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Chapter 238: Brain Death (3)

“Is it possible?”

—Humans don’t know the boundary between living and nonliving organisms yet, right? That’s why they are making such a fuss over the resurrection of the brain-dead.

Rosaline paused for a moment.

—But I know the answer.

“What is it?”

—Living things have bodies. Not just a collection of atoms, but a body in the sense that it’s a unique living space that cannot be interfered with by the outside world.

Rosaline went on.

—The collection of all the spaces corresponding to the inside of a shell of skin or a face enclosed by a phospholipid bilayer, and the desire to eliminate external threats to that space. That’s what it means to be a living thing.

—I have a body at the cellular level as well, but it’s an incomplete thing that can’t survive outside of your body.

—That’s the reason why I have to absorb this pathogen. The hepatitis medication you were taking when I was created caused an organic chemical reaction. If that caused my DNA to break apart, the only way to make myself whole is to get it back and absorb it.

Rosaline was firm.

—I will become a living organism with a complete body.

Young-Joon stroked his chin and thought for a moment.

“The pathogen is aggressive,” Young-Joon said.

—I know what you are worried about.

Rosaline assured Young-Joon.

—You’re worried that I’ll absorb the pathogen and then attack people, right?

The emergence and flourishing of a superior species always meant the demise of the existing ones.

What were the consequences of fish like the snakehead being introduced into American streams? With its high survivability, aggressiveness, and ravenous appetite, the snakehead nearly wiped out the native bass in the Potomac River in Washington.

So, what if Rosaline, an extremely intelligent species, thrived on this land? If Rosaline was the snakehead, who was the bass in the stream of this Earth?

—It would be dangerous if that was my instinct from an ecological perspective.

Rosaline explained.

—But don’t worry. I’m friendly to humans. I’ve seen a lot of horrible things with you, but I’ve also seen beautiful things.

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Young-Joon said. “I trust you. You sometimes have scary thoughts for the sake of efficacy, but you’re not a monster who likes to hurt people.”

—...

“And I’m sure absorbing that pathogen won’t make you more aggressive. You’re excellent,” Young-Joon said. “I’m just worried you’ll get hurt.”

—Me?

“That pathogen infected Kim Hyun-Taek, quickly left him brain-dead and damaged many of his organs. You know that, right?”

—Yes.

“You’ve lost your consciousness once just by keeping it in your cells. But what happens if you insert it in your genome...”

—...

Rosaline shrugged.

—You’re like a young, inexperienced father overprotecting his child.

“This isn’t overprotection. Anyone would be worried.”

—I didn’t mean it in a bad way.

“...”

—But it’s really okay. I’ll be able to control everything.

Rosaline reassured Young-Joon.

—Did you forget that I’m an organism who is omniscient in biology?

“... You’re not going to listen to me even if I tell you not to do it, right?”

—Yes.

Rosaline laughed like there was nothing she could do.

“How are you going to absorb that DNA?” Young-Joon asked.

—I’m going to use a transposon.

Transposons were pieces of human DNA. These pieces, which just seemed like ordinary genes from the outside, were surprisingly not originally human.

Transposons were viral DNA. Some viruses could infect human cells and insert their own DNA into human DNA. Then, they lived there as if they were just part of the human DNA. It did nothing, and it just replicated when human somatic and reproductive cells divided. It was part of the virus, but it had just become a part of the human.

—I’m going to start now.

Rosaline came off the bed and stood up straight.

A white glow emanated from her body. The DNA work was being done while she was in her single-cell form, not Ryu Sae-Yi.

Rosaline carefully picked up a fragment of the pathogen’s DNA. It was about 1.2 million bp[1], so it wasn’t very big.

Rosaline bundled the pathogen DNA into a circle and attached a molecular structure called a TSD to each end. Then, she slowly moved it toward her DNA; this process was similar to a spaceship docking.

She took out a biomolecule called transposase, and she tied it to the end of both DNA.

Snap.

The DNA of the pathogen became attached when one side of Rosaline’s DNA was severed. Rosaline tied them together like sutures.

—It’s done.

“You’re done?”

—Yes.

“There aren’t any changes.”

—... Yeah.

Rosaline looked down at her hands, tilting her head in puzzlement.

* * *

—At noon today, A-GenBio will conduct a clinical trial to recover a brain-dead patient, Mr. Kim Hyun-Taek, at the Next Generation Hospital.

The news was on TV, which Young-Joon was watching at the Next Generation Hospital.

—Brain-dead patients are still considered dead, and the Clinical Trial Act is still restricted to conducting clinical trials on living people. As such, A-GenBio has pushed for the Ryu Young-Joon Special Act.

The news anchor spoke into the camera.

—We are very excited about the results of this trial, given the remarkable results of the preclinical trials that Doctor Ryu Young-Joon showed at the public hearing. If the treatment is successful, Mr. Kim will be the first case of a person who has been brought back from the dead under medical law.

“He didn’t come back to life; he was alive to begin with,” Young-Joon said.

“That’s right,” said Professor Miguel from the Department of Neurology.

Miguel was a leading expert in neuroscience.

“I’m not even a doctor at the Next Generation Hospital, just a visiting physician, and I never thought I’d be asked to lead such an amazing experimental surgery.”

“We were so fortunate to have someone like you at the Next Generation Hospital at this time, Doctor Miguel,” Young-Joon said.

“I came here to study. I was originally planning to go back to Germany in the second half of next year.”

