Chapter 283 Deep in the Jungle

Chapter 283 Deep in the Jungle

Chapter 283 Deep in the Jungle
The four seasons are like summer, with clouds and rain all year round.

This is the lungs of the earth: the Amazon rainforest.

A small town that is not very noticeable on the map.

To the west of Balek Town, near the river, there is a very abrupt building. Judging from the condition of these buildings, it is obvious that this is a relatively special scientific research institution.

Several speedboats were approaching quickly via the river from another nearby town with a road.

Hearing the roar of an engine not far away, the security guard of the scientific research base looked through binoculars and found that it was the boss behind the scenes coming. He quickly woke up his colleagues: "Hook, the boss is here, get up quickly."

"What..." Hook rubbed his eyes sleepily.

"Hurry up, the boss is here." The security guard holding the binoculars directly plucked a hair from Hook's arm.

"Oh oh..." Hook woke up instantly: "Hiss... Old Ryan, what are you doing?"

Old Ryan reminded again speechlessly: "Stupid, the boss is coming, quickly open the door and go to the dock to greet him."

"Oh oh." Hook quickly climbed up from the recliner, then quickly tidied his appearance and clothes, put on his assault rifle, and hurried downstairs with old Ryan.

When the two men opened the door and came to the small wooden dock, three speedboats had already arrived at the side of the dock and tied up the cables.

A middle-aged woman wearing sunglasses jumped directly off the speedboat, escorted by several female bodyguards.

"Hi boss!"

"Welcome to the boss for inspection."

The middle-aged woman wearing sunglasses hid her eyes and looked at the two of them with contempt and disgust, her face full of indifference.

The female assistant beside her said with a fake smile: "Lead the way! Don't waste time."

"Yes, yes, boss, please." Old Ryan was used to the indifferent boss. For the sake of money, he didn't say anything and led the way.

Soon the group arrived inside the scientific research base.

The head of the scientific research team and the management of the base who had received the notice also arrived at the gate of the base.

The head of the scientific research team is a middle-aged mixed-race woman with brown hair, while the base manager is a middle-aged woman with blonde hair and white skin.

Seeing the two of them, the woman in sunglasses smiled slightly: "Dr. Ada, Alice, long time no see."

"Good afternoon, Ms. Christine."

"Hello, Ms. Christine."

The female assistant turned her head and looked at Hook and Old Ryan who were following behind, and waved her hand lightly: "You two, please go to the dock and check the speedboat."

"Okay." Old Ryan shrugged and left the base gate with the sluggish Hook.

Then the gate of the base slowly closed.

Inside the base, Christine took off her sunglasses and looked at the mosquito breeding boxes in front of her. Her eyes were full of enthusiasm: "Dr. Ada, how is the experiment going?"

"Sorry, there is currently no way to infect vertebrates." Dr. Ada pushed up his glasses.

Hearing Dr. Ada's helpless voice, Christine frowned: "Is it a lack of funds? Or a lack of researchers?"

"No, no..." Dr. Ada shook her head: "Ms. Christine, the 5000 million US dollars you invest every year is indeed enough. The main reason is that my talent is limited."

“Aren’t there enough scientific researchers?”

"You can say that, but you should be very clear about the situation of this base." Dr. Ada did not say the rest of the words, but everyone present knew it.

Because their experimental projects cannot be made public, the dozen or so female researchers currently conducting research at this base were recruited from all over the world by their organization after many investigations.

Christine and her organization do not feel comfortable allowing researchers whose positions cannot be confirmed to have any contact with the base's scientific research projects.

Although Christine used her local connections to give this research base a cover and claimed that it was studying "controlling mosquito populations and preventing dengue fever and malaria," the actual research content was to transform Wolbachia through genetic modification and gene editing technology.

What is Wolbachia?
This bacterium, also known as Wolbachia, belongs to the α subphylum of the Proteobacteria class, the Ubachia genus of the Rickettsia family, the Ubachia tribe, and is a Gram-negative intracellular symbiotic bacterium.

It can infect arthropods including most insects and some nematodes, and is commonly found in arthropods and some nematodes. It is estimated that about 65% of insect species and 28% of mosquito species naturally carry Wolbachia.

So why are they studying Wolbachia?
The answer lies in some special abilities of Wolbachia.

When animals are infected with Wolbachia, their hosts will also be affected by Wolbachia. The specific impact is that it can induce cytoplasmic incompatibility. When a male carrying Wolbachia mates with a female without Wolbachia, the fertilized eggs will die. It can also turn bee eggs from male to female, destroy the production of androgens or its effects in the development of male embryos, and feminize them. It can also enhance female fertility. The birth rate of infected parasitic bees is twice as high as that of uninfected ones.

Therefore, many scientific teams have studied the infection of Wolbachia with various pests.

For example, by preventing the dengue virus from replicating and multiplying in the mosquito's body and artificially making the mosquito coexist with it, the mosquito can lose the ability to spread dengue fever.

A scientific team has taken advantage of this characteristic by releasing male mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia to mate with female mosquitoes from outside, thereby reducing the mosquito population and thus inhibiting the spread of diseases such as dengue fever and malaria.

