Year Of The Earth Dog
This is episode 9 of The French Tech Comedy, Season 2
For Isa
Episode 8: “Biology has gone digital. Time to learn about it.”
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 actress Michelle Yeoh’s niece. Between Ba and Simone, things are complicated. But it is only the beginning… Simone is trying to make an algorithmic cryptocurrency that could mimmic biological processes within the human body. Meanwhile, Manga artist Koba writes about the blurring frontier between curing and enhancing in the genomic precision medicine era, and the consequences in society. At school, Simone needs to present her Science Fair project alone. Overanxious auntie Michelle had bribed a student from Simone’s class. She wanted her niece’s science fair presentation to be filmed, live. A few days later, she sent a link to a video to a friend of hers, Chinese giant TenBa’s founder Ken Ba, a zillionaire from Shanghai. She’d compiled a 10 minutes extract for him to see, and a question:
“ — What do you think?” Ba said the video was very interesting and offered to have lunch in Ipoh, Michelle’s home town, next weekend, and discuss things. Simone, meanwhile, is stuck in Bangkok…
— — — — — — — — — — —
Simone hates it. Gong Xi Fa Cai, the Chinese New Year (in Cantonese), is just around the corner, and it is Sunday afternoon. China Town in Bangkok is one huge mess of street food vendors, the heat and smell competing against each other, or rather the stench, coming from ever-present sewers, drains, ditches, underground confined spaces, all filled with waterways. Canals running beneath the streets. Sometimes you could see them, sometimes you couldn’t. This place is like Venice in Italy. In the midst of heat and rotten smells, how come all people can think about is food? Chinese-Italian fusion cuisine? Pick today’s special: cholera outbreak dim sum.
“ — Hurry, Simone, we are late. The rest of the family is already sitting at the restaurant. We’ve got the wine, they’ve got the tea. You’ve got the corkscrew, haven’t you?”
“ — Mom, this isn’t Malaysia. Here they have wine, it’s not a Muslim country…”
“ — Your uncles tend to disagree about a lot of things in life, but they all like this red Bordeaux wine, which they say isn’t available here. So…”
Simone was trying to guess which of those damn animals from the Chinese astrology would be under the spotlight for 2018… From what she saw all around her, it wasn’t hard to guess…
Why wasn’t there any cats in the Chinese astrology? Rat, snake, hare, pig, rooster, monkey, etc. Why no cat? And how about zebras? Those amulets could be seen everywhere in Bangkok, at dangerous crossings. Remembering car crash victims, making offerings, or anticipating more accidents? How about the year of the zebra? But her personal favorite would be the year of the cat. She guessed the Malay government would love to officially declare 2018 year of the earth cat instead. Muslim cat-people and their religious bias against dogs… Traffic was just impossible in Bangkok, not sure if the zebra (crossing) amulets were helpful. Why not try big data instead? They also have cool amulets: python coding, C++, plenty of algorithms along the street food of Chinatown big data Tencent…
The Singularity Is Near, says Google’s Chief Science Officer Kurzweil. Sure enough, here and now amulets and statues were nearer…
On this day, with the Year of the Earth Dog just around the corner, there wasn’t enough room in Chinatown Bangkok for a cat to squeeze between the street vendors, the stalls and people, cars, motorbikes. A temple, right next to the restaurant, now the intense smell of burning incense… And right next to the temple, a dialysis centre, financed by the local community. Simone saw herself as obese. She was overweight. Not that she ate that much. She was just having those eating disorders, as her auntie was calling them. Something that was supposed to be temporary. As she was stepping on one of those large and metallic ventilation slits that were being used as junctions between fragments of sidewalks, she saw one of those dangerous reptile predator wild striped varans, swimming in the water just beneath her feet. Apparently it was street food time for the lovely animal as well. Instead of Chinese cake or dim sum, though, the varan was snacking on what appeared to be… a colossal snake. Meanwhile, her mom was talking about Cantonese soup, or so she thought. She wasn’t sure.
Her mom was still talking.
“ — They’ve got the finest, you’ll see.”
She felt like vomiting. Her feet just refused to walk.
“ — Mom. I don’t want to go.”
