Super Genius DNA

Jack the Ripper was a notorious serial killer who terrorized London, England in the late nineteenth century. He became a huge issue because of his gruesome murders, where he cut open his victims’ stomachs and removed all their organs.

But there was a bigger reason for his notoriety: Jack the Ripper had provoked newspapers and watch groups by sending them letters. These were deranged letters in which he confessed his crimes or even enclosed a kidney he removed from a victim. It was the first ever theatrical crime.

Even though Queen Victoria of England, who was outraged at the crimes, personally ordered the police to catch Jack the Ripper, he was never found. The British police even asked Conan Doyle, the greatest mystery writer of his time, to solve the case, but they still couldn’t catch him. There were a few suspects, but there wasn’t enough evidence.

But that was in the nineteenth century. Modern science could now uncover the secrets of even the most perfectly concealed crimes. DNA always left behind evidence.

In 2014, scientists identified DNA from some semen found on a shawl that was around the neck of one of Jack the Ripper’s murder victims. They compared it to DNA from the descendants of the suspects identified in the past and distinguished a barber named Aaron Kosminski.

Though still controversial, the DNA result was the strongest evidence available and led many scientists and criminal profilers to believe Kosminski was the killer.

“In the old days, you wouldn’t find anything at the crime scene if you got rid of the body and wiped the blood off, but we have luminol now.”

Young-Joon put the incoming DNA samples from the medical staff into a microtube rack.

—This is how they used to do genetic manipulation before Cas9 existed.

“Back then, we had a technology called transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN),” Young-Joon said.

TALENs were gene scissors made up of a string of proteins that could read DNA and an endonuclease called Fokl attached to the end. These giant gene scissors recognized and attached to specific locations in the DNA, where Fokl would cut the target site.

“The synthesis of TALENs is really complicated compared to Cas9, so it was very time-consuming and labor-intensive to manipulate one site,” Young-Joon said. “But the result was still good enough to use it for a couple corrections.”

At Groom Lake Air Force Base, the lab used TALENs to genetically modify fertilized eggs. Even though the success rate was low, they would only select the eggs that were successfully mutated, implant them in a surrogate mother, then evaluate the baby’s health and intelligence quotient when it was born.

Then, this raised one question. DNA was in the nucleus of the cell, and so the TALENs would have to go inside the nucleus to cut the DNA. How could they have inserted these gene scissors into the nucleus nearly thirty years ago? Back then, the microscopes didn’t have the magnification that exists today. As such, it wouldn’t have been easy to insert TALENs directly into the cell using a microsyringe.

Another option would have been to use electrical stimulation to slightly tear the cell membrane and shoot the gene scissors through the gap. However, the yield in this case would be very low, as most of the fertilized eggs would die from the electrical stimulation. It was unlikely that a lab that has done so much genetic manipulation would have used this method.

So, what was the best option? It was to use viruses. They could load the gene synthesizing TALENs into a virus and infect the fertilized egg. Viruses had a tendency to insert their DNA into the host DNA, so the DNA that synthesized TALENs would have entered the fertilized egg, just like how the polyomavirus inserted the morality genes into Lagba’s central nervous system. That was where Young-Joon got the idea from.

“It’s the kind of idea that criminals might use.”

The embryology lab at Groom Lake modified target genes by using the TALENs created by the TALEN genes inserted into the nucleus of the fertilized egg.

‘Then those scissors would still be inside the victim’s DNA.’

DNA’s preservation ability was by far the best among natural polymers. Even after thirty years, the DNA must still be there.

Young-Joon chose two of the DNA samples for preliminary testing. He used a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machine to amplify the genes that synthesized TALEN.

Then, he purified them with a PCR product purification kit. Unnecessary proteins and salts were removed, and then the product was drawn into water called nuclease-free water. The concentration was four hundred eighty ng/µL, which was a significant amount. If it was amplified this much, the sequence could be analyzed to prove that this DNA did indeed code for TALENs.

Young-Joon first loaded the DNA on agarose gel and viewed it under a UV lamp. The amplified DNA was clearly visible.

‘I found the weapon,’ Young-Joon thought.

Now, it was time to find the victim’s wound.

It was a serious crisis for a cell when a cut occurred in the DNA. Fortunately, there was a mechanism in the cell that repaired DNA breaks, but it added or removed a few DNA bases when it was activated—this was called an indel.

This phenomenon couldn’t be picked out of the DNA like how Young-Joon found the TALENs, as these indels were scattered across billions of base pairs in a randomized pattern that was hard to recognize. Ordinary scientists wouldn’t be able to find them, but Rosaline could.

“I’m going to use Synchronization Mode,” Young-Joon said, looking at the DNA.

