Chapter 31: Probiotics (1)

Chapter 31: Probiotics (1)

What are drugs? If someone answered that it was to treat diseases, they would be half right. The concept of drugs encompassed the prevention of diseases as well. Young-Joon was going to continue the line of research on the treatment of neurological disorders using stem cells, but he had to start something in the healthcare field now at the latest since this could take a long time.

The keyword in the center of healthcare was probiotics. There were almost one thousand five hundred kinds of microorganisms living in the gut, and they had almost one hundred fifty times more genetic material than one person.

The huge amount of biomaterials that are expressed from their genetic material are released in the form of microspores, then reabsorbed into the human body. They are sent to various places through the blood.

It would be strange to think that they wouldn’t have an effect on the body. It was pretty well-known to the public that Helicobacter pylori, one of the microorganisms that lived in the stomach, could cause stomach cancer in some people. That was why hy Co., Ltd, a Korean yakult company, made Helicobacter Project Will, saying that it was a probiotic drink that would destroy that.

Helicobacter pylori was the most famous one, but there were reports about microorganisms in the stomach and cancer every year. One of the most recent papers found that proteobacteria and actinobacteria species could cause pancreatic cancer.

It really showed that gut microorganisms could really drive or suppress cancer. It was not the only reason for cancer development, but it seemed certain that it was an important reason.

These discoveries hadn’t been studied deeply enough or become widely known. That was why there weren’t many people who bought probiotic products even when new ones were made, and it wasn’t as good for profit from the company’s perspective. Just in terms of money, developing a new anticancer drug could be better for profit short term.

But shouldn’t scientists who fight for the health of humanity show the potential of probiotics to the public and supply the market with an excellent product? In terms of preventing diseases, it could be an item that contributes more to human health than stem cells.

“...And A-Gen’s profit on probiotics has continuously gone down after the release of Roche’s Active Lactobacillin,” Young-Joon said.

Five scientists from the Health Food Department, including Choi Myung-Joon, cleared their throats in embarrassment as they read the chart Young-Joon was presenting.

A joint department meeting was happening in the meeting room of Lab Six. From the Life Creation Department, Young-Joon who proposed this meeting, Koh Soon-Yeol and Park Dong-Hyun, who both have experience with probiotics, and Department Head Cheon Ji-Myung were in attendance.

The Health Food Department was much bigger and had around twenty people, but there was Choi Myung-Joon, Seo Yoon-Ju, and three new people here as they specialized in probiotics.

Young-Joon said, “To be honest, I don’t think it’s the Health Food Department’s fault that we lost our share in the market. There isn’t much of a difference between our product and Roche’s right? It’s more of a failure in marketing rather than the scientists.”

“But we could have beaten Roche if we developed a better probiotic product,” Cheon Ji-Myung added.

“But probiotics have been developed to their fullest. There isn’t much we can do now.” Choi Myung-Joon made excuses as if he was letting his frustration out.

“Like Doctor Ryu said, our product is similar to Roche’s, right? It’s because we have developed it as far as it can go. The scientific community has analyzed one thousand of the gut microorganisms in the body. There aren’t any better products.”

Young-Joon shook his head.

“There are definitely problems in our existing product. If we find a solution to that, it will become a better product.”

“What problems?”

“First of all, the biggest problem: even if you take probiotics, your gut microorganism composition doesn’t change very easily. It’s because the ones that already exist are too strong and too high in number.” Young-Joon explained.

Gut microorganisms were like the old guards; the ones that established themselves first killed and drove out the ones that came later on. Because of this, the gut microorganism composition did not change easily even if one took a lot of probiotics.

“Actually, among the recent papers published in Cell, one proposed that most probiotics get discharged as is because it is difficult to get rid of the microorganisms already established there. It’s hard to establish them in the gut if we don’t use probiotics customized to the individual.” novelbin

Seo Yoon-Ju suddenly raised her hand.

“So I was thinking. What if we make probiotic formula for infants? I have proposed that idea for a long time. What do you think, Doctor Ryu?”

Infants who were just born do not have any microorganisms in their gut because the uterus of a mother is a sterile environment. There were many microorganisms in a woman's vagina, but they could not easily invade the uterus. Basically, humans were first introduced to microorganisms from the moment of their birth. As such, the best plan would be to help beneficial microorganisms to establish themselves during early age.

“But that is dangerous,” Young-Joon disagreed.

“It’s a good plan, Scientist Seo, but it could be harmful to give them probiotics, a large amount of bacteria, because they have a weak immune system. Even if they are beneficial.”

