Hogwarts: From Selling White Peppers to Becoming a God

Chapter 234 Vampire Gene Therapy

"Niccolò Flamel is an alchemist, so your subject matter shouldn't involve alchemy," Murphy said.

As he spoke, Murphy glanced at Ron and said, "Speaking of which, you've collected so many of Dumbledore's wizard cards, haven't you ever noticed Nicolas Flamel's name on any of them?"

Harry only saw it once and still remembers it, but you just ate chocolate frogs, right?

But thinking about it, it's normal. Wizard cards can't be used to play cards, so it's not surprising that nobody reads the text on them.

After dismissing a few young wizards, Murphy was about to grab a quick dinner when suddenly his vision blurred, and a wave of nausea washed over him.

He pressed his hand to his chest, standing there in shock and bewilderment for a few seconds until he took a few deep breaths and his vision returned to normal.

"What's going on? The last checkup shouldn't have shown any abnormalities in the stomach or nervous system..."

Having no appetite, Murphy decided to go back to his room first, perhaps to do some self-examination.

He had a seamless expansion box containing several medical laboratories built to the specifications of a magic research institute. Although high-tech equipment could not be used due to the influence of Hogwarts magic, simple tests could still be performed without any problems.

It was only a few minutes' walk from the classroom to his office. The initial discomfort seemed to have passed, and he had safely completed most of the first half. He had just breathed a sigh of relief when, as he climbed the stairs to the fifth floor, another wave of pain surged over him, almost knocking him down.

As soon as he entered, he leaned weakly against the door. A tearing pain seemed to rise from his chest and abdomen, accompanied by a familiar feeling of weakness that dragged him down, making it almost impossible for him to stand.

He was very familiar with this feeling; it was almost exactly the same as it had been six months ago!

With trembling hands, he took a syringe from his spatial ring and inserted it into his neck.

After a while, the terrible feeling of weakness gradually subsided. Murphy let out a long breath, sat down in a chair, and wiped his forehead.

In just a short while, he broke out in a cold sweat.

"How could it be so fast..."

I originally thought the recurrence of various symptoms would take several more months, but now it seems the situation is more critical than I imagined.

The transformation and ultimate magical resonance during the battle with the shaman placed a greater burden on the body than originally anticipated.

This already precarious body may be on the verge of collapse.

No, I have to do something.

We need to stabilize my physical condition first.

At the very least, let it hold out until a real solution is found.

After resting for a while, Murphy took out the seamless stretching case from the corner, but after opening the case, he thought about it and gave up.

It's useless. Without addressing the root causes of aging and genetic disorders, simply treating the symptoms without addressing the root cause is a waste of time.

With that in mind, Murphy used the raven to contact Andrew Tucker of the Transfiguration Pathway Group at the Magic Research Institute.

The path to the Philosopher's Stone is still missing many pieces of the puzzle; for now, he can only rely on the science side.

"Andrew, how's the research on vampire blood going? Is there a way to apply its cell repair capabilities to ordinary humans?"

Previously, the Transformation Research Group discovered that vampire cells have a far greater ability to repair themselves than ordinary humans, and their maximum number of cell divisions is more than ten times that of ordinary humans. (Volume 4, Chapter 3, Fundamental Principles of the Seed of the Mind).

This ability would undoubtedly be of great help in alleviating Murphy's current symptoms. Therefore, in September, Murphy invested a lot of manpower in this area.

At this time, his health deteriorated, and he urgently needed results in this area.

"Director," Andrew said, facing a crow who couldn't see Murphy, his expression somewhat strange, "we have preliminarily identified several genes that may be related to vampires' super DNA repair capabilities. After grafting them into mouse cells using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology you provided, we observed that the lifespan of the mouse cells increased by about 30%, and the number of cell divisions increased from an average of about 12 to about 15 to 16."

"However, given the huge gap between our abilities and those of vampires, we suspect we haven't yet found that crucial gene."

Increase the number of cell divisions by about 30%?

To be honest, this result is much better than Murphy had expected. "Is there a way to apply it to humans?"