[Synchronization Mode: InDel Pattern Analysis. Fitness consumption: -0.5/second]

Young-Joon looked up in surprise.

“The fitness consumption is negative?”

—It’s because of Lagba.

Rosaline intervened.

—The fitness increase per second increased so much that the fitness isn’t consumed with just Synchronization Mode.

“...”

Young-Joon was a little shocked, but he quickly adjusted.

“Alright. Let’s find the wound now.”

With Synchronization Mode activated, Young-Joon analyzed the indel patterns of the two DNA samples, one by one. With his right hand, he wrote the patterns on a piece of paper.

[Sample 1

TAM A779del

LOS1A15 T112M

…]

He was recording the pattern of variants at the manipulated position of the manipulated genes. Young-Joon found a total of one hundred ninety-four gene variants in two samples. Along with the weapon, he also found the patients’ wounds caused by the weapon.

“It’s highly unlikely that this many genetic variants would occur naturally without DNA manipulation,” Young-Joon said.

But in case they argued that it was natural, it would be best to prove that the inserted TALENs caused these mutations.

Young-Joon prepared to do ChiP sequencing. Nanometers of DNA were wrapped around a polymeric biomolecule called histones. When a cut occurred in the DNA, the histones also underwent a slight modification, which were called epigenetic modifications. The changes in histones were the most direct evidence that DNA had been cut.

Young-Joon began to analyze the identified wounds using ChiP sequencing.

*

When Young-Joon left the lab, it was already past ten o’clock at night. Extreme fatigue weighed on his shoulders, but he had collected a good amount of evidence from two patient samples.

“Now we just need to repeat this for all the patients with genetic conditions that we have here,” Young-Joon said. “Well, I’m going to hand this off to the medical staff now, so…”

The biggest medical center in Nicaragua that was built in Kukra Hill had been in full operation since the morning. The doctors from A-GenBio were moving around busily and examining people.

That’s when Young-Joon noticed something unusual. The atmosphere here didn’t feel like a hospital. Whereas hospitals usually felt quite solemn, this place was buzzing with liveliness. Laughter from doctors and patients could often be heard through the open doors of the examination rooms. Music could be heard from the end of the hallway.

When Young-Joon walked past the administration desk and went down to the hospital lobby on the first floor, he saw an amazing sight. Music was playing, and people were dancing and singing.

Young-Joon froze for a moment. Thousands of Nicaraguan medical workers had been arriving at Kukra Hill since last month. Interpreters had also volunteered to come here and help bridge the language barrier between Nicaragua, where Spanish was the official language, and A-GenBio.

There were a lot of volunteers who were Nicaraguan citizens as well, and they had come to the hospital to help with this bizarre medical project by cleaning and preparing meals. Many of them were hanging out noisily in the hospital lobby. The outside garden and the entrance were decorated with flowers and colored paper like a Christmas tree. They even set up tents outside the building and shared fruit and food.

Even in Korea, at places like Severance Hospital, people often put on performances in the hospital lobby to cheer up patients, but this was more like a festival.

“...”

It was a refreshing shock for Young-Joon, who had been overwhelmed by the combination of Lofair, Groom Lake Base, patients with genetic conditions, and Doctor Ref.

“It’s the Maypole Festival,” said Professor Koh In-Guk. “The Caribbean coast has the least rain from February to April, and the wells dry up in the highland, causing problems with their drinking water and farming. It’s the hardest time of the year for them, but the raindrops become thicker in May, which is why they celebrate it.”

“It’s already past May…” Young-Joon said.

“It’s a country with a lot of pain,” Koh In-Guk said. “Your reputation in this country is almost equal to Sandino right now, the commander of Nicaragua who fought against the U.S. military occupation with a peasant army. They say he defeated the Green Berets with his peasant army.”

“...”

“Of course they would like you; you’re not just treating one or two patients, but providing treatments to an entire population of patients with incurable diseases.”

“I see.”

Young-Joon hadn’t thought of that in the midst of everything. The people of Nicaragua were celebrating.

“In fact, the scientists from A-GenBio and the doctors from our hospital are coming in on their breaks and enjoying the festivities. They were acting all dignified and unphased at first, but now they’re letting loose… That’s Professor Hwang Sam-Jun dancing over there right now.”

Koh In-Guk pointed to the medical professor who was dancing with the crowd.

Young-Joon chuckled.

“You should have some fun, too. The staff were going to call you here, but they couldn’t find you…” said Koh In-Guk.

“I’ll just watch,” Young-Joon replied.

He sat on a chair outside the festival and watched the people, deep in thought.

‘It’s about time for Lofair to make a move.’

Young-Joon recalled his phone call with Prime Minister Felus.

The real power in the Lofair family came from the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States.

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