Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
While Chen Chen was in Africa, Samuel was across the Mediterranean Sea, in the European region. He stood in a clean and polished laboratory, silently beholding the sight of the incubation chamber that looked straight out of a sci-fi film.
The incubation chamber was a cylindrical structure, measuring about 30 centimeters in diameter. Its body was wholly manufactured with tempered glass, with only its base and top made of metal.
The incubation chamber contained a pool of faint yellowish liquid.
Within the pool of muddy liquid, a fist-sized, human-like life form could be seen quietly suspended within the solution.
It was a chimpanzee still in its fetal form.
An artificially umbilical cord made of biological material was connected to the belly button of the embryo. The cord passed through the other end of the cultivation chamber and fed directly into a nutritional chamber.
The setup of the laboratory served as a model of a mother’s womb, directly transmitting nutrients into the embryo.
Seemingly being content with the observation for the day, Samuel slowly turned away from the incubation chamber he was facing. In an instant, rows after rows of cultivation chambers were revealed, each one identical to the other...
This was the experiment project Chen Chen had put together before leaving. Each one of these embryos was the corresponding clone of one particular elderly chimpanzee hosted in the research institute.
Throughout the long history of the process of cloning, the most monumental challenge had always been the cloning of primate species. In the case of other various species, the cloning technique used could be cross-referenced to develop new techniques. For instance, the cloning technique used for sheep could be modified slightly to clone Kunming mice.
However, of all the cloning techniques developed to this day that could be used to clone mammalian species, none of them were applicable to primate species.
Theologists all across the world claimed that this was because humans were primate species as well and were made in the image of God. God would never allow technology to defile his creations.
The sixteen year-long duration between the birth of Dolly the cloned sheep up till 2013 was coined as the dark ages of the cloning world. Over these daunting sixteen years, scientists all over the world constantly attempted to perform cloning on primate species with what extremely limited cloning theories they had at hand.
Each time they failed, they tried again. Again and again...
Many people had given up on the endeavor. However, each failure effectively crossed off a non-viable path and served as an insight for the next person on the line. Each seemingly futile step taken contributed to the path to success in the grand scheme of things...
This mindless endeavor went on until 2013. It was then when the almighty authority of God was once again overcome by mankind.
In 2013, after thousands of failed attempts by the American-Kazakhstan scientist Mitalipov, he attempted the very first usage of caffeine in the process of human somatic nuclear cell transfer. It was this attempt that gave way to the miracle which countless scientists only dared to dream of up till that point —
After undergoing the caffeine process, not only were the cloned embryos able to fuse efficiently, they were able to attain a perfect form never seen before throughout the years!
The cause for this was that caffeine was a form of protein phosphatase inhibitor. Its elements were able to temporarily suppress the signal passage of the egg cell, effectively keeping it in a stable condition. This way, it was able to dramatically improve the efficiency of the cloning process.
Going back to the Western fable analogy:
The purpose of cloning was to cast out the original “egg cell nucleus” king from the egg cell to let another king called “Somatic cell nucleus” take its place.
However, the shift of regime was no small matter. If the nation was in a volatile state during the transfer of power, there was a large chance of a dramatic outbreak and riot which would lead to the collapse of the kingdom.
This was where caffeine played a critical role. It assumed the role of the “Minister” who kept the nation under control during the transfer of power. In these times of turbulence and turmoil, it was able to quell the nation to ensure the “Somatic cell nucleus” was able to smoothly ascend to its place on the throne...
In China, there was a saying which conveyed the meaning that the older generation planted the tree for the next generation to use as shade. This was a perfect analogy of the contribution of the scientist Mitalipov. It was his effort that ensured that humanity would not cease in their efforts of cloning, all of that led to Samuel standing here today beholding what was before him.
When Samuel beheld the birth of life happening before him, he thoughtfully reflected on its implications.
This batch of cloned chimpanzees had differentiated enough hematopoietic stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells to help reiterate Chen Chen’s previous experiment.
As long as the experiment was able to proceed as planned, the process of aging would soon cease to be an irreversible phenomenon. The average life expectancy of human beings was expected to be raised by 20 to 30 years.
Needless to say, this technique was not in its mature stages yet as there were still many hurdles yet to be overcome. For instance, the harmful effects which chemotherapy posed to the body, the high failure rate of immune system reconstruction, and such. These issues had to be addressed one by one in the future.
Apart from that, there was the issue of ethics. Although the argument that “embryos were not sentient beings” could be valid here, there would be a considerable amount of contradicting opinions from society. A separate solution was required to address this problem.
...
On the other side, right after bidding farewell to Cheng Cao, Chen Chen received news from Samuel regarding the success of the cloning.
“Pulling off the cloning chimpanzees in barely two months. Samuel is a very remarkable prospect...”
Chen Chen pondered for a moment upon reading the contents of the text.
If the following chimpanzee experiments turned out to be successful as well, all that remained was the clinical human trials.
To conduct clinical human trials in Switzerland, the green light from ATP (Advanced Technology Products) and SOPH (Federal Office of Public Health of the Swiss Confederation) was required. Just like how approval from FDA was needed in North America Continent and CFDA approval was required in the Mainland.
It was for this reason that another pesky situation came up —
Sometimes, the approval process in certain countries could take even longer than the time taken for drug and technology research and development. It may even be dragged on, that the company would be long bankrupt before approval was given.
Therefore, Chen Chen was not going to conduct the third stage of the clinical human trial in Switzerland where the healthcare infrastructure was perfectly standardized and developed.
He was going to relocate the third stage of the trial to Namibia.
He was currently in the honeymoon phase of the relationship with Namibia. Therefore, receiving the stamp from the Ministry of Health was going to be an effortless task.
If the ethic factor still proved to be too challenging and the chances seemed to be not optimistic, secretly conducting clinical trials himself might still be viable...
Chen Chen thought about his next move. He then made a call to Wynn, the head of the Swiss branch.
“Mr. Wynn, I need you to do me a favor...
“I need the most advanced bio-electronic equipment on the market... Yes, price and tariffs won’t be a problem. The required political contributions won’t be an issue either...
“I know there’s going to be a lot of work and connections involved in this project. I heard your son is getting married soon, it just so happens that I recently bought a deluxe apartment right next to the Zurich Opera House. It belongs to him now.
“Alright, the sooner, the better. I’m sure you know what the company is currently developing as well. You’ll be first in line as its beneficiary if it proves to be successful.”
Chen Chen shook his head after ending the call.
Going by this trajectory, the four billion U.S. Dollars Chen Chen got from Facebook was not going to last much longer. He might have to scam his way into another fortune again.
Once he received a definite result of the experiment from Samuel’s end, he just might have time to go bounty seeking across the world again.
This time around, four billion was not going to cut it...