But what if we use genetic modification and gene editing technology to create Wolbachia that can infect humans? What consequences would that have?
The answer is parthenogenesis.

As to whether genetic technology can achieve this, there are certain difficulties at present, mainly because the immune system of humans, or vertebrates, is very strong and their life cycle is relatively long. Therefore, Wolbachia must be genetically modified to give it the characteristics of breaking through the human immune system. As long as it can successfully break through the human immune system and form a symbiosis with humans, Wolbachia will naturally lead humans towards the path of parthenogenetic reproduction.

It is actually not impossible for Wolbachia to infect humans.

As mentioned before, Wolbachia, also known as Wolbachia, is an ancient microorganism between viruses and bacteria that has existed in ancient times.

Humans and most eukaryotic organisms have actually been infected by two similar archaea.

In fact, many people know the names of these two archaea, which are:

Mitochondria and chloroplasts.

That’s right, mitochondria and chloroplasts.

This thing that looks like a eukaryotic cell organelle is essentially an ancient bacterium that has formed a mutually beneficial symbiotic model with eukaryotes through infection.

Wolbachia is a similar archaea. It also has the ability to infect eukaryotes, but currently it can only infect insects and arthropods and has no way to infect vertebrates.

However, researchers at this scientific research base are planning to use genetic technology to accelerate the evolution of Wolbachia so that it can infect vertebrates in a short period of time.

“Dr. Ida, I will increase our efforts to recruit talents and allow more like-minded researchers to join our great cause.”

However, Dr. Ada shook her head and said, "Ms. Christine, it is difficult for ordinary people to promote the breakthrough development of this project. Unless there is a genius or a brand new genetic modification technology appears, it will be difficult to achieve results in the next ten years."

Seeing that Dr. Ada was hesitant to speak, Christine looked at her with a different look: "Doctor, what do you think?"

"I heard that Seris has a technology that can quickly breed." Dr. Ada expressed his thoughts.

"Seris? Rapid breeding?" Christine's eyes flickered.

Dr. Aida nodded and said, "Yes, the Hailufeng Company should have this technology. They have launched many excellent agricultural products in recent years. If we can obtain their technology, we may make a breakthrough soon."

"Hailufeng Company?" Christine fell into deep thought.

She was the behind-the-scenes boss of a biological and pharmaceutical company, so she naturally knew the name of Hailufeng Company, but it was precisely because she knew the name that she found it difficult.

If Hailufeng Company was somewhere else, she would have a hundred ways to get its technology, but the area where the company was located was obviously not something she could infiltrate at will. Even if she was willing to pay the price and seek cooperation from several chaebol families in America, she might not be able to get the technology.

Looking at Christine with a conflicted expression, Dr. Ada had her own thoughts in her mind, but she did not show them.

After a while, Christine's expression returned to indifference: "I will find a way to get that technology, but your research must continue."

"I know, but with current technology, it's very difficult to transform this archaea and make it capable of infecting humans. I can only try my best." Dr. Ada's voice was filled with fatigue and helplessness. "It doesn't matter." Christine didn't say anything.

An hour later.

On the wooden pier.

Boom boom boom...the engine hums, pushing the speedboat away.

Watching Christine and her group's speedboat disappear in the river, Dr. Ada pushed up her glasses, with a puzzled look in her eyes.

"Doctor, it's going to rain soon, let's go back!"

Alice's voice floated behind her, causing Dr. Ada's body to stiffen slightly. However, she regained her composure in an instant, turned around and said with a smile, "Indeed, but is it okay for Ms. Christine's speedboat to leave like this?"

"There shouldn't be any problem, but we don't need to worry about this kind of thing, right, Doctor?" Alice stared into the other person's eyes, as if she wanted to see through his heart.

"I hope everything goes well for her!" Dr. Ada put her hands in her pockets and walked silently towards the base.

Alice looked at her back, not knowing what she was thinking.

After a while, drops of rain fell from the leaden clouds in the sky into this ancient tropical rainforest.

Christine and his group, who were driving a speedboat, did not return to the town with a road. Instead, they turned from another tributary river and drove for more than two hours in the heavy rain.

Although the sky was covered with dark clouds at this time, the rain had stopped.

This is how tropical rainforests are, sometimes there will be several rainfalls staggered in one day.

Looking at the muddy shore pier.

Christine was not surprised at all. She came here every few months and was used to the climate and muddy roads in the Amazon rainforest.

Wearing wellies, the group walked along the muddy road and came to a base. The facilities of this base were exactly the same as the base of Dr. Ada's team before.

Emma, ​​the head of the base, and Duna, the head of the scientific research team, greeted them at the gate of the base holding umbrellas.

"Hello, Ms. Christine."

"Let's go inside and talk!"

Enter the base.

In an office, Emma pours Kristen a cup of hot cocoa.

After taking a sip of the sweet hot cocoa, Christine's face was full of thoughts, and then she slowly asked: "Do you think Ada can be trusted?"

"Ada?" Dr. Duna, a black-haired mixed-race female doctor with a ponytail, pinched the coffee spoon between her fingers and gently stirred the caramel coffee. "There is nothing wrong with her research. At least I don't see any problems. As for other questions, you should ask Alice instead of seeking answers from me."

