21st Century Necromancer
Chapter 813 - 809: New Ideas

Inomata Naoki arrived in Tokyo and would be staying temporarily. For all the factions interested in this matter, this was quite significant news.

Those who had the capability of knowing about it showed clear interest in the development.

However, this did not pose much of an impact on either Chen Yu or Inomata Naoki. After all, among the factions paying attention to this, none had the ability to influence Chen Yu or Inomata Naoki, while those capable of affecting Chen Yu were already in alliance with him.

Chen Yu did not immediately take Inomata Naoki to Minami's place after his arrival in Tokyo. Instead, he intended to let him acclimate for a few days before casually leading him to Minami's small shop to create a seemingly serendipitous encounter between the two.

So, after helping Inomata Naoki settle in, Chen Yu pulled him straight into the lab.

Being someone who had co-developed the broad-spectrum anti-cancer drug with Chen Yu, even though Inomata Naoki claimed he had merely been rearing horses and cattle in recent years, as a PhD graduate from the University of Tokyo Medical School, there was no way he had truly forgotten everything he'd learned.

After two days of adjustment, Inomata Naoki quickly got into work mode.

"Brother Yu, this new drug promotes cell division and growth at low doses but triggers contact inhibition at high doses. So, could we possibly isolate the component affecting the cell's glycocalyx to remove the drug's impact on the contact inhibition mechanism?" Over lunch, Inomata Naoki proposed his idea to Chen Yu while they were eating.

Hearing Inomata Naoki's suggestion, Chen Yu couldn't help but become intrigued.

Previously, the researchers in the lab had been focusing on how to eliminate the drug's impact on normal cells while retaining its influence on the tumor cells' contact inhibition mechanism. Inomata Naoki's proposal to eliminate the effect on the contact inhibition mechanism altogether could be considered a completely different approach.

"Oh? Why do you want to do this?" Chen Yu asked Inomata Naoki while continuing his lunch.

Because Jounouchi Hiromi was pregnant, today's lunch was a luxurious kaiseki bento made by the ship-girls, specifically Shoukaku and Zuikaku, who reportedly spent an entire morning preparing it. It was delivered during lunchtime by the children of the 6th Destroyer Squadron.

As for Inomata Naoki's lunch, since he was now living with Tokairin Yuko, she naturally prepared a bento for him, showcasing her 'wife-like aura.'

When the two lunch boxes were placed side by side, the contrast was quite stark. However, neither of them showed any intention to compare.

After Chen Yu posed his question, Inomata Naoki gave it some thought before responding, "If we were only developing a standalone drug, then of course we'd need to retain this mechanism. Triggering contact inhibition in tumor cells to halt their division is indeed highly significant in cancer treatment.

But this isn't a standalone drug—it's not an independent project. This new drug is an extension of Brother Yu's already successful broad-spectrum anti-cancer drug. It doesn't need to have the functionality of suppressing tumor cell division, because the broad-spectrum anti-cancer drug already accomplishes that.

So I think rather than expending significant effort to adjust the drug's impact on the contact inhibition mechanism, we might as well isolate that effect entirely, making the new drug solely destructive to tumor cells. When paired with Brother Yu's broad-spectrum anti-cancer drug, we can achieve both suppression of cell division and destruction of cancer cells effectively."

"Very clear reasoning! Looks like you didn't waste away during your horse-rearing years in Kumamoto, Naoki," Chen Yu praised. After some consideration, he said to Inomata Naoki, "Go ahead with your idea. Whatever you need—manpower, funding, lab equipment—I'll get it sorted. This is indeed another valid research direction. As for the original approach, I'll have someone else continue following it up."

Upon hearing Chen Yu's response, Inomata Naoki nodded in agreement. "You handle the big decisions, Brother Yu. I'll handle all the detailed work just like before, right?"

"Haha, exactly! Just like old times. Let's call Kaori tonight to deliver some dinner to us!" Chen Yu couldn't help but laugh heartily as they reminisced.

After their brief exchange of jokes, the two finished their lunch, tidied up their boxes, and returned to the lab.

"Everyone, pause for a moment!" Back in the lab, Chen Yu called out to everyone, and as the researchers turned their attention to him, he announced, "Based on the current progress in our experimental research, I've decided to create a new research group.

This group will focus on studying how to isolate the component in the new drug that affects the contact inhibition mechanism, transforming it into a drug that uniquely destroys tumor cells. Additionally, the group will investigate whether there are any adverse interactions between this drug and the broad-spectrum anti-cancer drug.

I'll hand the leadership of this group to Naoki. Regarding the specific personnel arrangements… is there anyone who wishes to volunteer for this subgroup?"

Chen Yu posed the question. The researchers exchanged glances for a moment before a few raised their hands.

"Do you have enough people?" Chen Yu asked Inomata Naoki beside him, checking if additional manpower was needed.

Counting the number of volunteers, Inomata Naoki nodded and said, "Yes, that should be enough. If it's not sufficient, I'll come back to you for more."

"Alright, we'll figure it out if needed." Chen Yu nodded and addressed the volunteers, "Since you raised your hands, you're in. Register your names with Naoki, and he'll be in charge of leading the group."

Having said that, Chen Yu let everyone get back to work and headed back to his workstation to observe the tumor cell samples he had cultivated earlier.

These cell samples were part of comparative experiments Chen Yu had conducted, aimed at evaluating the differences between the broad-spectrum anti-cancer drug and the new drug in suppressing tumor cell division.

The samples were divided into four groups: one was the untreated control sample, while the other three consisted of one treated with the broad-spectrum anti-cancer drug, one with the new drug, and one treated with both drugs.

What Chen Yu wanted to observe was the proliferation and division behavior of the tumor cells under these four conditions.