by <unknown>
For example, training began at six o'clock sharp every morning. There must be two teams on patrol every night, and such.
The coming period should prove to be very interesting.
Chen Chen did not invest all of his time in these matters. Instead, he quickly shifted his attention to the group of villagers in Gorob Village who played the part as their experimental subjects.
After nearly two weeks of cultivation, the cloned embryos of the elderly villagers had successfully developed into a sac formed embryo. Later, Chen Chen's assistants proceeded to extract its embryonic stem cells and moved on to the next step which was the process of proliferation and cultivation.
Among the group of elders, three of them were diagnosed with liver cirrhosis and another two of them who used to be miners had pneumoconiosis. For these five individuals, Chen Chen had specifically cultivated an extra cloned embryo.
Instead of extracting the cloned embryo for its embryonic stem cells, Chen Chen preserved them.
The fact remained that all of the techniques Chen Chen was developing was for the sake of extending the human lifespan. Apart from replacing the stem cells, there was a more direct way of achieving this goal, which was organ transplantation.
The human heart, lung, liver, kidney, and other important organs could be transplanted. Strictly speaking, any form of disease contracted in these specific organs could be easily rid of via organ transplantation. In that case, why was it then tens of hundreds of thousands of people die every year as a result of these organ failures?
That was because there was a problem with the availability of these organs. Not only were they rare but there were also the issues of compatibility and rejection that had to be considered.
What if you could clone your organs?
If Chen Chen planned to garner approval using a lifespan extension technology in addition to the technological treatment of reversing the effects of aging, perhaps he could add another aspect…
Chen Chen had thought of this a long time ago and had already begun implementation.
He came to the fifth floor of the laboratory building where there was a tissue engineering laboratory.
Inside the laboratory, several researchers were working attentively. These were the batch of newcomers Chen Chen had invited.
Chen Chen had invited a total of 300 young talents of the biological industry who were full of potential, 200 of them ultimately chose to work with him. Most of them were assigned to the group of professors as their assistants, the ones that remained became Chen Chen's researchers.
"Boss!"
"Boss!"
Chen Chen nodded and turned to the device in front of them. "Are the preparations complete?"
"It's done. We've successfully created ten artificial endometriums."
A blonde-haired young man who appeared to be leading them answered Chen Chen. After that, he stepped in front of a transparent aquarium.
Aquarium was a far too simple way to describe it. A more apt way to put it was an aquarium-shaped incubator. It was surrounded by transparent materials on each side; the top side was sealed by a metal lid. There were two rubber hoses, a black and white one respectively which were inserted into the tank from its top.
From where Chen Chen stood, he could see the rubber hoses latching themselves onto a palm-sized organism in the tank which seemed to resemble some sort of organ.
The organism seemed to take on an almost triangular shape, it looked like…
"This is the artificial endometrium that we've developed."
The blonde-haired young man observed the lump of meat with fascination like he was taking it as a piece of art. "Following the 'Three-Dimensional in Vitro Cell Culture Model', we first used the biodegradable 'Poly Lactic-co-Glycolic Acid '(PLGA)' to create a human-shaped vessel that can accommodate a fetus.
"After that, we implanted the 'Endometrial Stromal Cells' and 'Epithelial Cells' on the top and bottom part of the PLGA and supplied it with an appropriate amount of nutrients. After about fourteen days, the cells began to fuse into a sheet, which consequently morphed into multiple layers to form the intended three-dimensional model."
Chen Chen nodded in response. This was not a complex technique. It was nowhere close to variation of dark technologies like "Complete Humanoid Organ Generation", it was merely an inner membrane layer. Even as early as 20 years ago, Professor Liu Hongqing of Cornell University in North America had already accomplished this technique.
The only difficult part of this particular technique was in figuring out how to generate blood vessels for nutrient delivery which emulated that of real human structure.
"In that case, can the artificial blood vessel networks be embedded?" Chen Chen asked again.
"Yes, we incorporated a mixed proliferation method."
The blonde-haired young man pointed at the two tubes. "By the time the endometrium was produced, it had already formed a self-sufficient intramural circulation network automatically. We only had to connect it to a dialysis machine to pump fresh blood in and separate the waste blood. After injecting the appropriate amount of nutrients into its blood, we were able to essentially 'bring it to life'."
Chen Chen nodded. The two tubes played the role of the veins and arteries.
As for the blood inside, they were no regular human blood. Instead, they were emulsion of perfluorotributylamine (PFC) which had oxygen-carrying capacity.
These substances were manufactured artificially and had excellent oxygen-carrying capabilities. Their solubility of oxygen was twice higher than that of ordinary blood and they were biodegradable as well. In medical practice, they were often used as a substitution for blood.
"Excellent."
Chen Chen was visibly pleased. He patted the young man on his shoulder. "Hannibal, would you be interested in being part of my next project?"
"Is it the next step of the process following the making of the artificial endometrium?"