Christine did not continue to ask, but talked about another topic: "She suggested that I obtain the biotechnology of Hailufeng Company. What does Dr. Duna think about this?"

"Hailufeng's biotechnology?" Du Na picked up the caramel coffee and took a sip before she remembered something: "Is it the agricultural company that developed the Senzu soybean?"

"Ah."

Dr. Duna's eyes flashed with thought, and then she said calmly: "The technology of their company is indeed very powerful. It is rumored that they have some kind of brand-new mechanism of genetic modification technology. If I can obtain all of their technology, I am confident that I can complete the initial plan in three to five years."

"Is that so?" Christine thought again.

"But can your people infiltrate that place?" Dr. Duna said with a smile.

Christine frowned and replied, "The organization has some peripheral personnel over there, but it should be difficult for them to get close to the core scientific research area of ​​the company. Why did they choose the company in that place?"

Dr. Du Na took another sip of coffee and suggested, "Ms. Christine, I heard that Academician Jiang's wife is also a top biologist. Can we use our connections to invite her to go abroad for academic exchanges?"

"Don't think about it. Do you think you are the only one who has thought of this plan?" The organization behind Christine has secretly infiltrated many European and American chaebols. She knows very well that many European and American chaebols want to kill Jiang Miao and his wife.

In the past year, if these invitations to go abroad for academic exchanges were printed out, they would fill several baskets.

Not only scientific research teams in Europe and the United States are sending invitation letters, but also universities and official agencies in various countries are sending invitation letters.

Even the Nobel Prize Committee planned to award this year's Nobel Prize in Biology to Jiang Miao and Lin Shuya, with the aim of enticing Jiang Miao and Lin Shuya to go abroad to receive the award.

However, Jiang Miao and Lin Shuya have not responded to the Nobel Prize Committee yet.

Jiang Miao was too clear about the tricks of the West. He had no intention of responding. Even if the other party really awarded him the Nobel Prize in Biology, he would not respond or accept it. It would be better to just ignore such things.

He didn't care whether he would be considered arrogant or not.

With his and Lin Shuya's academic achievements and scientific research results, they have already established themselves as a school of their own and do not need to flatter the Nobel Prize.

If the Nobel Prize Committee really awards him and Lin Shuya the prize, they would be bringing shame upon themselves.

After all, it must be very embarrassing to be rejected for a scientific award.

Anyway, Jiang Miao does not need recognition from the Western academic community, so he can simply ignore the Nobel Prize.

Christine, who knew a lot of inside information, was also unable to confirm at this time whether Jiang Miao and Lin Shuya would go to Sweden to receive the award.

However, Dr. Du Na smiled and said, "If we don't give it a try, who will know? And you seem to be paying too much attention to Academician Jiang. In fact, the couple may not be the only ones who have the confidential technology of Hailufeng Company."

"..." Kristen narrowed her eyes, "You're right. I've paid too much attention to Jiang. There must be quite a few core researchers in their company who know the secrets of this technology. If we can trick one or two of them, we might be able to learn some of the secrets."

Dr. Du Na smiled maliciously and said, "And we can continue to push Jiang and his wife to win the Nobel Prize. Whether it succeeds or not, we will lose tens of millions at most. Failure will also be a disgrace to those Nobel Prize winners."

"Well, after I go back, I will contact those chaebol forces immediately. They will definitely be willing to take a gamble." Christine sneered and said, "Even if it fails, it can deepen the antagonism between the East and the West and make the world more chaotic, which will help hide some of our actions."

"I'm glad you know." Duna drank the coffee in the cup.

Suddenly Christine asked out of the blue: "How is your project research going?"

Dr. Duana shook her head. "The progress is still the same. It has been stuck at the stage of infecting vertebrates. During the animal experiments, it has not been able to be used safely."

Hearing this, Christine also had a headache.

Although they are very crazy, it doesn't mean they don't care about their own lives.

After all, when Wolbachia infects humans, it will definitely infect both men and women. Therefore, during the experiment, they must ensure that these genetically modified Wolbachia will not endanger life, otherwise they dare not spread it.

However, it is obviously very difficult to produce this highly safe genetically modified Wolbachia.

The next day, early in the morning.

Taking advantage of the unpredictable weather in the rainforest and the slight appearance of sunshine, Christine and her group returned in a low-key manner on a speedboat.

Then she contacted several leaders of the organization through the Internet that day to discuss how to lure the enemy into a trap.

At the same time, they are also fully investigating the scientific researchers of Hailufeng Company, hoping to find a few suitable targets, lure them out, and obtain the biotechnology secrets of Hailufeng Company.

However, they did not know that when they mobilized their forces to investigate Hailufeng Company and its biological researchers, they automatically triggered the keyword settings hidden in the global Internet.

Especially in the case of their recent intensive searches, they directly triggered the first-level alert set by someone.

The headquarters of Hailufeng Company on the other side of the ocean.

Jiang Miao looked at the information on the laptop with a hint of surprise and sarcasm on his face.

(End of this chapter)