"Inserting foreign genes directly into human cells is still too dangerous," Andrew said. "Therefore, we plan to achieve the therapeutic effect through harmless viral infection."

Murphy nodded slightly. Given his physical condition, he dared not overexert himself. The more invasive the method, the more unpredictable the consequences would be. This was why he chose the "elixir of immortality" as his first option.

"What about the molecular biological mechanisms of anti-aging?" Murphy asked.

Anti-aging at the gene level is difficult to achieve, but if we can figure out which molecules and through which channels this function is achieved, we may be able to directly use drugs for less invasive treatment.

Andrew shook his head. "I'm sorry, Director, we don't have much of a clue about the mechanisms in this regard yet."

This is understandable.

Humans have been seeking immortality for more than just a year or two, and research into the internal mechanisms of aging has never stopped. However, until Murphy's rebirth, Muggle science had not made any major breakthroughs in this area.

Muggle scientists have many "long-lived" species in the biological world to refer to, such as various jellyfish, bacteria, naked mole rats, etc., but very few mechanisms that can actually be used in humans have been discovered.

What makes vampires a better subject of study than the aforementioned creatures is that they are transformed from humans, and the vast majority of their genetic information and cellular mechanisms remain largely unchanged.

Even so, it's unrealistic to expect to find the perfect anti-aging path in a short period of time.

"Then let's go with the method you suggested. Do you have any specific ideas?"

"The werewolf virus has a relatively ideal affinity for magic," Andrew said. "It can be regulated by controlling the level of magic in your body, but its toxicity is too strong and it has the property of forcibly deforming, which is very detrimental to your treatment."

Murphy's condition was semi-public within the magic research institute; basically, all the researchers who could help improve it knew about Murphy's illness.

He wasn't worried that anyone would take advantage of this to do something detrimental to him.

The Mind Seed Magic Protocol has severed this possibility.

"However, we have found that there are precedents for using adenovirus as a transgenic vector. Adenovirus has a good capacity and can accommodate a large number of foreign genes, and the immune response is relatively mild. We are currently modifying the adenovirus and expect to start animal experiments this month."

"By the way, Director, Funes Bachmann and Omid Abbott would like to speak with you," Andrew said, as if he had just remembered something.

Those two mad scientists?

Murphy agreed, and soon after, two scientists approached Raven. "Director, we've heard about Andrew's genetic engineering experiments. We have an idea."

"Tell me about it," Murphy said through the fairy coin.

"Do you remember when we said we could control the behavior of viruses and bacteria through the Seed of the Mind?"

Murphy frowned. "I remember."

"Simply using viral vectors for genetic therapy is spontaneous and has very low controllability," Funes said.

"For your treatment, it would be difficult to carry out systemic treatment if a non-replicating viral vector is used, while if a replicating viral vector is used, the potential side effects are unpredictable."

"Therefore, we thought that perhaps we could use Seeds of the Mind to screen and control viruses. After transforming the virus into a vector with cell repair capabilities through genetic engineering, we could then use Seeds of the Mind to give it a goal or behavioral logic, so that it could work exactly as we wish."

Murphy pondered for a moment.

The Seed of the Mind controls the virus?

When they first started researching the Seed of the Mind, these two had proposed similar ideas; now they were simply limiting the virus's function to repairing cells.

In fact, Murphy has already done something similar, using Seed of the Mind and viruses to work together.

The werewolf mercenaries' transformation mechanism is built upon a combination of the werewolf virus and the Mind Seed. Murphy can control the werewolves' transformation states through the Mind Seed.

The only difference is that the Seed of the Soul was planted in each Moga werewolf, not in the virus.

He had always been wary of using the Seed of the Soul for something as trivial as viruses and bacteria, but this time, he was somewhat skeptical.

What if I really need this to save my life?

Even if it truly becomes a T-virus, it will still be used when absolutely necessary.

"I'll go back once the viral vector is ready," Murphy said.

Only he knows how to create the Seed of the Soul, and only he can conduct this experiment.

(End of this chapter)