Chapter 56: A Next-Generation General Hospital (3)
A little while before it became huge in Korea, Young-Joon had a short meeting with the professors at the conference while having lunch.
“We need a lot of doctors and technicians,” Young-Joon said. “A lot of cell culture experts who have a lot of experience with clinical trials and have stem cell differentiation technology.”
“Are you planning on recruiting people?” Professor Behnach asked.
“Yes. The IUBMB is happening in New York in two days. I am going to attend. I have a booth for A-Bio. I am going to meet some people there.”
“Could I work at your hospital?” Professor Rebecca asked.
The other professors glanced at her, a little surprised.
“You’re going to leave the Johns Hopkins Brain Science Institute?” Behnach reacted like he couldn’t believe it.
“The hospital Doctor Ryu will make will be a monumental hospital in human history. Johns Hopkins is nice, but wouldn’t it be nice to be a founding member of a place like that?”
Young-Joon unexpectedly scored one of the best professionals in the world while eating. He quickly expressed his gratitude.
“I would be grateful if you joined us, Professor Rebecca. You will be of great help to A-Bio. Let’s tackle other types of brain diseases other than ones with nerve damage.”
“But is there a reason you are gathering funding just by donations?” Behnach asked.
“It’s because I want to separate it from capital.”
“Well, wealthy people from all over the world will just give you donations for a hospital with that much potential. It’ll probably be better than most funding from investment companies.”
“That’s right. Doctor Ryu, the Bill Gates Foundation could build a new hospital building and just donate it to you.” Rebecca agreed.
“I really wish that would happen.”
“Doctor Ryu, I am not a doctor or a technician,” Professor Aiden, a biology professor at Brown University, said. “So I may not be able to work at the hospital, but I am very interested in A-Bio. I would like to study making spines or bone marrow there. Is there any space for me to join?”
“Of course. Our company has a lot of space. Everyone here is welcome at any time,” Young-Joon said.
From the afternoon, people began leaving the conference like the tide was out. Most of them were thinking that there was nothing more to see now that Young-Joon’s lecture was done. Feeling a little sorry for the other scientists for some reason, he concentrated on the afternoon seminars and debated more.
And at seven o’clock in the evening, Young-Joon, who returned from the conference, passed out on his bed. Now that he was relaxed, he felt like he was getting tired all of a sudden.
—Should I secrete some serotonin?
Rosaline sent a message.
“What serotonin?”
—You seem tired, so I will make you feel better. Since dopamine-related ones are stimulating, it’s better to use serotonin-related hormones when you are tired, like now.
Dopamine and serotonin were hormones that were both related to happiness. Dopamine provided an intense and exhilarating sensation, such as getting intoxicated or when a sexual desire was quenched. On the other hand, serotonin was related to tranquil happiness, like taking a walk on a sunny day.
“... Try it.”
[Serotonin overexpression (9%)]
Young-Joon felt his body relax as he eased up.
“You really know how to do a lot of things.”
—I secreted three hundred percent of dopamine and endorphin when you were attacked by the people Ji Kwang-Man sent.
“Really?”
—I had to reduce the pain. So when I stopped the bleeding on the back of your head and you got up, you were smiling. The gang members screamed in shock.
“... That really happened?”
‘It feels like I created an embarrassing history.’
—Yes. Then, I subdued them by only breaking their bones so that they couldn’t move. They looked at you like you were some sort of monster. They said Ji Kwang-Man’s name when I threatened them a little.
“...”
Young-Joon wondered how he got them to confess, but now he understood the story.
‘Well, who could hold out when your opponent is Rosaline?’
—But Ryu Young-Joon, are you going to keep using my powers for medicine?
“Then?”
—I think I told you this before, but you are a Player of Life, not a scientist at a pharmaceutical company. You can do something much more impactful than pharmaceuticals.
“How?”
—There are things like the biodiesel industry, right? Scientists are not good at it yet, but I can make a great innovation in that area.
Rosaline said.
—For example, bacteria can be used to break down starch to produce gasoline. A very efficient refining process can be created as well, so it will be premium oil that has almost zero impurities and only the components you want.
“... Really?”
