Plagiarising the genetic code- A fictional novel about the plagiarism issues in biotechnology.

Immature Poets Imitate

Mature Poets Steal-

T.S.eliot

 

Story line-

Frederick Sanger received the Noble Prize for Chemistry in 1958 for deducing the complete sequence of insulin. He had remarked in his autobiographical account as to how the award had an important and stimulating effect on his career.

Rosalind Franklin’s X-ray photographs of DNA laid the foundation for establishing the structure of DNA. But her diligent work was pushed to the back by her male colleagues who used her findings without her approval. She was largely unaccredited for her work on DNA. The thoughtful concern of her friend Anne Sayre changed this through her biography on Rosalind Franklin. The biography postulated the crucial role of Franklin in the DNA structure

An honorary award, the thoughtful concern of a friend has paved the way for scientists to make their mark in history.

But for the Biotechnology Scientist Divyanth it was the opposite. A honorary award had abolished the thoughtful friend from his life with whom he had hoped to make a mark in the biotechnology era.

This novel is about plagiarism in biotechnology and how it changed the course of relationship between two friends, two classmates and two lovers.

Chapter-1

The Increasing List of Blackmailers

One encounters irony in almost every step of life. For a mischievous child it is when he is punished for the mischief he had not done , for an hardworking student it is when he is awarded high marks for the subjects he had not read, for a lover it when he is loved by the person he hates the most. Divyanth was now facing one of his irony moments. He was being blamed for plagiarising a work he had so honestly worked on. The blamers never knew the lies he had said earlier for the research he had passed as his own.

L.Divyanth was one of the top Biotechnocrats in the Biotechnology era of 2025. He had completed his undergraduate programme on 2010 in St. David’s College followed by Integrated doctoral programme in “Centre for Cytogenetics”. His Doctoral Research work on “Uncertainity of the DNA “had made groundbreaking changes on the understanding of nucleic acid.  This research work won him worldwide acclaim. He was also awarded the “Muller’s award for Young Scientists”. He then continued his work on proteins. He slowly made his way through the world of scientific studies and is now the head of   “Radhakrishnan Nucleic Acid Research Institute”. In a research career of 10 years he had released almost 125 papers and was now on the process of releasing another one which he considered as his best yet since the revolutionary paper“Uncertainty of DNA”.   But some people were determined to stall his process.

Calling themselves the “Unravelers Of Plagiarisms “they had come to his office two weeks back with a research article. The research article had been published two months back in Nature journal and had used the same theory and set of ideas he had used in his research. What was most remarkable was the fact that most of the quoting and sentences in the article also matched those in his work. They had used the same bacterial type for genetic transfer. They had used the same words to describe the recombination involved. They had used the same diagram to illustrate the “switching on” process. The article was almost similar to his in most aspects. Yet he had never heard of the researchers who had written that. “Finny Truman” and “Larry McAllister”. He had been flabbergasted as to how such a resemblance could exist.

He had denied his charges and ordered them to leave his office. The persons- two boys and a girl had replied in a calm voice that “Yeah! Sure Dude we will leave the place and we will go directly to the Academic Commitee. They are going to review your paper next month right. Am sure they will be pleased to know that your work is nothing but a rip off of this- hey Bob what’s the topic”

“It’s something about DNA. You idiot! Why are you always forgetting it” said the girl with a slight rise in her voice.

They were only a couple of years older than his son who had started his work in the auditing sector. They were dressed in the same casual manner as his son. Faded Jeans with a black t-shirt quoting some awkward quote like-“I’m not as dumb as you look..”. They clearly had no knowledge about Biotechnology except that it had something to do with DNA or RNA or GNA (GNA was said by them at the start of the conversation while quoting the research article).

 He had been dumbfounded. He did not want his honest work to go wasted because it resembled someone else’s. He could only just deny them with mere words in front of the Academic Committee if it was shown to them. They could truly be prejudiced against him if the Unravelers showed them the research article. Before leaving the Unravelers gave him the Nature Research Article and told him that they could contact him later regarding payment if he wanted them to keep silent about his little plagiarism.  With no other alternative he had silently agreed to it.

The 1^st payment had been asked for an amount of 1 Crore. He had to deposit it in an account in one of the private banks. From then on it had followed for almost three weeks. He had spent three Crores in these weeks on those cheap blackmailers. The anguish he had felt at the first payment was replaced by the fervent prayer that this all could be over soon.

But all his efforts to reduce the recklessness of blackmailers by paying them whatever money they wanted were useless. Yesterday a complication had arisen. It was this complication that had made him sit up through the night in his office thinking of his past, his present, and future. He wondered whether he could ever be able to make it through this blackmail and plagiarism mess.

He was still sitting gazing into the sky oblivious that the midnight blue sky was now replaced by the crimson red early morning sky. He was trying to get rid of the face of the crying girl from his mind. The girl’s tears had been because of him. He still heard the words she had spoken when she was crying.

His reverie was disturbed by the arrival of his secretary, Rita.

