TenGene, Gene-i-us and a thousand planets in between
This is episode 5 of The French Tech Comedy, Season 2
Episode 1 of Season 2: Your DNA Will See (and Mutate) Your Credit Card Now
Episode 2 of Season 2: The Bitcoin That Pulled the Double Helix Apart
Episode 3 of Season 2: Kabuki Theatre and Desktop Epigenetics
Episode 4 of Season 2: Tenjin and TenGene
For Season 1 of The French Tech Comedy (all episodes), see here.
Previously in The French Tech Comedy: In Season 2 of The French Tech Comedy, we follow characters like Japanese oncologist and bioinformatics engineer Takafumi Nagato, who is leading the lab of Bioinformatics for personalised CAR-T-therapies in a Tokyo clinic, and his patient, Chinese giant TenBa’s founder Ken Ba, a zillionaire from Shanghai. Yuki, Taka’s sister, is a French-speaking geisha, meaning “artist” in Japanese, in touch with the French Tech. She just got married to a French engineer who was working in Taka’s lab, Nono, and has secretly donated her healthy T-cells to Taka’s patient who, after his second cancer relapse, decided to try an innovative treatment called “liquid biopsy”. Indeed, Ba is becoming an expert in genomic precision medicine. In his case it is a matter of life or death. Among Yuki’s friends in the French Tech branch is Frederic Mougin, a biologist, founder of the startup Gene-i-us:
“We are developing a patient-centric tool for patients to collect, share & monetize their medical, genomics, lifestyle, IoT data with academics & pharma industry.”
Yuki had promised she would introduce Mougin to people working with Facebook Singapore; among them: Nono. What biz plan can Gene-i-usimplement, in order to work with Facebook? Mougin is using a lot of buzz words, but when it turns out Ba’s cancer mutation has entered the stock exchange market, thanks to the efforts of a pharmaceutical company, his oncologist, Taka, fears a Ba Gate. More than ever, the privacy of genetic data is instrumental in the process of developing precision medicine. Singapore is the Chinese Mecca of I.P. and patents. A cryptocurrency, that is seen by financial specialists as a security, is used as a way to reward (healthy and sick) patients in exchange of their DNA data. Yuki is wondering if this kind of money will revolutionise the whole financial and pharmaceutical market as we know it, or will all digital currencies end up behaving like any other tradable financial asset? After all, a security is a tradable financial asset. Ba, Taka’s cancer patient, is trying to gain insight into the situation… While spending a few days in Malaysia both for business and vacation, TenBa’s founder gets to meet with a total stranger who in fact he only knows too well: Simone.
Malaysian Chinese Michelle Yeoh was doing a great job securing the business deal with Kuok, on behalf of TenBa. Yet, the task was not easy.
The Kuok family were looking for a buyer for the Kuok cinema business under Golden Screen Cinemas Sdn Bhd, in a deal worth about US$500 million. Golden Screen Cinemas is Malaysia’s largest movie theater chain with 345 digital screens in Malaysia and Vietnam. Ba had been asked by one of TenBa’s startup companies, working in direct-to-consumer genetics, to look into this movie business.
Michelle wanted Ba to meet with a few Chinese sci-fi writers. A friend of French movie maker Luc Besson, she wanted to build a hub for sci-fi movies in Asia that would complement the already existing one in Taiwan. Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Hong-Kong. She was looking for help in her new venture. But the Kuok family needed a political tool to beat the party in power in Malaysia. They had no interest in beating Hollywood. It was Michelle’s job to find an agreed basis, accepted by both TenBa and the Kuok. The icing on the cake: she’d get to be the queen of the new Asian movie hub. Movie and politics. Collision of interests between Hollywood and incumbent politicians in the US was just part of everyday life. Entertainment had always been a thorn in the flesh of the Kuok dynasty. Once beaten, twice shy.