The young man named Hannibal lit up immediately. As an expert in biology subjects, he was well aware of what this project led to.
"Yes."
"I'm more than willing, Boss!"
The young man nodded ceremoniously. This was a young man who was immensely passionate about subjects of biology.
The young man was Hannibal Caesar, former sophomore at MIT. Just last year, he had published a very important paper in the field of synthetic biology in Science magazine and won the Lemelson-MIT Award that year with his heralded "genetically modified phage" technique.
Since there was little the school had left to teach him, he was recruited by Chen Chen before he managed to graduate and began officially working for Blacklight Biotechnology.
Chen Chen saw a terrific amount of potential in this young man.
Unless affected by some external influence, there was a chance this young man could become the next Darwin, Mendel or Schwann in the decades to come, spearheading a new branch of biology…
Chapter 102: Life Incubator |
Half a day later.
Hannibal pushed the equipment containing the artificial endometrium and followed Chen Chen to an unmarked laboratory on the sixth floor.
Unlike other laboratories, there was no label specifying the purpose of this particular laboratory. There was only a red sign.
The sign was labeled "Restricted Zone" on the top part while the bottom part read "Experiment area, unauthorized personnel not allowed".
"Boss."
"Boss."
The young men dressed in white lab coats were already standing outside by the alloy gate of the laboratory entrance.
The two young men looked like they were in their mid-twenties. One of them appeared to be Jewish. He even specifically adorned his lab coat with tassels, the other one appeared to be either from the Mainland of SouthEast Asia.
Chen Chen nodded and informed the three of them, "For the following period, you guys will be partners."
"Nice to meet you." Hannibal promptly shook the hands of the two men.<
br />
"Nice to meet you. I'm John von Neumann, European, biological studies."
"I'm Li Lei. I'm from the Mainland, senior in Princeton."
"The name's Hannibal, Hannibal Caesar. I'm from MIT back in North America but I've since dropped out…"
One was an introverted Chinese man and one was a Jewish with an intense temperament. In comparison, Hannibal appeared very normal. After they had exchanged introductions, they fell into silence again.
Chen Chen paid no mind to them and turned to the security camera. After several seconds, upon Chen Chen's camera's retina identification, the alloy door suddenly opened.
"Come right in."
Upon walking in, Chen Chen turned around to look at Hannibal and the trio who stood dumbfounded. He urged them to follow.
"Oh, ok… Boss."
The three of them followed him in.
It was only when they walked in that they realized this laboratory was strangely spacious. It was several times larger than the previous laboratory. More importantly, they had never noticed the existence of such a laboratory.
"It's just a very common spatial illusion."
Chen Chen mentioned before he pushed out a few cylindrical devices from the side.
Hannibal looked over and saw that these cylindrical devices were about thirty centimeters in diameter and one meter in height. The entire body was made of tempered glass. Only the base and top were made of metal, and the inside was empty.
"These are…" The three of them eyed the devices and felt a strange sense of familiarity.
"Feels familiar, doesn't it?"
Chen Chen raised the question like he was a mentor. "I'd say you guys saw this in a sci-fi movie before."
"The incubator used for growing clones!?" upon hearing Chen Chen's clue, Li Lei suddenly made the connection and asked in shock.
"That's right, I was inspired by the movie and designed something similar but I prefer the name: Life Incubator."
Chen Chen patted the device which made a clapping sound. He then pushed out a constant-temperature incubator. "There are five human embryos here that have entered the sac state. Based on your knowledge, I'd say you should know how to proceed with this."
The three of them were taken aback when they heard Chen Chen. Without a moment's thought, they rushed ahead and looked into the incubator together.
"It's been fourteen days?"
Hannibal mumbled, "I'll need a micromanipulator to implant these human embryos into the artificial endometrium. I'll also need synthetic amniotic fluid from minerals, urea, uric acid, creatinine, glucose, and synthetic amniotic fluid like amylase…"
"And it'll need to be done before the embryo consumes the nutrients in the yolk, otherwise, the embryo is likely to die due to nutrition insufficiency." John added.
"But what comes next? The blood supply in these artificial endometriums can't possibly support maturing embryos." Li Lei sounded uncertain.
"Fourteen weeks."
Chen Chen answered with a single finger raised, "Fourteen weeks is my estimated period. By then the fetus would've formed the umbilical cord and placenta. Once the umbilical cord is formed, there'll be no need for endometrium intervention.
"By then, we can use an artificial lung oxygenator to connect to the blood vessels on the umbilical cord of the fetus to feed oxygen directly. We can also transmit inorganic salts, vitamins, fats, proteins, and other substances required for growth directly into the fetus."
"The optimization process will be extremely delicate, it may be very difficult to accomplish." Hannibal pondered for a moment, a weary look appeared on his face.
The way he saw it, these methods were a little too optimistic. The process of simulating an intrauterine environment was inherently incredibly difficult and the odds of success were extremely unlikely.