“Sir! What are you doing still sitting here? You are still wearing the same clothes of yesterday. What happened? Did Leka Mam have a party again in your house? Oh Sir! For that why are you sitting like this?  Almost 93% of marriage couples face these sorts of problems. For that you did not have to not go to your house. Oh Sir! Why are you like this? You are almost 75 years old. You should be somewhat sensible by now.” said the shrill voice of Rita with her shrillness increasing with each word. He was not only his secretary but also his best friend’s daughter. She had that shrill voice like Vishnu. Divyanth got reminded of the happy memories he had had with Vishnu in his past. He shuffled out of the chair and made his way to the door. He wanted to go back home, set aside all these anxiety for just 2 hours or so.

“Oh Sir! Where are you leaving? You are supposed to attend the award ceremony. Have you prepared the speech?”

Ah! Yes the speech. He was supposed to deliver a speech today at the Genetics Foundation. He also had to present an award to a student Chester or was it Esther? He had to give an award, make a speech, sit through three hours of the conference, and listen to boring speeches by his colleagues. He did not want to do anything of that. He just wanted to go home.  Lie down. Go to sleep. Maybe tell his wife about the complication. It could take some of the pain away. He had kept this entire secret from Leka. The reason being that her mother had passed only a few months back. Though she seemed fine, he knew that Leka missed her Mother very much. But now he had no choice. He really needed someone to share his burden. It just happens in some point of life. You don’t want to be and you can’t be strong anymore.

Rita’s shrill voice pierced through his brain drawing him back to reality.

“Shall I make a rough draft? If you are feeling ill? Sir?” she asked looking at his worn face

With a smile he said to Rita, “You do that for me right, Rita. Am going home. I will come directly to the ceremony. Just mail me the speech”. Though he hated leaving Rita to take care of things, he knew he would not do it properly in his current state of mind. He slowly made his way home.

Esther was nervously biting her nails as she waited for the traffic to clear. She was going through her mind the questions she could ask Divyanth, when he met her. The questions were well crafted and Divyanth could not possibly make his way out of the questions. She had also kept a list in her handbook to make sure he spoke the truth. And in case he lied, she had a portfolio of newspaper cuttings, diary, and yearbooks as evidence. This was supposed to be the last and important step in her plan. The plan to destroy the man who had made his way through the research world by just lies.  She looked around her. All the cars had switched off their engines. It seemed it could take more than half hour to get through the road. The Rayon By Pass had always faced such a heavy traffic jam. And this Friday was no exception. She turned up the car air cooler a bit. She took the newspaper to kill the time. She was glad that she had one hour more to reach the ceremony. She scanned across the various headlines of political allegations, the recent scams. Her eyes rested on a photograph of Divyanth beside an article titled “   Top Biotechnocrats gather at the Genetics Foundation “. The article then went on to describe the dignitaries who could be present in the function- the emerging biotechnical business magnet Harman Mandau, the eccentric head of the Genetics Foundation Vipal Rao and the young effervescent scientist Dr. Harish Kumar. But the main focus was on Divyanth. The press loved the quiet scientist who had made the groundbreaking discovery in his past. Divyanth was described as having a clam disposition and one who answers the technical, personal, political and even dumb questions in a simple manner. He was described as the “Rare mutant in the award function” due to his seldom habit of attending such functions. The article contained only a one line description on the main purpose of the function.

Distribution of award to the young scientist Esther who had sequenced the largest known synthetic protein. The synthetic protein had been produced in a rare species of bacteria by Divyanth and his colleagues last year. They had offered a cash price and award to anyone who could sequence the protein. The sequencing was not an easy task as the protein was the longest in the world. It was ten times larger than the natural protein Titin which was only 5,604 amino acids long. Also since it was a newly discovered protein its function was not entirely known. Its properties were mostly characterised as unstable. So none of the students or research associates or scientists had been able to sequence it. But Esther had achieved it in a period of 3 months. But the newspaper made no mention of her feat. It just read-

“The award is to be given for Chester for the sequencing of PRO89”. And they had even misspelt her name. Irritated she crumpled the paper and threw it outside the window. Was the first appearance of the famous scientist Divyanth in the public world after a hiatus of two years more important than the outstanding work of a growing young scientist? Just because a person shies away from the frenzy of the mass media does it make him a humble person ?   Just because the person has made a ground breaking discovery enough to make him a nominee for the Noble Prize make him a genius? Just because the person is one of the top philanthropist who does not use the media to be in the spotlight make him a person so endearing to the media?

 Angry thoughts about Divyanth crowded Esther‘s mind. She did not notice that the traffic had cleared until the driver from the car behind her honked. Leaving out a sigh she told to herself,” No she did not sequence the protein to make the front page in the newspaper. She had sequenced it so that she could get closer to Divyanth and make him pay for his plagiarism.

Divyanth squeezed his mobile as he sat in the conference waiting for the boring lecture of Harman to get over. Man! Why had God even given Harman a vocal box? He was not able to hear half of the words coming out of his mouth. The rest half he could hear were so repetitive that he had trouble not to fall asleep. He had almost fallen asleep after 5 minutes of his speech. But he was jolted awake by a text message sent to him by the Unravelers-

“Dude we will meet after the conference to discuss about the girl. Just come to the bar next street.” “What dude. Uh! These youth nowadays always seemed to be calling everyone dude. Even his own son called him Dude more than Dad.