“ — I’m nothing like Teresa Teng,” said Michelle to the youngest son of Malaysia’s favorite tycoon Robert Kuok. Everybody knew that the once famous Hong Kong singer Teresa Teng had not been accepted into the Kuok family precisely because of her complicated background in entertainment. The late queen of the dynasty, Robert Kuok’s mother, did not want Robert’s son and Teng to get married. The wedding got kind of last minute cancelled. Hearts got broken, Teng died at a young age. The Kuok had to abide by the wishes of the Queen Mum. Michelle’s point was simple: if it was Kuok’s wish to get rid of some corrupted government members in Malaysia, instead of (more or less) openly financing the opposition party (a risky endeavour), he could use the entertainment as a tool. In her eyes, made-in-China science-fiction was the best political tool ever. She quoted the words of her friend Luc Besson:
“ — At this critical historic moment, I am even firmer in my faith that reforming reality requires not only science and technology, but also the belief by all of us that life should be better — and can be made better — if we possess imagination, courage, initiative, unity, love and hope as well as a bit of understanding and empathy for strangers. Each of us is born with these precious qualities, and it is perhaps also the best gift that science fiction can bring us.” (*)
This conversation was taking place at the Majestic Residence in Ipoh, by the pool. As more people started showing up to take a swim in the pool, they decided to move to the 25th floor: the roof garden. Michelle and Kun Sun Kuok were enjoying the view.
“ — Here, or in the pool, doesn’t make any difference. That feeling to be on top of the world, right?”
Michelle smiled back. She was fond of the Kuok family. She too wanted a better life for the people in Malaysia. There was nothing extraordinary here. No worldwide famous monument, castle. But the landscapes were stunningly beautiful, and the people so nice. Everyday life was as smooth as durian ice cream. Ipoh and Penang, the place to be when you are a foodie.
Meanwhile, Ba was with Simone.
“ — Is that what you want? Simone is a very special person in our family. Some love her; some hate her. Upon the greatest intelligence hangs the greatest misery. I’m unbiased. Just trying my best to do my job as her auntie. So, again, is this really what you want?”
This conversation between Michelle and Ba had taken place earlier this morning, by the pool. Ba had just arrived, Kuok had said he would be late for the meeting and Michelle had just finished talking with her niece on WhatsApp. The very private arrangement as suggested by Ba and accepted by Michelle was the following: she would strike a deal with the Kuok dynasty on behalf of TenBa; in exchange, Ba would be free to meet with her 18-year-old niece, Simone. She was still finishing school as she had been kept for one year in prison, in Beijing. Getting her out of prison had been an ordeal and the family was still recovering from the trauma. Her school in Singapore, however, had no idea. Officially, she had been sick for one year. Some viral infection, took time to get rid of it, doctors were struggling to make a diagnosis, she had her genome sequenced, to little avail, a private research center in Australia, specialising in bioinformatics, was trying to find what was wrong, studying her RNA and her microbiome. None of this was true. Ken Ba, like Michelle, and the average executive in the Chinese government, knew only too well how dangerous and murderous Chinese secret services could be. North Korea was the useful idiot, providing Chinese Secret Services with endless job opportunities, and — last but not least — great bonding opportunities between the US and China. Simone was brilliant and she was doing an excellent job catching up on her school assignments. In just a couple of months, she would have finished high school. However, PTS, or post-trauma stress, was her enemy right now. The family was very inventive and came up with a whole variety of activities to alleviate the misery. Simone was busying herself with cats, horses, her grandmother would have given her skin for her granddaughter. Malaysian Chinese people were not always fond of continental China and the political intricacies there. Malaysia was a Muslim country, but the money from continental China was always welcome in the land of mosques. Michelle had been very reluctant to give the greenlight for a meeting between Ba and her niece. But this app she was working on, TenGene, was perfect material. Ba’s oncologist, Taka, was already working with French biologist Mougin on a similar app, Gene-i-us. Mougin was based in San Diego. Right now, he was in Tokyo, meeting with Taka’s lab, working with patient associations to collect their health and medical data, help them monetise the data and work with the pharmaceutical industry. At least, this was the plan. Ba wanted Mougin and Taka to meet with Simone. TenGene could be tested in Taka’s lab, and if the outcome was good, Ba would use it for all the genetic startups in the group. He needed the girl to go to Tokyo right after high school. Mougin was a biologist, Simone was proficient in computer coding, both needed to work together.
