Homo Sapiens

After Li Qingye had taken care of these matters, he turned his attention to another piece of intelligence Chen Jianxiong had just submitted, this one concerning Huaguo.

After reading the report, Li Qingye immediately ordered, ”Phil, tighten security screenings at all our branches and subsidiaries, especially for outsiders.”

”Yes, Boss.”

Chen Jianxiong voiced his concern. ”Boss, I suspect it’s already... happening all over the world.”

Li Qingye was even more certain. ”You don’t need to suspect. It’s like finding one cockroach in your house. You can be sure there are plenty more hiding in the dark.”

”Should we increase our alert level, then?” Chen Jianxiong grew even more concerned.

Li Qingye mulled it over for a moment, then nodded. ”Good idea. We’ll use this as an opportunity to have Luzon and Hongsawaddy seal their borders for a time.”

”I understand.” Chen Jianxiong knew this was one of the few things they could do right now.

As for anything else, even the much-strengthened Homo Sapiens Company lacked the power to meddle in the domestic affairs of the five great powers.

Suddenly, Li Qingye gave another order. ”During the screening process, send over blood samples from some of the targets as soon as possible. I need to study them to prepare for any eventuality.”

”Yes, I’ll arrange it immediately.” Chen Jianxiong had unwavering faith in Li Qingye’s research capabilities in the biological field. As long as Li Qingye was willing to take action, Homo Sapiens Company would not be completely helpless.

Watching Chen Jianxiong hurry away, Li Qingye sat on the sofa, lost in thought.

This sudden development had affected many of his plans.

He had originally planned to make a move against Du Jianxin and his family soon, but with flights grounded and heightened entry screenings, the Soldiers prepared for the mission couldn’t get through for the time being.

Li Qingye wasn’t frustrated by this; after all, not everything could go smoothly.

Besides, he had a backup plan. It would just take a few months to adjust.

Pulling his thoughts back to the present, Li Qingye washed his face in the restroom, then passed through a decontamination area and a series of secure gates before arriving at his personal laboratory.

The targeted AIDS drug he had developed for Domino and the others had already entered the final testing phase.

A dozen or so scum infected with AIDS were now being held by Soldier assistants in special hospital rooms, their conditions as test subjects monitored around the clock.

”What’s the status?”

Assistant 15 reported, ”The test subjects show no physical abnormalities. The HIV in their bodies is virtually undetectable, but we can’t rule out the possibility that this is a false reading.”

HIV is a very cunning virus. It often evades eradication by drugs and lies dormant, only to re-emerge and wreak havoc after the medication wears off.

The targeted drug developed by Li Qingye was different from traditional AIDS treatments, nor was it the recently emerged RNA technology.

It was a custom drug that specifically targeted certain gene markers, somewhat like an advanced version of an RNA vaccine.

The core of the technology was to rapidly sequence the virus’s genome, then use genetic recombination technology to create a suicidal virus that specifically targeted it. This suicidal virus would then be injected into the patient, where it and the original virus would annihilate each other.

In fact, this was a derivative of the gene bomb technology.

Therefore, this targeted drug doesn’t cause the patient’s body to produce antibodies, but it can kill the virus, making it a specialized, highly effective medication.

Because it’s a drug exclusive to a specific virus, the virus within the patient’s body must be carefully sequenced before this exclusive drug can be created.

In other words, the targeted drug is not effective against all forms of AIDS; it can only kill specific strains of HIV.

For example, the 15 test subjects here all had what is called AIDS, but the genes of their respective viruses were different, so a custom targeted drug had to be created for each individual.

Using traditional technology, the production cost of such a custom targeted drug would be absolutely astronomical.

Fortunately, Homo Sapiens Company’s technology was different from traditional genetic engineering.

The key technical points for creating the custom targeted drug were twofold:

First, genetic sequencing technology. The biochips and DNA storage devices currently owned by Homo Sapiens Company utilized a gene locus determination technology that allowed for rapid testing, producing results almost instantaneously.

Second, genetic recombination technology. Li Qingye designed a universal viral bomb framework: [TYBD-(X)-JYZD].

This framework was very simple. The universal framework consisted of six parts: an immune-evasion gene sequence, a structural stability gene sequence, a target-chimeric gene sequence, a detonation gene sequence, a self-replication restriction gene sequence, and a timed-disintegration gene sequence.

Among these, the target-chimeric gene sequence was the position used for rapidly inserting the viral target gene.

Although during the target gene insertion process, only a small fraction of the target genes would successfully and completely insert into the framework each time.

But as long as one was successful, it could be extracted through rapid genetic screening. Then, hormones and a viral culture medium were used to initiate self-replication until a sufficient quantity of the targeted drug was obtained.

This process typically only took about 5 to 12 hours.

In fact, a simplified version of this technology is the current RNA vaccine technology.

The advantages of the targeted drug are its extremely fast virus-killing speed and a near-100% kill rate, giving the virus no time to mutate. It also doesn’t allow the virus to develop drug resistance, and there are almost no side effects for the patient.

The disadvantages are also very clear: the patient’s body cannot produce antibodies, creating a risk of reinfection, and it cannot be used in areas without the necessary supporting facilities.

This type of targeted drug is more suitable for viruses like AIDS, Ebola, and rabies, but not for viruses like smallpox or influenza.

The reason it’s not suitable for smallpox and influenza isn’t that it can’t be used, but because these viruses spread through aerosols. Even if the virus is eliminated from the patient’s body, other sources of infection may exist in the surrounding environment, leading to easy and repeated reinfections.

And once reinfected, the previous targeted drug cannot be used for treatment. The virus’s genes must be re-sequenced, and a new targeted drug created based on the new sequence.

Although Homo Sapiens Company’s genetic sequencing technology is extremely fast and very cheap, costing only a few cents per test, and the raw materials for cultivating the targeted drug likewise cost only a few dollars.

The problem is that this repeated process could easily lead to information leaks and would consume a massive amount of manpower, especially valuable professional medical personnel.

Therefore, for aerosol-transmitted viruses like smallpox, Li Qingye would use two other approaches.

One is the simplified version of the targeted drug technology—the RNA vaccine.

The other is a bacteriocin (i.e., an antibiotic) aimed at common targets.

In reality, these two technologies are not inferior. At the very least, the versions Li Qingye possessed were far more advanced than the current human technologies of the same type.

The basic principles are the same, but Li Qingye had upgraded and improved them.

For example, the full name of the RNA vaccine technology Li Qingye had was: Composite-Type Multi-Target Joint RNA Vaccine technology.

Specifically, it involves identifying more than 10 gene targets on a prevalent viral strain, then developing several kinds of 10-target RNA vaccines, and finally, administering these vaccines in combination.

Faced with such a vaccine, even a rapidly mutating RNA virus would be overwhelmed.

The targeted antibiotics were a similar case.

These were also the drugs Li Qingye planned to introduce to the market through Qingye Group and Homo Sapiens Company, respectively.

As for the custom targeted drug, that technology could only be used internally on a small scale. After all, it involved gene bomb technology.