—People say that oil is black gold or something, but to me, it’s just a carbon compound. And all organisms have the ability to break and form carbon compounds. Although, the ones each organism produces is different.
Rosaline said.
—If you manipulate a few of the genes involved in the metabolism process of bacteria, you can create a biological factory that produces oil. If you grow it in large amounts and pour in starch, you will get gasoline. The production price will be much cheaper than drilling it. If you want, you could make kerosene, diesel, LPG gas, or asphalt.
“Holy...”
—Modern civilization is based on oil resources. Everything from agriculture to industry, telecommunications, transportation, and the military industry. You know how rich countries like Libya and Saudi Arabia are, right?
Rosaline said.
—Just make something like that and then sell the resources exclusively to reorganize the world’s power structure around you. If you get your hands on something like that, you can be the secret dictator of the world. After that, you will be able to do whatever you want.
“... You really think differently than I do.”
—I am just considering efficiency.
“I’ll think about it. It would be nice to relieve it since the energy resource problem is also a serious matter. But I want to focus more on pharmaceuticals right now. The reason I became a scientist is because of my youngest sister, who died of liver cancer. I want to cure people’s diseases.”
—You can dominate the world with your ability, and you should because you have me. You are a prophet in terms of knowledge; your knowledge is not the same as your coworkers. Honestly, it’s frustrating that you are only using it to save people’s lives.
“Whatever. I have my own ways. Don’t nag me. I’ll deal with the energy problem later.”
Young-Joon fully laid down on the bed.
“But it’s funny. Do you feel frustration, too?”
—Frustration...
Rosaline thought for a moment.
—I see. It is fascinating. How do I feel something like that?
“Isn’t it because your synchronization level is higher? Maybe you became more human.”
Young-Joon had said that without giving it much thought, but it seemed like Rosaline was in shock.
—Are you serious?
“Why?”
—It can’t be. It seems that you are right. The higher my synchronization level becomes, my thinking becomes more gentle, and it seems like I was impacted by your emotions. Ryu Young-Joon, you have given me something called emotions. It is a very new sensation. I like it. Thank you.
“...”
‘It’s like the Wizard of Oz.’
“Are you the tin woodman?”
—Pardon?
“Never mind.”
Knock knock.
Someone knocked on the door.
“Who is it?” Young-Joon asked as he walked toward the door.
—It’s room service.
“Room service?”
Young-Joon hadn’t ordered anything. As he opened the door in puzzlement, the hotel employee was standing there with a cart loaded with a cake, a sandwich, Coke, wine, and other things.
“I never ordered room service,” Young-Joon said.
“I know. This is... I am just giving you this.”
“Pardon me?”
The employee smiled awkwardly as Young-Joon reacted like he was confused.
“I didn’t go to university, and I don’t know anything difficult like biology or medicine. But I know that you are a good person, Doctor Ryu.”
“...”
“My mother has Alzheimer’s. I hope that my mother can get treatment once the clinical trial is finished.”
“... She definitely will.”
“I think so, too. There are probably a lot of people rooting for you all over the world. I hope you work hard and do a lot of good research. I am rooting for you, too,” the employee said as he put the food down on Young-Joon’s table.
“Please call me if you need anything more.”
Click.
After the employee left, Young-Joon cut the cake.
“What do you think? It’s not making oil or anything, but this is nice too, right?” Young-Joon asked Rosaline.
—Your serotonin levels are rising rapidly even though I did not control it. Do humans like these kinds of products?
“It’s the thought.”
Young-Joon was going to rest for a little bit, but he couldn’t do that because he was so energized from the gift. He turned on his computer and went into his email inbox.
‘Let’s take a look at the progress of the tasks I assigned.’
There were nine unread emails. His A-Bio employees had sent him reports about the work he missed and meeting results. As they all knew Young-Joon’s personality, all of them skipped the unnecessary greetings and sent the reports with concise and straightforward comments... Except for one person.
[The report of the probiotics meeting results to our CEO, who is working hard in a far country like America]
The title was a little off. It was Choi Myung-Joon.