Ken Ba was probably the most famous zillionaire from Shanghai. A thing that was hard to forget for anyone having to do with him. Anyone, but Simone. It was very hot, and the swimming pool was gone. They were schlepping up steep hills and Ba was so exhausted there was no way he could talk. The sun would be at its zenith at midday, in a few minutes. They had finally arrived, at over 800 metres in altitude, which they had climbed almost entirely in just 7 kilometres. The landscape was beautiful, but Ba was off grid.
“ — Come on, we have to go back to the car. We will need one hour, but don’t worry, it’s all downhill from here.” Ba was so exhausted he couldn’t talk. In Beijing it was winter; here the temperature was 37 degrees celsius. He felt like he was melting, literally. Simone produced a bottle of water from her rucksack.
“ — It’s almost warm,” she said with a grimace. When she was done gulping down half of the bottle, she handed it over to Ba.
“ — Your turn.”
“ — No thanks. Where are we?”
“ — In the middle of nowhere. Drink.”
“ — I’m not thirsty.”
“ — You are dehydrated. Lukewarm water isn’t very appealing, but this is the best we have right now.”
While he was drinking, she showed him her smartphone. Google Maps told him the name of the place was Bukit Kledang, and the address:
Jalan Kledang,
31450 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
Simone had a pretty good internet connection, even in the middle of nowhere. Earlier, she had thrown four pounds of apple on the lawn, and monkeys came from everywhere. As Ba wasn’t moving from the place, one of the monkeys came in his direction, emitting some shrill screams.
“ — Don’t just stand there. And don’t show you are afraid. That’s the dominant male of the group. Quick, walk in his direction, be faster and louder than him, he’ll go away. He just wants all of the apples. You have to scare him.”
Ba had to fight the dominant male. It came totally unexpected and he got scared out of his wits. The monkey was really big. Simone talked him through the process. Then, for the next hour, she made fun of him, explaining how you have to behave with monkeys.
“ — Don’t you have those in temples in China?”
“ — Maybe. I can’t remember, honestly. Probably not in big cities, though.”
The conversation was scarce, Ba needed all the energy his body could give him to climb the damn mountain.
“ — What is so interesting up there?”
“ — …”
“ — What is so interesting up there?”
— “Nothing. Well, the view, I suppose. I just love climbing there. This is my favorite place, not far from my grandmother’s home.”
“ — …”
“ — The swimming pool at the Majestic is good enough for tourists. I prefer here. Then, we can drive to the Old Town White Coffee nearby. I love their turmeric chicken, and their Bhatura. That’s fried Indian bread. You can ask the cook to add spicy sardine spread inside. My favorite.”
“ — But your aunt has already booked a restaurant for us. Shouldn’t we ask her when we should be there? I need to take a shower before, so could you…”
Simone wasn’t listening. Over WhatsApp, she had just informed Michelle she was having lunch with Ba at the Old Town White Coffee.
“ — Don’t wait for us.”
“ — OK,” answered Michelle. She added:
“ — Have fun.”