Talk about the girl? Did they think talking was going to solve the problem? It was their fault. They were the ones responsible for the complication. He could scarcely remember the girl who had come to his office that day with these” DUDES”. But she now had done something that had made him pray for all horrible things to happen to her. The girl who had arrived with the two boys- Bob and Rahul. What was her name? He kept forgetting it again and again.

 He lifted his head up and scanned the dais. Harman was still droning on about exports of biopharmaceuticals. Harish looked as though he was listening to his lecture but was actually gazing at the girl who was to win the award.

Ha! Her name was Sheila. Sheila – the girl who had sounded like she knew a bit about biotechnology when compared to the other two boys. The girl who seemed like she was no trouble at all. The girl who had opened her mouth and blabbered about him and his plagiarism cases.

One week back Sheila had gone to a bar. And in a drunken state had told to some stranger as to how she had blackmailed the great biotechnocrat of 2025- Divyanth. And how she was now living comfortably in his money. She had no idea of who the stranger was, but apparently it turned out he had an idea of who she was. And he also had a pretty good idea of who Divyanth was. So the next day he had come and asked the Unravelers to hand over the research article. He had terrorised them with a group of thugs. They even had Bob beaten up when they refused to hand it over. When they eventually gave him the article he read through it and then threw it across their face. He claimed that it was not the plagiarised article and accused them that they had the wrong one. He said the article that Divyanth had plagiarized was an entirely different one.

“Now the Guest of Honour Dr.Divyanth will distribute the “Young Scientist Award to Esther who has sequenced the protein PRO89”said the speaker.  He climbed on the dais. He smiled slightly and presented the award to Esther with a quiet “All The Best”.

“Now Dr. Harish Kumar will distribute the cash prize of Rs.1.50 crore to Esther for her outstanding work”

A thrill ran through Esther as she received the prize cheque from one of her crushes - the young and handsome Harish Kumar. She was then photographed by the press along with the two scientists and then unceremoniously pushed off stage as the admirers of both Harish and Divyanth climbed the stage to get photographs and autographs.

Divyanth made his way for his car. He had had his patience tested by the press again. He had been asked all sorts of question and most of them were not even related to his field. What was he supposed to do if the inflation or whatever was high? Why should he care that his hometown had lost again in the IPL? Why would they even want to know want were his views on the recent film about genetic engineering? Oh God! Just because they have a mike they think they can ask anything. Ha had no idea how he had sat through that session for almost 2 hours. All through the session though he was answering the questions in a calm way his attention was focussed on what he was going to say to those DUDES at the meeting.

 Should he just deny that he had never plagiarised anything? But how could the guy whom they had met randomly at the bar know about his past crime? Maybe they were just making it up to get more money? No it can’t be. They had only remarked during the past money transaction as to how he handled the blackmailing much better than the other scientists. Some scientists whom they had threatened in a similar way had made the mistake of contacting the police. The Unravelers even before the police had come had somehow caught news of the Scientist’s complaint to police and had leaked his plagiarism detail to the net. They had also managed to worm their way out of the police with the help of Bob. Bob though mainly had blackmailing as his career was also a crafty lawyer in his part-time. No! They can’t be making it up. Because he had himself gone and seen Bob who had fractured his right hand in the attack. And his bruises were real. He had pinched them twice to assure himself. Moreover they were also bewildered as him .The stranger had beaten them up and taken away the research article also. He had said that he could come back to claim the original plagiarised article later. Their job was also at a risk.

Oh! What could happen?  The blackmailers have been blackmailed by another blackmailer? Could the stranger leak the contents of the article to the net now itself? Or could he wait for the original plagiarised article so that he could have a major scope to leak to the net? And who was this stranger anyway? Friend or Foe?

Divyanth got into his car and made his way for the bar mentioned in the message. He wondered briefly as to who could come and see him. Sheila could not come as after this incident she had gone back to hide in her hometown. Bob was still in hospital. Rahul? But does not he have work today at his outsourcing job?

He got out of his car as he reached the bar. He had just gotten a table and sat down. He was joined by Esther.

“Hello Sir. Nice to meet you. I have something important to ask you. “She said with an eerie smile.

Divyanth blinked. What did this girl want? Was it about scholarship? Did she want to work under him? Did she want a recommendation letter? This was one of the two reasons why he never went out anywhere alone besides his institute and home. One was the press and another was these young people always asking for a recommendation. But still he said with a calm smile,” What is it Chester? Is it about academic help? I am kind of meeting someone important here. I will give you my personal number you can call me later anytime you want. Now is not a good time.”

“Oh Sorry Sir! Have I caught you at a not so good time? Just as the not so good time you had when you plagiarised your first research work?” she asked with the same eerie smile. The colour drained from Divyanth’s face. Actually how many people had found out about his crimes? The list seemed to be increasing.