"RNA is three-dimensional... How to resequence... need to contort the chain.. rebuild those ribose sugars... attack the nitrogenous bases..." I mumbled to my lunch sandwich.
"Maggie," Paul said gently across the table from me. "I realize you're probably not there, but you're talking gibberish to your sandwich again."
"I am?" My eyes lifted to his and he nodded nonchalantly. "I'm sorry. How... How are you?"
"Look, I realize I'm not supposed to know, but you're working on COVID-19, aren't you? Blink once for yes, twice for no." I didn't like the teasing look in his eye.
"I'm serious."
"Look," he said casually, "If you want to resequence RNA then why not just use Moderna's messenger-RNA technology? We have it on our floor, you know the mail-pushers."
"Moderna's..." I dropped my sandwich right onto the table. I was fairly certain that anything still in my mouth would've fallen out as well. "Why didn't I think of that? You are a genius Paul."
"Go, he's still in the office." He chuckled as I stood up and sprinted down the hallway to the elevator. I didn't mind the surprised expressions, just hurried as fast as my feet carried me.
"So... if I understand, Dr. Henry..." I asked Paul's supervisor as my fingers tapped absently against my chin. "If I give you the antigens, then you can make the proteins? Any proteins?"
He nodded. "It's essentially like playing a large game of Jenga, but we can decide whether or not to stabilize, or in the case of vaccines against RNA, destabilize the ribose sugar, the nitrogenous bases, or both. The resulting proteins will attack the RNA's nucleoproteins."
That actually didn't help.
I had no idea what Jenga was.
"It's quite brilliant, if you think about it." He leaned back in his office chair and studied me curiously. "You get me the antigens, I'll destabilize the RNA. We'll run as many combinations that we can calculate."
"Thank you." I stood up from my chair, then hopped back and forth on my feet in anticipation. I hadn't felt this encouraged and excited in two weeks. "I will work all night, get as many as I can."
"Good luck," he smiled in amusement at my excitement. I couldn't believe how simple the concepts were, and literally skipped down the hallway back to the elevator. My heart raced in my chest. I'd never been so excited to pull an all-nighter.
The next morning crashed into me like a runaway freight train.
"Oh my." I heard the drop of heavy items on the floor behind me. After my fists rubbed my eyes, I lifted my head in confusion off the stack of papers I'd rested my head on. After I glanced at my watch, I smoothed my fingers through my hair. I'd slept in the lab for forty-five minutes.
"Is that... necrosis?" Dr. McKenna exclaimed in a high pitched voice.
I lifted my eyes to the overhead screen. Sample number nineteen was covered with black mound-like structures. I skimmed quickly over all the other dishes and was delighted that the other virus samples had varying amounts of necrosis but nothing like the dark masses in number nineteen that I'd put up on the larger screen and watched all evening.
"What the hell is going on here!?" I was definitely awake after Tucker's exclamation. He marched towards me, but Dr. McKenna lifted a hand across his chest to block him.
"I did some extra work last night," I mumbled then pressed my fingertips into the corners of my eyes.
"You did what!?" Tucker practically screamed at me. "How could you? We did not work on this yesterday, Dr. McKenna."
"I had a good idea... so I stayed overnight..." My voice trailed off. "Dr. McKenna said explore all options."
"So you just decided to take our last British single-sourced sample of COVID-19, and... play with it? This isn't playdough, kiddo."
"It's okay." A slight twinge of annoyance crept into my voice as I assured him, "I'll make more."
"What???" Tucker's eyes couldn't have stretched wider. "What do you mean, make more?"
"Umm... digital mapping?" I tried not to speak to him like he was a child, since I certainly didn't appreciate it when he did that to me.
Do onto others..
"Here," I shoved the top piece of paper on the stack I'd been using as a pillow at him. "It's not rocket science. China released the genetic sequence online on January eleventh. Inovio Labs in Philadelphia used digital mapping and shared the genetic sequence of the vaccine less than twenty-four hours later. Doherty labs in Australia has replicated older strains of COVID-19 artificially in their lab."
"We know this." Tucker frowned at the paper.
But he didn't argue against me, or call me a child again, so I continued. "I picked up what Doherty did from there but basically with digital mapping for RNA sequences. Voila, it's like an ice cream machine for making COVID-19. Or playdough, if you prefer."
"Digital mapping..." he mumbled. The same look after I'd written on his board started to appear on his face. "That means..."
"Yes, please keep up Tucker. I took the Inovio genetic sequence, combined with DNA from vaccines for earlier coronavirus strains like Doherty did, then mutated it by digital mapping those RNA strains for a new vaccine. I mimicked a few options of DNA antibodies from several immuno-compromised conditions for some test conditions. I'm not there but really close."
