Chapter 51: A-Bio (6)
This was the neuropsychiatry department at Yeonyee University Hospital. There were about a dozen elderly people lying in the hospital beds in the room. This was the new institution that was in charge of the powerful clinical study of the stem cell based Alzheimer’s treatment. It was all over the news everywhere when they heard that a clinical study was being conducted, but it got quiet after a month. It was because none of the patients showed signs of improvement.
Shin Jung-Ju, the primary doctor in charge of the clinical trial, came in.
“How are you feeling?” She asked Park Joo-Nam.
She didn’t reply.
As Shin Jung-Ju was examining her by asking her a few more questions, Young-Joon approached her from the back.
Young-Joon chose Yeonyee Hospital as the next institution because Professor Koh In-Guk recommended it. Now, instead of receiving report documents, he came to the hospital in-person and checked the progress once every week. He felt a little sorry for the primary doctor, but he couldn’t stop worrying if he didn’t do this. Although, it was a relief that Professor Shin Jung-Ju didn't mind Young-Joon visiting him. It was because Shin Jung-Ju was friends with Koh In-Guk and had heard about everything that had happened.
“I think we will have to monitor them and see how it goes,” Shin Jung-Ju said to Young-Joon.
“Yes, of course. It will take some time for the newly differentiated nerve cells to establish themselves. A month might not be enough,” Young-Joon replied.
As Shin Jung-Ju was examining them, Young-Joon also examined them using Synchronization Mode. To be honest, this was more accurate than a doctor’s examination.
Although it didn’t seem like it on the outside, the treatment was just about to work. It was usually like this most of the time for stem cell therapy type biological agents. The changes didn’t show up on the outside, like an incubation period, but it had a time of perseverance where things were being done under the surface. After a certain point, the treatment effect will rise exponentially.
“Oh, you’re here, Doctor.”
Someone suddenly came out from behind and greeted Young-Joon. It was Kang Hyuk-Soo. They saw each other quite often, but he always reacted this way whenever Young-Joon came.
Kang Hyuk-Soo didn’t make it obvious, but to be honest, he knew that the money that was in his mailbox was from Young-Joon. That was why he came to him and respectfully greeted him out of gratitude and happiness, but Young-Joon found it a little too much.
‘I purposely came here at a time he wouldn’t be here...’
Young-Joon already felt tired, but he still greeted him brightly.
“Hello.”
“Doctor, would you like some chocolate?”
Kang Hyuk-Soo handed him a chocolate bar.
“I'm fine. But shouldn’t you be driving your taxi right now?”
“I come here five or six times a day to see my dear.”
Kang Hyuk-Soo smiled warmly.
“That grandpa is such a devoted husband,” An elderly woman who was near the window said in a playful voice. She had early-stage Alzheimer’s and was the most lucid out of all the patients here.
“It would be nice if my husband was like that.”
Kang Hyuk-Soo scratched his head with an embarrassed look on his face and handed Young-Joon a chocolate bar again.
“It’s because this is all I have to give you, Doctor. Please eat this and work hard!”
“Thank you, but I’m fine. Let’s give it to the doctor.”
Young-Joon gave the chocolate bar to Shin Jung-Ju.
“I’m a little ashamed to receive this since we haven’t made any progress on the patients yet,” Shin Jung-Ju said with a chuckle.
“Haha, they will get better soon,” Kang Hyuk-Soo said as his wrinkly eyes blinked.
“Isn’t that right, dear?” He asked as he turned to face Park Joo-Nam. She slowly raised her head.
As she did, Young-Joon flinched a little. It was because a message window popped up when they met eyes.
[Synchronization Mode: Would you like to analyze synaptogenesis? Fitness consumption rate: 0.1/second]
Synaptogenesis: it was when new synapses formed. It meant that the developed neurons were connected to each other.
‘Then there should be a sign...’
“Shave,” Park Joo-Nam said to Kang Hyuk-Soo.
There was a moment of silence. He was frozen and unable to move.
Park Joo-Nam stared at him, and said in a low voice, “You should shave.”
“What... did you...”