"Don't have to worry about that. Upon arriving at that point, somebody is eventually going to get it done."
Chen Chen pointed out with a sense of profoundness.
It was true. For the current state of technology, it was difficult to simulate an intrauterine environment. Specifically, the act of supplementing nutrients was not something that could be accomplished via labor.
It did not prove to be an issue for Chen Chen. Common men may not be able to achieve the task, but that did not mean that artificial intelligence could not pull it off.
Several days ago, Chen Chen specifically designated a section of land in the research center to construct a factory. He then facilitated it with thousands of servers.
After that, Chen Chen relocated Little X from the Mainland to here.
Apart from that, to alleviate the network issues, he had constructed a macro base station at his expense. This effectively got rid of the issue with wireless connectivity.
With Little X's proficiency in performing macro-control management around the clock, all that was left to do was to run the experiment several times. Upon collecting enough data to build a data model, the optimized cultivation model should be constructed in no time.
Moreover, all of the equipment in the laboratory was custom-built in Switzerland. Each one of them could be connected to the network to allow Little X to directly control them.
Therefore, barring any major slipups from the three of them, Chen Chen did not need to put the chances of failure into consideration.
"Right."
Chen Chen suddenly reminded. "The reason I'm cultivating the cloned embryos isn't so that they could be birthed successfully. I have no intentions of actually birthing them, is that understood?"
"You're saying?" The three of them raised their heads quizzingly.
"A targeted inhibition form of serotonin."
Chen Chen took out a slip of paper to write down a line of the chemical formula under the intense observation of the trio. "Upon injecting this targeted inhibition form of serotonin, the development of its brains will be effectively inhibited. But it will not inhibit physical development."
The three of them quickly noted Chen Chen's usage of the term "it" when referring to the cloned embryos.
"Understood. This is the most optimal route."
Li Lei and John nodded in agreement. So long as the embryo's brain was not developed, it would not be able to form a conscience of its own.
To be fair, even if the brain was developed during its fetal form, there should not be a sense of self-awareness just yet. Still, Chen Chen's methods were unquestionably more humane.
In terms of human physiology, they were just considered an empty shell made of flesh, devoid of a structural brain.
Truth be told, Hannibal was not in the least bothered by these things. However, since Chen Chen was his employer, he figured it was best to do as instructed.
After passing on these instructions, Chen Chen effectively handed the reigns of the laboratory to the trio and proceeded to turn around, and make his exit.
These three men were biology savants and were also Chen Chen's potential candidates for God's Forbidden Zone. Now that Chen Chen's company was growing by the minute, he no longer had time to conduct the experiments himself. He needed to nurture a group of successors.
The tasks of cultivating cloned embryos were entrusted to these hand-picked savants of his.
Chapter 103: Impractical Concerns |
Three months later.
"Everyone, please step onto your respective treadmills."
"I said now, immediately!"
Inside the laboratory building of Blacklight Biotechnology Research Center. A stern-looking researching staff glared pointedly at thirty-three black men.
All thirty-three of them were Ovambo people, dressed in standard white hospital gowns. Though not all of them were particularly enthusiastic, most, if not all of them were healthy at least.
Just three months ago when they had just stepped foot into the research center, they were a bunch of old and frail men. Yet, they had now miraculously become younger than they were.
Judging by appearance, they appeared to
be in their forties. It was as if the sands of time ran in the opposite direction.
Most of them appeared somewhat uncooperative in following the orders of the research members.
However, a line of B.S.S. security personnel was stationed right next to them, each one of the guards intimidatingly glared at them. Any form of disobedience resulted in a round of beating.
The cooperative members were sectioned out and rewarded with a delicious meal with the occasional alcoholic beverage as a supplement.
When the choices of reward and punishment were laid bare before them, there was not much by way of options for these people.
As the group begrudgingly stepped onto their respective treadmills, the researcher tapped a button of the main console which caused the treadmills to spring into motion.
"The speed now is 5 kilometers per hour. Move your feet, start running!"
…
"7 kilometers per hour now, keep going."
…
"10 kilometers per hour."
When the researcher set the speed to ten kilometers per hour, one of the black men could no longer keep up and quickly hopped off the treadmill.
The security personnel stationed in that section immediately approached and violently swung his electric baton at the escapee's hip.
"Ah!"
The man shrieked in horror. With his hand still clutching his hip, he hopped back on the treadmill.
"15 kilometers per hour!"
The researcher looked at the timer. It had been five minutes since commencing, a lot of them were already struggling to catch their breath.
However, they were not at their limit yet.
The researcher considered for a moment before turning it up to 20 kilometers.
The group could no longer keep up. One after another, they hopped off the treadmill and collapsed onto the ground like a bunch of dead animals, struggling to catch their breath. Even with the beatings they received, they remained sprawled on the ground.
"Not bad."
The researcher nodded happily and was noticeably pleased with the data collected. The physical strength this group had presented was above that of regular shut-ins who hardly, if ever, exercised.
