A Wall Street Genius's Final Investment Playbook-Chapter 287: Symptoms (1)
“Sean! You’re here!”
At the entrance of Quantum Genome, the CEO was waiting for me. His face was far too bright.
‘Well, I suppose it makes sense.’
After all, it was thanks to my funding that they were able to acquire Sweden’s cutting-edge startup and bring a technology that once existed only in theory into reality. That much I could understand. But behind the CEO, I saw a long line of researchers in pristine white lab coats.
“And these people…?”
“Ah, these are our researchers. They wanted to meet you in person. They’re… fans!”
At that moment, one of the researchers suddenly stepped forward.
“Sean, you truly are our savior! Back then, even if we spent a whole week trying to merge spot-based RNA sequencing data with tissue coordinates, the best we could manage was t-SNE or PCA…”
“But now we can feed in multimodal data directly, learn the inter-spot connection networks, and map out the exact patterns of cell-to-cell interactions!”
As I watched this researcher pop out of the line, I felt a strange sensation. It wasn’t unusual for people to recognize me and greet me warmly. But those people had mostly been small investors or ordinary fans of famous figures. Now, the ones greeting me so passionately were scientists. And their enthusiasm felt very different.
“On our internal Slack channel, Sean is something of a mythical figure. We call the days before and after your arrival in Bolton ‘Before Sean’ and ‘After Sean.’ We even named one of our clusters ‘After Sean!’ So… may I ask for an autograph?”
What the researcher held out to me was none other than a copy of the Attention paper. I’d signed many things in my life, but this was the first time I’d ever been asked to sign an academic paper.
But then I noticed something. When I looked around, I realized everyone was holding something in their hands. Apparently, they all wanted autographs. I glanced down at the work of art on my wrist.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have much time. How about we take a group photo instead of doing autographs?”
“Ah… yes, that works too!”
So a photo replaced the autographs.
Afterward, I checked the time again. “I really am on a tight schedule.”
“Of course! Let’s go! We’ll show you the world that has been made possible thanks to you! First, the wet lab!”
A wet lab refers to a laboratory where experiments are done with liquid reagents or biological samples. Naturally, I had no interest in touring the lab and was about to decline. But—
“There’s no need for a tour. I just want to review the data right away—”
“That won’t do! Everything here changed because of your investment! It won’t take long! Besides, it’s on the way anyway!”
They weren’t listening to me at all. And so, we stopped by a laboratory along the way. The entire wall was made of glass, and through it, I could see people handling equipment.
“We’ve brought in automated synthesis machines and the latest imaging systems! The speed and quality of sample processing have both doubled—”
Just as I was about to cut off the CEO’s endless explanation—
“What’s being analyzed right now is Milo’s lymph node tissue.”
The moment he mentioned Milo’s samples, I swallowed my words.
“Here we’ve attached fluorescent probes to the target RNA and quantified gene expression at each location. We started by focusing on immune-related genes, and from the collected data, we’ve identified several patterns of abnormally high expression.”
Abnormally high expression. Patterns not found in healthy individuals, but observed only in Milo, a Castleman’s patient. In other words, a candidate for the ‘Madness Switch.’
“Of course, the full results aren’t ready yet. The scans are finished, but the AI model still needs more time to learn the cross-patterns…”
“I want to see all the data that’s available so far.”
“Yes, of course. Then let’s head straight to the dry lab! This way!”
The dry lab was the analysis room. Inside, a giant screen and dozens of monitors were set up. On the monitor the CEO pointed to first, I saw a pattern that looked like a honeycomb. Each hexagon was colored, resembling a kind of heat map.
“This is a visualization of the gene expression data we obtained from Milo’s lymph node tissue. Right now it’s showing PI3K delta expression—the darker the color, the higher the expression.”
‘PI3K delta, huh…’
PI3K delta regulates intracellular signaling pathways in immune cells, playing a particularly important role in B cells and T cells. In Milo’s case, the gene’s overexpression meant the enzyme was being produced in excessive amounts.