[Korea is still burning up about the bold and intense presence you showed at the international conference at Brown University. I am moved as an employee of A-Bio. But at the same time, I am worried that you are tired because of the time difference, or that the food isn’t to your liking. I should have followed you and taken care of you, but as I had too many experiments scheduled because I wanted to quickly advance A-Bio...]
‘Eek. This man.’
It was funny how he had changed completely when it felt like it was only yesterday that they were fighting and exchanging harsh words. Although, it was nice that he was good and he did what he was supposed to do well.
Young-Joon scrolled through the email, skipping through the unnecessary greetings, and opened the meeting report.
[Report on the Celligener Meeting]
As he read it, he could see there were three main items.
1. Felicida had joined the team.
2. The probiotics were effective in the mice experiment.
3. Instead of using live bacteria and establishing it in the intestine, we are considering just purifying Amuc, the diabetes-treating material. But in this case, we have to determine how to administer it to the patient.
The first two didn’t matter, but Young-Joon had to give them feedback for the last item. Choi Myung-Joon and Doctor Felicida would brainstorm and strategize if he let them be, but Young-Joon could get an answer right away if he used Rosaline.
Young-Joon activated the [Advice] function of Rosaline.
“If the treatment has the same effect, an oral drug would be better than an injection, right? There’s no need to pierce them with a needle.
—Of course.
“But Amuc is such a big molecule that it can’t be absorbed through the digestive tract barrier.”
—Attach a glycerol-modified molecule to Amuc. Then, it will be absorbed into the lymphatic vessel in the small intestine.
“You’re going to tell me the detailed design, right?”
—Of course. I will show you the image now.
Rosaline sent the image into Young-Joon’s head. The simplified experimental scheme of how to attach the glycerol-modified molecule to Amuc showed up.
“But I think it will be dissolved in the stomach if we go with this.”
—You found the answer to that for the pancreatic cancer treatment, right? Pass the stomach with a capsule coating.
“Good.”
Now that he thought about it, he didn’t know how the capsule coating part of the pancreatic cancer treatment was going. It was because Celligener hadn’t shared the file with him yet.
‘Since Song Ji-Hyun said that they’re coming to the IUBMB tomorrow, I’ll ask her then.’
As Young-Joon was about to close his inbox, he stopped after seeing something.
The account he was signed into right now was his CEO account, which was his personal email account. Beside the CEO account, there was the official company email inbox. It was usually used for marketing or correspondence by management. There were more than nine hundred ninety-nine unread emails.
Young-Joon squinted his eyes. When he pressed on it, after a little bit of lagging, thousands of emails came pouring out.
“What is...”
Young-Joon suddenly froze and was at a loss for words. The employee who gave him room service was not lying when he said that there were probably a lot of people who were rooting for him all over the world. He had received a huge amount of support and gratitude. Eighty percent of it was in English, and about seventy percent of them were grammatically incorrect. They were not from the Anglosphere. They were full of short English sentences, choppy Korean that was made by Google Translate, or unreadable sentences written in their own language.
[To Doctor Ryu Young-Joon. Thank you. We are hope. Hope you treatment of spine paralysis will happen soon.]
[To CEO Ryu Young-Joon and A-Bio. I am Kim Si-Joon’s wife, and he was a clinical trial patient for phase two of the glaucoma clinical trial. Thank you. My husband can now see. Thank you for making a treatment like this. We will never forget this. We will donate to your hospital. Thank you so much.]
[Hello. My name is Emma White. I live in London, England, and I am a sixty-eight year-old woman. I am one hundred sixty-three centimeters and sixty kilograms. I heard that you needed this information. I want to volunteer for the Alzheimer’s clinical trial. I am only at stage-two, but it is getting worse. I am sending you this email because I do not want to be a nuisance to my children. Thank you.]
“...”
Young-Joon read each email and slowly scrolled down. There were emails from the Middle East, India, and Mexico. All of them thanked him, said they believed in him, and that they wanted to participate in the clinical trial. Young-Joon felt a little moved reading it.
Scroll.
As he was scrolling down, his mouse stopped when he saw something.
[We want to support the establishment of A-Bio’s hospital.]
It was from the Paul Getty Foundation.
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