“A professor of your caliber has something to learn here?”

“Haha, don’t be so humble. There is nowhere that can match A-GenBio in stem cell and neural regenerative medicine in Korea, even the United States,” Miguel said.

Young-Joon grinned.

“Still, I’m sure it’s a lot of pressure with all the attention, but I appreciate your willingness to take it on,” Young-Joon said.

“I’m studying here for free, so I should at least make it worth your while.”

“It was free?”

“The director of the hospital waived my tuition fee as a condition for me working here.”

“I see. Considering how much you’re worth, the director made a good deal.”

—Meanwhile, protests against A-GenBio’s research have begun, saying it touches on the fundamental parts of life.

The news anchor continued.

—On the morning of the ninth, a Christian group rallied in front of A-GenBio’s headquarters. Let’s take a look at the scene.

The scene of the rally showed up on the news screen. A representative of the rally took the microphone and shouted.

—Life is something that only God can give. Resurrecting the dead is something that cannot and should not be done. A-GenBio should stop performing evil magic to resurrect the dead and focus on its real business, curing the diseases of the living.

“I’m not telling you, they’re not dead...”

Young-Joon shrugged.

“It will take a while for the public to digest this,” Miguel said.

* * *

The brainstem was the innermost part of the human brain, right in the center. If a straight, vertical line was drawn from the middle of the eyebrows to the back of the head and a straight horizontal line connected the temples, the intersection would be where the brainstem was.[2]

The brainstem was surrounded by the cerebrum, cerebellum, and diencephalon, and the outside was covered with the skull. Simply put, it was in a difficult location to reach.

They were able to remove part of the skull at the back of the head and inject the needle into the brain in a slightly crude way for the beagle experiment, but they had to be careful of using this method in humans.

Originally, they were going to take a few more months to develop a drug delivery method, but they had Professor Miguel.

“Let’s go with an intranasal injection,” said Miguel.

They were having a meeting for the brainstem regeneration project.

The human nose was one of the easiest passages to access the brain. Miguel proposed a way to access the brainstem, which was by sticking a very long, thin needle into the nostril.

“For a trial of this magnitude, we need to reduce the variables as much as possible. Because if it fails, we don’t know if the drug delivery method was wrong, or if the stem cell therapy is inappropriate in the human brainstem,” Miguel said.

“But intranasal injection is already a widely recognized technique. The technique itself is difficult, so we won’t be able to commercialize it as is, but it will be a major step in showing that brainstem regeneration with stem cells is possible and brain death is not death.”

“You’re suggesting we take it step by step,” Carpentier said.

“That’s right. Once we’ve established that the brain-dead are alive and recoverable using a known method called intranasal injection, it will be much easier to develop drug-delivery methods because the patients will be included in the Clinical Trial Act.”

Amid the beeps of the electrocardiogram graph and the sound of other machinery, one hundred thousand induced pluripotent stem cells arrived. With the help of the medical team, Miguel began to push the syringe needle up his nose while keeping an eye on the monitor.

‘What do you think?’ Young-Joon asked Rosalie in his mind.

He was standing outside and watching the surgery from the gallery.

—It will be fine.

Rosaline also watched them, standing beside Young-Joon.

‘How are you feeling?’

—Me?

‘It’s been almost two weeks since then, and nothing seems to be wrong so far. You don’t seem to have changed much.’

—Yeah.

Rosaline shrugged.

[Synchronization Mode: Brain death]

Rosaline activated Synchronization Mode.

—Let’s see if the surgery is going well.

Young-Joon’s vision zoomed in until he could see a single cell. Then, an enormous needle, which was completely different from its name, a microneedle, appeared. It entered the nostril, and traveled through the squamous mucosa of the nasal cavity, closely adhering to the bridge of the nose.

After a moment, it reached the superior nasal concha deep inside the nostrils. Miguel was pushing the needle in very slowly and carefully while watching the monitor.

Above it was the olfactory epithelium. In terms of anatomical location, the needle was now closer to the eye than the nose.

The needle paused right in front.

“Phew...”

Sweat broke out on the nape of Miguel’s neck. Now, he really had to be careful. A few millimeters above the needle was the cribriform plate, which was a skeletal structure that was like a gateway to the brain. This region was covered with mucous membranes, which were packed with cell bodies of olfactory receptors.

But between the mucous membranes, there was a very small gap between the bones. That was where the needle was going to go. This required control in increments smaller than millimeters. Miguel attached a micro-electric motor to the end of the syringe, then turned the coarse adjustment knob to push the needle up a few micrometers.

They had to stop just before the olfactory bulb. This was where the olfactory receptors transmitted the signals they received to the brain. Cerebrospinal fluid flowed between the olfactory bulb and the cribriform plate.

Miguel took his hand off the coarse adjustment knob.

“I think we’ve arrived,” Young-Joon said into the monitor.

But it didn’t end there.

Miguel’s syringe moved slowly along the tube through which cerebrospinal fluid flowed. It was only a few centimeters away, but it felt so far away.

They were at the front of the fourth ventricle.

“I’m going to inject it now.”

Miguel pressed down on the syringe plunger.

‘It’s going in.’

Young-Joon frowned while watching them.

One hundred thousand induced pluripotent stem cells were flowing into the fourth ventricle.

1. base pairs; the unit for measuring DNA ☜

2. This isn’t actually the anatomical location of the brainstem ☜