Ba certainly wasn’t having fun. He hated spicy Indian cuisine. The sardine mixture was so spicy it was overpowering everything else, including the (also spicy) turmeric chicken. The white coffee was too sweet, so was the ice they shared for dessert. The waiter thought they were a young couple and wanted to take a picture of them. Street vendors offered them flowers, repeatedly. Ba was annoyed and kept blowing his nose, because of the spicy food. He had tears in his eyes, too. The used paper handkerchiefs were starting to pile up on the table. At some point, Simone took them and brought them to a very dirty waste bin on the street that was standing in the sun. She didn’t see some oil had been spread on the pavement and was slipping on the sidewalk, almost bumping into a young boy who was coming fast from the opposite side of the street. Both laughed so hard she needed some time to regain her composure. Meanwhile, Ba was waiting for Simone, sitting alone at the restaurant table. The place was popular, very busy, inexpensive and the service substandard at best. It was said the place never closed. Ba started wondering what kind of food he could get from this place in the middle of the night…
“ — Don’t you need to wash your hands?” Ba was annoyed. He was losing his precious time with this insipid spoilt brat. They were in the middle of a poor district and nobody seemed to care about them. It was like Simone knew every waiter and waitress in this filthy restaurant and she was never done eating one thing or one other. Ba couldn’t find anything he liked on the menu.
“ — You have to try those lotus pancakes, they are delicious. A present from the cook, for us. I almost bumped into him, a few moments earlier. He said I made his day. This is his thank you. Hmmm, yummy. Try them, here, have some…”
“ — No thank you.”
Simone seemed to be popular in this restaurant. A karaoke session was improvised, and the girl was good. A few young people came in, soon there was a flash mob and more karaoke. Simone didn’t seem to care about washing her dirty hands. She looked reckless. Ba nicknamed her “reckless monkey”. Michelle had warned him. Sheer loss of time. Soon, someone came in, and brought some more junk food. Chinese New Year would soon be around the corner. Ah, the chicken biscuits. Ba hated those. After the crêpes, Simone was now munching on a biscuit, her hands weren’t getting cleaner. The girl was just a mess. She was a strange combination of artist, reckless, beautiful, and she could sing. Coding genius? It seemed she had multiple personalities. Although he was annoyed, as she was acting so childishly, he decided to be nice and gentle.
“ — You seem to enjoy local products?”
“ — I prefer Japanese junk food. My favorite. I can eat tons of it.” She was talking with her mouth full. Ba thought he’d ask her about her favorite mangas. Michelle had told him her niece was spending an awful lot of time reading and watching mangas in Japanese. He soon felt sorry he asked. The girl was just unstoppable and Ba didn’t care. It was already 5:00 pm. Should he just leave and go back to see how the deal was progressing? After all, he was here for the business with Kuok. Or was he here for Simone?
“ — I don’t feel too well, I think I’m going to be sick… Excuse me…”
In the middle of the conversation, the girl turned white and he thought she was going to puke inside of the filthy waste bin outside of the restaurant. But a few moments after that, they left. The whole thing had cost only 35 MR (5 dollars). Now they were sitting in the car.
“ — Do you feel any better?,” asked Ba.
“ — How about you? Do YOU feel any better? After all, you are the one with the cancerous mutation that is being traded on the stock exchange, right? Stupid and greedy pharma, getting us nowhere.”
“ — …”
Ba was just sitting there, stunned. So, Michelle knew about the whole thing? The girl seemed to read his mind.
“ — Michelle is not a hacker, but I am.”
“ — Hacker is a dangerous job. It can get you in prison.”
“ — Don’t worry, Michelle doesn’t know. Nobody knows. I know how to keep a secret. That’s what you learn best in prison.”
“ — …”
To Ba, it seemed that the girl who was sitting next to him in the car on the parking lot had nothing to do with that other girl from the restaurant. The reckless monkey. Michelle had told him Simone had several personalities and was what doctors called the hyperactive type. Patience had served him until now, at least that was his hope. Now, he needed good reflexes.
“ — And what is it that you can hack and that gets you into prison in Beijing?”
“ — The complete list of famous personalities and surgeons involved in organ trafficking in China. The money the Chinese army made thanks to this trafficking. The connections with Daesh and North Korea, the fact that I shared all of this with prominent human rights activists. All of this, or part of this, I’m not sure. You decide.”