“Then we don’t really have a good plan,” Choi Myung-Joon said.

“So, like the old plan, we’ll have to use probiotics for a long time and make them fight for their place in the gut.”

“Or we can use antibiotics to destroy the existing microorganisms in the gut. It’s violent, but theoretically possible,” one of them from the Health Food Department added.

Young-Joon interfered in their conversation, “Don’t do that. Maybe we should change the bacteria strain.”

“The strain?”

The scientists all stared at him with wide eyes.

“There is a strain called Clorotonis limuvitus. Let’s use that.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a bacteria that usually resides in volcanic soil. There should be a lot in the soil near Mount Sinabung, one of the volcanoes in the Sumatra islands in Indonesia.”

“Dong-Hyun-sunbae told you that, right?”

“Yes.”

Jung Hae-Rim covered her mouth and giggled. Young-Joon stared at her with a disapproving look and found Koh Soon-Yeol walking past them.

“I wonder if Soon-Yeol-sunbae will be alright,” Young-Joon said.

“Why?’

“We’re going to work with the Health Food Department because of probiotics. I’m ambivalent about their department, so it doesn’t matter to me if we work together since they have a good infrastructure and network, but even if Soon-Yeol-sunbae got his apology and money for the clothes, I’m worried that it will be emotionally exhausting...”

“Huh? You haven’t heard the news?” Jung Hae-Rim asked with wide eyes.

“What?”

“Soon-Yeol and Yoon-Ju are dating.”

“Cough!”

Young-Joon’s saliva went down the wrong way because he was so surprised. He began coughing.

[Starting to normalize breathing.]

[Relieving irritation of submucosal receptors.]

“They’re dating?”

That news was the most shocking thing Young-Joon had heard recently.

“The money Yoon-Ju gave to Soon-Yeol for his clothes was originally for her trip to Tokyo. But apparently, Soon-Yeol heard that and asked her to go to Tokyo for him and get a Kohaku figurine for him at Akihabara. But then, Yoon-Ju went to Akihabara and opened her eyes to a whole new world. She became a fan immediately and broke up with her boyfriend who she wasn’t on good terms with. Then, she actively pursued Soon-Yeol, saying that he was cute when you looked at him closely...”

“Holy shit...”

Now that Young-Joon thought about it, Seo Yoon-Ju was looking at Koh Soon-Yeol with lust. He did not imagine this plot twist.

Jung Hae-Rim said, “You live to see such weird things, right? Soon-Yeol is actually quite a charming person. Even now, Soon-Yeol is the one giving her a chance. Apparently, he only smiles a couple times when they talk about Kohaku.”

She giggled, then suddenly remembered something.

“Oh, right! Young-Joon, there are reporters outside. I actually came here to tell you that. You said you were doing an interview in the afternoon today.”

“Yes. I’ll be back.”

After the release in Science and CNN, Korean reporters were calling A-Gen every day and asking for interviews. It was fun at first, but now, it was burdensome and tiring.

‘I’ll do this one and then decline any other ones.’

* * *

On Friday evening, when the Science special was published and before Young-Joon had the joint department meeting, Choi Yeon-Ho, the CEO of Celligener, called Song Ji-Hyun, who had just come back from her break, into his office when she was experimenting. He showed her Young-Joon’s Science paper and interview. Her eyes widened.

“Doctor Song, is this the A-Gen scientist you mentioned before?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“He was the one who requested a meeting with us to work on probiotics together, right?”

“Yes.”

With his fingers on his lips, Choi Yeon-Ho stared at the young man’s face that was on the interview page. Song Ji-Hyun had told him that he was a scientist who worked on stem cells in the Life Creation Department or something like that. And she said that he had asked her to work together in creating a new probiotics product.

‘How good could a person who works on stem cells be at microorganisms?’

Choi Yeon-Ho had just laughed it off when he heard that from Song Ji-Hyun. He didn’t know how good he was at microorganisms, but he did something huge in stem cells.

‘Well, I didn’t know he was this good. It’s a completely different thing now...’

Induced pluripotent stem cells—it was an incredibly ingenious and revolutionary thing. The fact that he differentiated it into optic nerves was huge as well, but it took him less than two months to get results in animal experiments with that.

‘Is he human?’

It didn’t seem like a person as talented as Young-Joon would not know what he was talking about. He must know something about probiotics, and he would have asked them to collaborate on a project because he knows how to do it.

“This person. What kind of person is he?” Choi Yeon-Ho asked.