doubt people once in a while.”

“Stop whining. You can go on vacation after the merger.”

“Obviously. Oh hey, you’re going to hire a CEO after the merger, right?” Park Joo-Hyuk asked as he sat upright.

“Probably.”

Young-Joon shrugged.

“I can’t do research while running the company. If I have to pick between the two, I want to focus on research,” he said.

“Then we’ll have to look for someone,” Park Joo-Hyuk said.

“Well, we can do that slowly.”

Young-Joon put on the jacket he was holding.

“I have to go,” he said as he opened the door and left.

“Where are you going?”

“GSC.”

* * *

The International GSC Conference was held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Usually, only about thirty to forty people came to the conference—fifty if there was an interesting issue—but this was a record number. Even the GSC Operations Team was impressed with the success. Using Young-Joon’s name was effective, as they had brought in ninety scientists in the GSC. In addition to Legion, who was thought to be the best insect ecologist since Fabre, and Messelson, who basically created the Biological Weapons Convention, who were already in Korea to work with Young-Joon, the biggest names in science from around the world came to the hotel.

“Jamie Anderson isn’t here,” Legion said to Messelson. “Probably because this international conference is all about Doctor Ryu. It’s probably difficult for him to come,” Messelson replied.

The international conference proceeded with the one hundred members of the GSC. However, general members could also attend, they just didn’t get to speak.

There were quite a few people who Young-Joon knew among the general members. Several scientists, including Carpentier, showed up in the conference room.

“Doctor Ryu!”

Song Ji-Hyun and a few scientists from Celligener waved their hands at Young-Joon. Song Ji-Hyun wanted to talk to Young-Joon, but she didn’t have the chance to as Nicholas suddenly showed up and took Young-Joon, pulling him by his shoulder.

“It’s surprising that the International GSC Conference is being held in Korea, but it’s even more shocking that a Korean member can attend it as a member of the GSC,” Nicholas said. “I’m even more excited because you will be at the center of this conference.”

“Haha, thank you.”

“Have you prepared something to present at the conference?”

“Oh, yes. We are planning an international collaborative project to eradicate the Asian tiger mosquito.”

“Asian tiger mosquito?”

“It’s a species of mosquito that has the potential to cause a Zika or dengue fever outbreak in many developed countries.”

“Oh! You’re planning a project to reduce the number of mosquitoes. Doctor Legion did something similar to that with funding from the Gates Foundation. I think I saw somewhere that they succeeded in reducing the number of mosquitoes by seventy percent somewhere in Southeast Asia.”

“It has recovered now because the number of predators that eat mosquitoes and the number of prey that mosquitoes feed on have remained the same. The mosquito population can bounce back with time.”

“I suppose so.”

“But I’m working on this research with Doctor Legion and Doctor Messelson. It’s funded by the WHO, and this project is making mosquitoes go extinct.”

“Extinct?” Nicholas’ eyes widened.

“Doctor Ryu, that’s not going to be easy. Not only is it going to be technologically challenging, but how are you going to explain the impacts on the ecosystem?” Nicholas asked.

“We’ve done a lot of research on that. You’ll hear about it when I present later,” Young-Joon replied

“Huh... I see.”

“Enough about that. Are you going to the government when A-Gen and A-Bio merge, Mr. CTO?” Young-Joon asked.

“You’re talking about the director of the Office of Strategy and Planning at the ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy? The national CTO?”

“Yes.”

“Of course. I will be able to help you if I take that position,” Nicholas said. “Please just make sure that the transfer of management rights after the merger goes smoothly.”

“Of course.”

“The board will select a chief executive officer. Even if you hire someone else later, you should take the position at first so that management can stabilize.”

“Thank you. We are preparing for that.”

“Haha, it will go well. CEO Yoon will also be a candidate for the position as a formality, but you’ll become the CEO since he doesn’t want to.”

Young-Joon smiled.

“Oh, the conference is going to begin soon. Doctor Ryu, why don’t you go inside? I’ll observe the meeting from there,” Nicholas said.

“Sure.”

Young-Joon went to the GSC conference room. All ninety of the GSC scientists in the room stared at him at once.

‘Is that Ryu Young-Joon?’

‘He’s extremely young.’

‘He looks better than the picture from Science.’

‘It would be nice if there was someone like him in physics, too.’

Young-Joon could feel people whispering about him. He was a little nervous.

The conference began, and it was soon going to be Young-Joon’s turn to speak.

“Doctor He Jiankui.”

A relatively young Chinese scientist stood at the podium. As soon as Young-Joon heard his seminar, Young-Joon almost screamed in shock. “We’re in the age of genetics. Thanks to the great contribution of Doctor Ryu Young-Joon here, scientists have gotten their hands on gene scissors, Cas9,” said He Jiankui. “Doctor Ryu has used Cas9 to design hematopoietic stem cells with a CCR5 deletion and cured AIDS with it. Then, all of us can think of one simple and clear way; we’re just afraid to start it. Someone will do it one day, and someone should do it.”

He Jiankui squeezed the microphone.

“Last May, I genetically engineered a zygote obtained through artificial insemination with Cas9, removed CCR5, grew that zygote, and implanted it into the mother.”

“What...”

The atmosphere in the seminar room fell cold like someone had thrown cold water on them.

“Yes. And those babies were born recently,” He Jiankui said. “They are the first genetically engineered babies in human history.”

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