Shin Jung-Ju stood in front of Kang Hyuk-Soo, whose eyes widened in shock.
“Ma’am, can you recognize him?”
“...”
Park Joo-Nam slowly nodded. It was very slow, but she had gotten her memories and cognitive abilities back. It was proof that the battle between Alzheimer’s and stem cell therapy, which happened in the patients’ brains over the past month, had come to an end.
* * *
As time passed, the fully developed neurons began to establish themselves one by one in all the patients. Once they entered recovery, they progressed quickly. In just four days after Park Joo-Nam brought up shaving, none of the patients had incontinence anymore. After a week, patients who had a hard time moving could move on their own, although they were slow. In the second week, the patients’ cognitive ability and problem solving abilities returned to similar levels before suffering from Alzheimer’s.
“Ma’am, we’re going to subtract seven from one hundred in our heads,” Shin Jung-Ju said.
“One hundred, ninety-three... eighty-six? And um... Seventy-nine?”
“That’s correct. Can you do more?”
“Seventy-two! And let’s see... If I take three away from ten, and it’s five if I add two... Sixty-five?”
Shin Jung-Ju got goosebumps on her arms. Before treatment, they couldn’t even subtract one from one hundred. Now, their problem solving abilities might be better than the average elderly person.
There were still no signs of side effects, such as the stem cells causing tumors in the brain. From the MRI data, she could clearly see that the atrophied cerebral cortex and hippocampus had been normalized. The ventricles that had expanded had shrunk and returned to normal.
She still had to observe them, but she knew that she could cautiously make a conclusion as a doctor.
“I cannot say that they have fully recovered, but I can say that they have improved significantly,” Shin Jung-Ju said.
Jessie, the editor of Science who got her medical opinion from her, felt like her heart was beating so fast that it was going to shoot out of her chest.
“Tha...nk you so much...”
Jessie’s voice trembled.
In terms of what kind of impact this would have, it was on a whole other level compared to a glaucoma cure.
Phase one of a stem cell therapy clinical trial aiming to cure Alzheimer’s had succeeded: apart from this turning the academic community and hospitals upside down, what kind of effect would this have on society overall?
Before this, there were a lot of drugs developed to treat Alzheimer’s. Some of them aimed to completely cure it, while others used stem cells. Places like AllBio, Naturegenic, and Trinity Clinic Fukuoka conducted a lot of research like that. Furthermore, a lot of them went into clinical trials as well. A bunch would come up if she searched for stem cell therapy for Alzheimer’s on Google.
The problem was that they all failed. There were a lot of new and existing pharmaceutical companies who jumped into this field in high spirits and ready for the challenge, but they all failed because it was too hard.
So, the only four products that were approved by the FDA in America were Namenda, Aricept, Exelon, and Razadyne. And all they did was ease the symptoms or slow the progression of Alzheimer’s. A drug that had the potential to regenerate damaged brain cells and cure them did not exist, until now.
There were around eighty million patients who suffered from Alzheimer’s around the world. The number rose so steeply that some predicted the number would be around 2.7 million in 2050.
‘A future like that won’t come if this technology is commercialized.’
Young-Joon was rescuing the person’s life and quality of life, but if the financial and emotional costs, which arose due to the nature of the disease, it had on society were also considered? This was something that was worth more than receiving the Nobel Prize ten times over.
“Are you also going to interview Doctor Ryu?” Shin Jung-Ju asked.
“Yes, of course.”
“But you might not be able to interview him because he’s extremely busy.”
“Really?”
“It’s just something I heard, but he is expanding his business, writing the Alzheimer’s paper and he’s also preparing another clinical trial for another new drug. I heard that he doesn’t get more than four hours of sleep every day.”
“Woah...”
“But I think he will publish his paper soon. I think this will definitely be on Science.”
“No matter what kind of papers are released this month, this one’s going on the cover no matter what.”
“I’m excited, too. I get to have my name on a Science paper thanks to Doctor Ryu.”
Shin Jung-Ju smiled.
* * *
“Kill... me...”