“Of course, this could be just a ‘symptom,’ not the ‘cause.’ We’ll need to identify all the overexpressed genes first, then work out the causal relationships.”
“What other candidates have come up so far?”
“Ah, over here…”
On another monitor the CEO pointed to, a table of data sheets was displayed.
“So far, the most prominent overexpression is PI3K, followed by AKT1 and AKT2. We’re also detecting signals related to cytokines—IL6, STAT3, JAK1…”
Some of this I already knew, while other parts were new to me. Take IL-6, for example. That’s already well documented. Castleman’s patients are known to show overexpression of IL-6. That’s why the most common treatment is to administer IL-6 inhibitors. But unfortunately, for patients like Milo and me, IL-6 inhibitors don’t stop the seizures.
In other words, in cases like ours, IL-6 overexpression is just a ‘symptom,’ not the underlying ‘cause’ of the disease.
“So far, we’ve identified nine overexpression patterns.”
All nine of them were candidates for the ‘Madness Switch.’ The challenge now was to separate the ones that were merely symptoms from those that were the actual root cause of the disease.
“But the analysis is still ongoing. There’s a high chance more will turn up.”
“There are more overexpressions than I expected.”
“The only reason we got this far is because the sample came from a child. The genome was relatively undamaged, with less noise from aging or environmental exposure. If it had been an adult sample, it would’ve taken tens of times longer. We were lucky.”
In other words, if it had been adult data, there would have been so much noise that filtering out meaningful candidates would’ve been impossible. This was information they could uncover only because Milo was a child.
But still… Calling that ‘lucky’ didn’t sit right with me.
“How long until the final results are ready?”
“It’s hard to say exactly. There’s barely any research or literature on the etiology of Castleman’s, so we don’t know which gene is responsible. The only option is to go through the entire transcriptome one by one and interpret it. It’s like trying to draw a map of an unknown land without knowing the terrain.”
“Not even an estimate?”
“No. It could take three days, three weeks, or even several months.”
“Several months…”
Of course, I had no intention of waiting that long.
“Isn’t there a way to speed this up? I’ll provide additional support.”
“That’s… difficult. We already have the data, but we need to distinguish between what’s caused by the disease and what’s just noise. That requires clinical interpretation, meaning a human has to make the judgment.”
“Then why not hire more people to do it?”
“Haah… we’ve had job postings up for a long time, but it’s not easy to find qualified people.”
“Even if you doubled their salaries?”
That… The CEO paused, then spoke with an uncomfortable look.
“Well… setting salaries too high would cause problems with company operations and profitability.”
Fair enough. If the current staff stayed at their existing salaries while the new hires earned double, of course it would cause resentment among the researchers. Even the investors could end up criticizing the CEO, saying, “Why are you wasting money like that?”
But I had a solution.
“What if I personally covered the salaries to fund the hires? That way, it wouldn’t affect the company budget.”
“Hmm, that’s unprecedented…”
“What if I hired them directly and temporarily seconded them to you? If we did that, how much time would it save?”
“It would speed things up, but…”
“How much?”
The CEO answered with a troubled expression.
“Well… I don’t think it would take more than three months.”
***
After that, since I was already in California, I stopped by four more startups I had invested in. By the time I’d finished rushing around, it was late at night. Time to leave again.
The next destination was Philadelphia. I was going there to meet David.
“We’re ready for takeoff.”
As I sank deep into my seat on the private jet, the lights automatically dimmed to a soft glow. It was the newly installed “meditation-optimized lighting system.” Normally, the change in lighting would’ve quickly soothed me. But tonight, it had no effect.
“Three months…”
At most, three months. That was the time frame in which the key clue to the “Madness Switch” would emerge. In terms of time, that was relatively generous.
“If I can pinpoint the problem, that still leaves seven years to find a solution.”
It was, undeniably, an enormous breakthrough. And yet… Why was I still uneasy? No, more than that—it felt like my anxiety was intensifying.