“ — I’m sure you have the winning combination. Who got you out of prison?”
“ — A famous Chinese writer. He is a personal friend of the President.”
“ — You are lying. You are the one who got him out of prison. Actually, this is the reason why you got in prison.”
“ — Who cares ? Now this author is dead anyway.”
“ — You are lying again. He is one of the most famous authors in China today. He owes his life to you.”
“ — Maybe. Not sure. One thing for sure: he owes his success to hard work. And talent. Loads of it.” She paused. Then she asked, quite abruptly:
“ — Anyway. What is it you wanted to ask me?”
“ — Go to Tokyo right after you finish high school. Do your best here. And in Japan. I want you to work on your app with my oncologist, Taka. He is a nice guy, you’ll like him. You can also learn from a startup founder, a French biologist, who works with Taka. He is also trying to create an app, Gene-i-us. Name of the guy is Mougin. Get your app working, and TenBa will buy it.”
Simone was on her guard again.
“ — Why would I do this?”
“ — Because this is what your aunt wants you to do.”
“ — Then why didn’t she ask me in person? Why throw in a tycoon, between the two of us? You are heading TenBa. Why did you waste your time with me this afternoon? Don’t you have anything better to do?”
The girl was now in a confrontational mood. He guessed this was because she was afraid. As long as her lies didn’t get contradicted by someone who knew the complete truth, she was feeling safe. Now she was probably scared.
“ — Look, I’m sorry, OK? I’m sorry for everything that happened to you. It wasn’t fair.” He was trying to soothe her.
She drove back to her auntie’s home, leaving Ba there. As he was going to get out of the car, he didn’t know how to say goodbye, so he decided he would hug the girl with the dirty hands. Didn’t they both badly need a shower anyway? Maybe this wasn’t his smartest move, as Simone panicked and scratched him in the face, like she was a cat fighting an enemy. Ba didn’t have the time to react. Now they both sat silent in front of Michelle’s mansion. Ba wanted to say something, but changed his mind. There was a bit of blood on his face. Simone sat silent.
“ — Bye,” she said, in a dry tone. He answered in just the same way. Both felt sorry; they also felt there was nothing else to be said or done.
Michelle came running to the car.
“ — What took you so long? Ba, did you have fun? Oh my God, what happened to your face? Did Simone show you around? Ipoh is the best town in the world if you are the foodie type. Simone, your grandmother found those two kittens. Somehow their mom abandoned them or must be dead, the vet says they are at best three weeks old. They need to be bottle-fed, with goat milk. Can you take care of this? I already bought the milk powder for you.”
“ — May I use your bathroom, Michelle? I really need a shower, your niece took me to the edge of the world, really,”
— and to the edge of myself, he thought.
There was this sadness… Organ trafficking, organ replacement medicine. The whole thing needed a reboot. Quick. Precision medicine. Using CRISPR to engineer organs in pigs that could be transplantable in humans. He would make sure TenBa would only press forward…
“ — By all means! You look like a wild boar. I’ve arranged something for dinner tonight. Will you be my guest?”
“ — With pleasure, Michelle.”
The conversation was going on, between Ba and Michelle, but the bitter taste, the sadness were here to stay. He had always thought of genomic precision medicine in terms of cancer. His cancer. Now he knew this was just the tip of the iceberg. Medicine was a mess that probably needed 99 % reboot. This was a job for TenBa. He would make sure the girl was on board, but for now… The tiredness, the bitterness… A beautiful bathroom, with elegant Italian design… Under the shower, nice comforting hot water, he squatted down and started sobbing.
(*) Xia Jia, in: “Invisible Planets, 13 visions of the future from China”, an anthology of contemporary Chinese science fiction, edited and translated by Ken Liu, p.383.
Catherine Coste
MITx 7.00x, 7.QBWx, 7.28x1–2 certified
Member of the Walking Gallery of Health Care, founded by US activist Regina Holliday