Lee Hae-Won had finished registering patents for all one hundred twenty-two drugs for thirty-four different diseases. Even if she grouped a few drugs together for one disease, she was still writing thirty-four different patents.
‘I swear I would have died from overworking if I had two more.’
She flopped over on her office desk.
But all one hundred twenty-two drugs had good experimental data. All the data that Cell Bio sent her showed that all the experiments succeeded.
‘How is this possible?’
Usually, the process of developing a new drug involved putting thousands of drug candidates into one disease model cell line at once and then selecting one that had an effect. It meant that there was a one in a thousand or ten thousand chance of discovering a new drug.
But Young-Joon couldn’t have tested hundreds of thousands of candidate materials alone.
‘How did he know that these candidates had effects?
To put it a little harshly, it felt like someone’s delusions all turned out to be correct. After picking out one hundred twenty-two candidates like they were already existing drugs, he conducted the necessary experiments to make data, then patented them? Everything went according to plan, like a conveyor belt running, but it truly was astonishing.
There were a lot of things about Young-Joon on the news lately, but this was more fascinating to Lee Hae-Won than iPSCs or a glaucoma cure. He was more than a genius.
‘Does he have an alien trapped in his basement or something?’
As Lee Hae-Won was making up a fantasy...
Click.
She heard the door open. As she stood up slightly to see the door, she could see Park Joo-Hyuk walking in.
“Heya.”
“I thought you were a customer.”
Lee Hae-Won chuckled and sat back down like she wasn’t excited anymore. But she stopped mid-way in a weird position.
“Wait...”
She suddenly felt anxiety in her heart.
With a trembling voice, she asked, “H-Hey, um... Doctor Ryu didn’t give you anything more, right?”
“Hehehe. You cannot escape from work, you slave. I’ll tie you to your chair right now because you shouldn’t even think about leaving.”
Lee Hae-Won went pale.
“Please let me sleep eight hours a day.”
“But even if you work that much, you don’t want to lose our CEO, right?”
“Of course. If I lose him, I won’t have a job.”
Lee Hae-Won poured a glass of orange juice and gave it to Park Joo-Hyuk.
“So, what’s up?”
“I actually didn’t come here to give you work. Tricked you, right?”
“What?”
“I’m here to scout you,” Park Joo-Hyuk said.
“Scout me?”
“What do you think about working as the in-house patent attorney?”
“At A-Bio?”
“My CEO says that he has quite a few things he wants to assign you. He’ll make sure your salary is much higher than what you’re earning right now.”
“...”
“Why do you look like that? You don’t like it?”
“I like that I’ll be paid a lot, but I think the amount of work I have will be several times more than what I have now if I become an in-house...”
“I heard about a few items and his business direction when we had lunch together. I assume it will be a dozen times more.”
“Holy...”
“Don’t worry. You won’t be doing them alone. We’re going to make a company legal team, and we’re going to have a few people who specialize in patents. And if you come to work here, your work-life balance will be better.”
“It will become better?”
“Our company complies with the fifty-two-hour workweek limit. And everyone gets off work on the dot.”
“Really?” Lee Hae-Won was shocked.
“But it’s still a start-up... How does that work?”
“Well, all the base experiments are done in the CEO’s head..”
“I’ll go right away. Where’s the contract? I want to sign it right now,” Lee Hae-Won said quickly, not wanting to lose this opportunity.
“Good. The first thing you’ll probably be doing once you come will be transferring the probiotics product. He commissioned that to you, right?”
“Yeah. I’m discussing it with the Patent Law Office at Lab Six and working on it.”
“Good. Take care of that when you start working. You’re going to have to work alone for a while. You could discuss it with the CEO, but you’ll probably have to do it by Skype.”
“By Skype? Why?”
“He’s going on a business trip to the U.S.”
“The U.S.?”
‘Is he getting an investment in the U.S.?’
Lee Hae-Won tilted her head in confusion.
“He said that he’s going to the International Integrative Brain Disorder Conference. He’s going to present the results from using stem cells to treat Alzheimer’s in the clinical trial to get some funding.”
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