"So I was able to do this repeatedly, but replicated on earlier strains of the virus. The playdough. if you insist on calling it that."
"How did you know which DNA resequencing to apply on the COVID-19 strain?" Dr. McKenna asked the million dollar question.
"I used Moderna's messenger-RNA technology - they have it on the third floor here - to transport the antigens and again, voila, RNA proteins, to theoretically protect against any infectious disease's nucleoproteins. I worked with Dr. Henry on the fourth floor, who had his team run the machine overnight."
"Theoretically." I knew as soon as Dr. McKenna smiled that he knew what was coming next. Tucker still stared at me as if I were a borderline criminal.
"I watched how the older vaccines worked. I've also been watching the nine COVID-19 strains for ten days. They're different but all attack the nucleoproteins, leading to the rapid infection rates but slow development of symptoms. Number nineteen contains proteins to destabilize both the ribose sugars and nitrogenous bases in the RNA. We disrupted both because COVID-19 moves so slowly within the bloodstream. So I figured hitting it head on, going for the..." I trailed off as Dr. McKenna lifted up his hand.
"What's nineteen?" Tucker asked, typing into a lab computer. "UK strain. Male, twenty, history of asthma and cancer in the family. Asthma?" His eyes lifted up to me.
"I ran that one.." My voice trailed as I searched for an answer that appeared plausible. "Since it seems like the deaths are higher for people with upper respiratory problems."
"Tucker, run some diagnostics." Dr. McKenna's face immediately creased with multiple worry lines. "I'll call Amy and Adam in from home. Maggie, you get them up to speed once they get here, but until then, in my office please."
The solemn tones in his voice pierced directly into me. As we left the lab, Tucker muttered through my notes. My eyes watched the worn brown heels of Dr. McKenna's shoes as they quietly stepped into his office. He pulled back one of the chairs in front of his desk and pointed at it for me to sit down. I obliged and felt like a deflated, empty balloon as my butt sank down against the soft leather seat.
"Dr. McKenna, I'm sorry." My eyes shifted to the floor as my right knee started to twitch. "I shouldn't have worked on my own. Met with Dr. Henry behind your back and used their equipment. I was watching the virus, and just had a feeling that the nucleoproteins would work. With the slow COVID-19 mutation rates, it should work on all nine -"
"Maggie please." Dr. McKenna leaned back in his seat. "I might be an older guy but I can think three steps ahead of Tucker. We have a lot of work to do on this. Not done yet, there's only partial necrosis. And we're dealing with nine strains. Even with a slow mutation rate, it might not work."
Not knowing how to respond to this, I sat there silently. My shoulders slumped and a pit of despair knotted in my stomach. My eyes focused on my knee as I tried forcefully to slow the twitches down.
This is worse than missing the exam question. I d.isobeyed and most likely disappointed, Dr. McKenna and the whole team.
Hot tears pricked my eyes.
"It's a rapid, constantly evolving puzzle piece, that's why it's evading almost all of us. Except maybe you." His face finally relaxed as he smiled. "It's more encouragement than we've ever seen. Lots more work for sure, but I'll put the whole team on it."
"...You... will?"
"Yes." He leaned back and exhaled loudly into his chair as if he decompressed mentally. "I'll call in Amy and Adam, get them up to speed and working on the other strains. I think by tomorrow we'll have something to send to the replication floor for clinical trials. So thank you."
My body was nearly shaking, this time in a good way.
Did he say thank you?
Every fiber in my being wanted to impress this man. What some people don't understand about social anxiety is at the root, for mine at least, was a desire to please people, then inevitably I screwed it up and felt overly upset and depressed about myself. My pleasing desire peaked academically once I'd stepped into the lab and I hoped this would trickle back down to UCL.
"Two more things, then I'll let you get back to work."
"Okay."
"First, let an old bugger try to catch up. The RNA proteins..." He tapped his fingers on his desk.
"Yes.." My eyes glinted as I waited in anticipation. He just smiled, as he caught up a few steps. The RNA proteins were not limited to COVID-19, or even the larger family of coronoviruses. Potentially they could be used to manipulate and destabilize any RNA-based virus.
"Think you found your dissertation topic." I could have collapsed onto the floor in excitement. But I didn't, that would have been awkward. So I did the slightly less awkward thing and sat there in silent shock.
"And two?" I couldn't imagine there being better news.
"Two, exemplary work. Bloody brilliant, Maggie."
At a loss for words, I simply beamed.