My eyes naturally drifted to the work of art on my wrist. 11:58 p.m. The death notice would arrive any moment now.
And then—
【Time of Death: March 11, 2023】
【Time Remaining: 2,287 days】
【Survival Rate: 35.6% (+0.4%p)】
As I checked the numbers, I couldn’t help but frown.
“Did today’s progress not register properly?”
After Milo’s death, my survival rate had jumped by nearly 5.5%. But now… Even though I’d secured confirmation that the Madness Switch candidates would be identified within three months, the rate had only gone up by 0.4%. It was a little better than the slow daily 0.1% increases I’d seen during the height of the AI wars. But it was still nowhere near the explosive leap I’d been hoping for.
It didn’t look like a good sign.
“Will it spike dramatically once we pinpoint the decisive candidate…?”
At least the rate was rising, which meant I was still moving in the right direction. Maybe the numbers wouldn’t fully reflect until the sample analysis was completely finished. If so, all I had to do was wait.
“All I have to do is wait… right.”
Three months wasn’t long on paper. But for a man with only seven years left to live, three months was anything but short.
At that moment—
Bzzzzzt!
A text message arrived. The sender was Rachel.
<Just checking… Sean, you did remember to bring a wedding gift, right? Jesse seemed to be looking forward to it.>
“A wedding gift, huh.”
In truth, the reason for this trip to Philadelphia was to attend David and Jesse’s wedding. The ceremony had originally been planned for last year, but it was postponed four times because of the Castleman’s issue and various business complications.
At last, it was finally happening.
<Jesse said the schedule was changed four times because of you, Sean, so he’s expecting you to put extra thought into the gift…>
That stung a little. Jesse had been calling me whenever he had the chance, saying things like, “The date is really fixed this time, so please don’t schedule anything else that weekend.” But I don’t think I ever managed to honor that request. The result was the delayed wedding.
Anyway.
“A gift… I suppose I should.”
But I’ve never been good at picking out presents. I considered the usual safe options like clothes or jewelry, but David and Jesse aren’t the type to enjoy luxury. And the designs I would’ve chosen certainly wouldn’t have matched their tastes.
So when I asked Rachel for advice, she gave me this answer.
<I don’t think I can choose a gift for you. What matters most is your heart. Give the other person the thing you would most want to receive yourself. That’s the best gift, isn’t it?>
“The thing I would most want to receive…”
After some thought, I opened my laptop. One idea did come to mind.
<Cryonic Chamber.>
Also known as a cryotherapy chamber. It’s a device that creates an environment below minus 100 degrees Celsius using liquid nitrogen or special cooling gases. You step inside the booth, which looks like a tanning machine, for two or three minutes, then step back out. It boosts metabolism, reduces inflammation, and is highly effective for recovery from fatigue.
Right now, only a handful of athletes use them, but seven years from now, it’ll be a must-have for every Hollywood star and business executive.
“For fatigue, nothing works better than this… right?”
Since I’ve pushed David pretty hard over the years, this would make a gift that’s both practical and symbolic. I selected the model I needed and was just about to click the purchase button.
Flinch.
“…?”
Suddenly, my fingertips turned cold. As if… all the blood had drained from my body. A tingling spread across my palms, and an alien chill ran down my spine.
“This feeling…”
It was a familiar sensation. One from my previous life. And… A sensation I never wanted to experience again.
“No, maybe it’s nothing.”
It could have been my imagination, so I decided to test it again. I opened another website, added something I’d been eyeing to my cart, and clicked purchase.
Flinch.
This time, the signal was much stronger. It felt like my insides were twisting and creaking—no, like my organs were being torn out.
“Huuhhh…”
Even my breathing turned ragged. My heart pounded violently. Every nerve felt on edge, the back of my brain tingled with a sharp buzz, and a wave of dread dragged me downward as though the ground itself had swallowed me.
There was no mistake. This was the exact same symptom I’d suffered in my past life.