“ — Oh, no, not again. Simone…”
Last time, Simone was too depressed to take part in the weekly family gathering. A gathering meant a meal at the restaurant. Earlier this week, her mom and her grandmother, as well as a couple of her aunties and cousins, had been doing some shopping in Bangkok. Siam Paragon Paradise. She wasn’t interested. Now she was being reminded that her grandmother would be very disappointed if she didn’t show up today. And worried, too… But she was in the middle of doing some kind of research, and had gotten in touch with that French lab she was so interested in, just minutes before having to leave the apartment. That damn family gathering. Her teenage cousins would ooh and aah about the garments they had just bought on Ratchada Road. Good for them.
“ — It’s like Orchard road in Singapore, with all the malls and everything, but ten times cheaper. The food’s pretty awesome too.”
“ — Oh, but you know you HAVE to wear something new for Chinese New Year. What did you buy?”
“ — Here, Simone, this is for you.”
“ — Also, I bought ten of those. You can have one if you want,” said one of her cousins.
“ — Take one. This is the new stuff you will be wearing for Chinese New Year. Meanwhile, you can start wearing the dress.”
Everybody wanted something from her. Her attention, or her to say thank you for the gifts, the T-shirt and the dress. She hadn’t brought anything in return, though. Just a corkscrew, given by her mom.
“ — But you’ve got the most important tool for today’s meal,” said her uncle:
“ — Which more than makes up for the new haut-couture dress, I’d say. Bordeaux is the ultimate haut-couture wine.”
“ — Did you buy anything from the stalls outside?”
“ — Goodness me, no.”
The chitchat was going on.
“ — I did. Freshly baked matcha green tea Chinese cakes. You can have some later if you want.”
Her grandmother had just sent a message on WhatsApp to Simone.
“ — What’s wrong?”
“ — Saw a varan snacking on a fucking snake beneath my feet just moments ago.”
“ — Yeah, I love Bangkok too. So romantic. Like Venice, they say, right?”
“ — And traffic jam, permanent. Like Paris.”
“ — Well you want to go there, right?”
“ — Have reasons for it.”
“ — You loved the dress, correct?”
“ — Ha Ha.”
“ — I was just teasing you, dear. Love you, as always.”
“ — By the way, Simone, I found this, for you. And a note.”
“ — Thanks.”
“ — What is it?”
“ — Ooh I like the T-shirt. If you don’t want it, I can take it.”
“ — At least they could have removed the price tag.”
“ — What does the note say?”
“ — Thank you. Ba.”
Another text from her grandmother, with another emoticon:
“ — So much for privacy.”
She wondered what it was about. Thank you for what? She knew that auntie Michelle was to meet with Ba again, and she had sent her something to show to Ba, though it was in French. Next thing she knew, she was in touch with Ba’s Japanese oncologist, Taka. And with the French lab from the article. Michelle wasn’t here today. She was having lunch with Ba, in Ipoh.
Simone was curious to know what they were discussing… Meanwhile, she was rotting away in Bangkok. Seriously? A t-shirt for her? Moonshot and flowers as a thank you present, on behalf of TenBa?
“The idea is to undermine all immune system brake systems with this anti-inflammatory drug already used for autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, Crohn’s disease or rheumatoid arthritis. In a melanoma, there is a protein called TNF (Tumor necrosis factor). When cancer develops, it is because it has been able to neutralise the immune system. It is in this case that immunotherapy has been used for four to five years. Immunotherapy also has limitations. The driver of inflammations is TNF, it’s a drag and it causes side effects. When we use immunotherapy, we create an inflammation in cancer, and this inflammation will have a negative effect, it will allow cancer cells to protect themselves from immunotherapy and the tumor can resume its progression”, adds Pr. Segui, highlighting the key role that anti-TNF can play: stop this infernal circle.”
Anti-TNF seemed to be needed in Ba’s case. So they had created an inflammation in Ba’s cancer, and were having trouble with the side effects of this inflammation. Trouble meant that they had not been able to get rid of the cancer. Taka wanted to share his work with Pr. Segui’s lab. And he wanted their help. The starting point had been her, Simone, stumbling across this article in the French press. Something that had gone almost unnoticed.
Sitting across from her at the restaurant’s table, her grandmother was grinning.
“ — Ok, ok, got it. Don’t send me another of your prehistoric smileys, please.”
Meanwhile, in Singapore, Yuki was very unhappy. Nono was grinning.
“ — C’mon baby, show me a smile.”
“ — …”
“ — Are you happy with your ballet master class? It’s just 5 minutes walking distance from home, right? All paid by Facebook. I mean, my Facebook money. Just for you, babe. C’mon, give me a kiss… that’s my baby…”
“ — …”
“ — Say thank you, babe?”
“ — …”
“ — I couldn’t hear you.”
“ — Thaaanks…”
“ — So much enthusiasm. Thank you.”
Yuki was disappointed and it was impossible to have a serious conversation with Nono. She’s had to cancel her flight to Boston. And yet, she wanted to meet with her MOOC teachers, the MITx pedagogic dream team. Say thank you for the MOOCs, and… and what else? She wasn’t sure. But she would definitely attend this genomics fair trade, or festival, organised each year by a London startup, and… and then, a touch of magic would do the rest. Big data and genomics and medicine. The British startup wanted to make the low-hanging fruits of AI actionable for health care, whatever that meant. Precision medicine.
“ — But self-driving cars are not ready yet,” said Nono:
“ — They cannot understand that a road sign that is hanging in the air isn’t an obstacle. So they brake in the middle of the highway, to avoid the so-called obstacle. Can you imagine the massive traffic accident that this could cause? So they had to tweak the algorithm. But as a result, a stationary vehicle, or a vehicle placed at rest, is seen by the AI as something that does not exist. Like a road sign hanging in the air. So bang, the autonomous car has collided head-on with a fire engine that was stationed. You know, one of those bright red massive vehicles… No way it couldn’t be seen… So the AI cannot seem to learn like human babies, anticipate situations and avoid mistakes. But they can be brilliant in niche domains. Like specialists. An AI is a post-graduate who has skipped diapers and elementary school. For example, black people were no different from monkeys, in the eye of an A.I. Imagine, Obama classified as a monkey. A gorilla, actually. So again, they tweaked the algorithm. As a result, any Google AI is gorilla blind.”
“ — Now, you are telling me you wanna use AI in medicine? Better be cautious. Those angry gorillas might backfire…”
“ — Medicine is nothing like a self-driving car at the moment. Rather, it’s a plane without a pilot. So there must be some low hanging fruits…”
Yuki only knew one thing. She had to cancel her trip to Boston. She wouldn’t attend this genomic festival she was so thrilled about. Nono’s parents were coming to celebrate the Festive Season with their son. And the young couple had just moved into a new apartment, on Orchard Road. An address that showed their social status. Nono had wanted to move to Geylang instead. The red-light district in Singapore. Wasn’t everything much cheaper here?
“ — Oui mais c’est le bordel,” she’d said.
(French for: “yes, but it’s such a mess here”)
Same budget, different place. Yuki had found their new apartment. And it would be located on Orchard road. Great, but nothing was working. Water was either super hot, or cold. Air cond. was not adequate, anti humidity machines for home needed to be bought and installed pretty much everywhere, and of course everything needed to be ready before the arrival of Nono’s parents, and their things from Japan — Nono’s suits and pieces of furniture — either hadn’t arrived and were long overdue, or everything was mould and rotten, in a cheap storehouse nearby. Well, nothing was cheap, in Singapore. A low heating table called “Kotatsu” was still in Nono’s former apartment in Japan and they needed it to be empty, for them to be able to terminate the lease. They’d gotten rid of Nono’s almost brand new fridge and washing machine, for no money at all in return. At least they’d made students happy. The ones who got this equipment for free. The date of termination still needed to be negotiated, by the way. Etc. Yuki was in charge, of course. And also, she needed to organise the visits in Singapore, accompany Nono’s parents. Show them around, bring them to exhibits. Yuki knew that Nono’s mother wouldn’t stop complaining about the heat and humidity. And she would be missing her two cats, of course. Nono said her mom loved and cherished her cats more than her own children. So yeah, of course, she was so happy to stay in Singapore. The ballet master class was her one and only dose of oxygen. And since the rainy season was dragging on…
Catherine Coste
MITx 7.00x, 7.QBWx, 7.28x1–2 certified
Teacher and Member of the Walking Gallery of Health Care, founded by US activist Regina Holliday
Table of Contents:
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
Episode 5 of Season 2: TenGene, Gene-i-us and a thousand planets in between
Episode 6 of Season 2: The Re:Creators Fault Line and the Epigenetic of Worldwide Middle Class
Episode 7: The Methylation of Money
For Season 1 of The French Tech Comedy (all episodes), see here.
