The Secrets Of Perfect DNA

Mike O'Neill

Description

For thousands of years, mankind has searched for the secret of life. Does it exist? Maybe it does in the form of a flawless genetic code. Nobel laureate and world-renowned geneticist, Sir Francis MacLeod, believes it does, after he discovers Perfect DNA.
He is about to reveal his startling discovery when he collapses at the podium, days later he is pronounced dead. Has he taken his secret to the grave or has he left it somewhere to be found?
MacLeod’s discovery is used to bring new therapies to sufferers of genetic disorders. Success follows—and with success comes crime and corruption.
What starts out as a cure for people with major genetic disorders soon becomes a means to push the envelope to the limit and use Perfect DNA to produce designer humans.

Sujets

• Thriller

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
• Date de parution: 30 novembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781398417663
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

T he S ecrets Of P erfect DNA
Mike O’Neill
Austin Macauley Publishers
30-11-2020
The Secrets Of Perfect DNA About the Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgements Prologue Key Characters Other Characters Chapter 1 January 2028, The Vatican, Rome Chapter 2 Chapter 3 April 2028, Genon, Plc, Cambridge, England Chapter 4 April 2028, Dundalk, Ireland Chapter 5 Chapter 6 April 2028, The Vatican, Rome Chapter 7 Chapter 8 May 2028, Cambridge Chapter 9 May 2028 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 July 2028, Cambridge Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 August 2028, Cambridge Chapter 15 Chapter 16 August 2028 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 September 2028 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 September 2028 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 October 2028, The Vatican, Rome Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 November 2028, Alpnach, Switzerland Chapter 33 December 2028 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 April 2030, Basel Chapter 37 Easter Sunday 2030, Basel, Switzerland Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Friday, May 31, 2030, Basel Chapter 43 June 2030, Alpnach Caverns, Switzerland Chapter 44 June 2030, Basel Chapter 45 Chapter 46 June 2030 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 June 2030, The Vatican Chapter 49 July 2030, Cambridge Chapter 50 September 2030 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 September 2030, Basel Chapter 54 October 2030, Basel Chapter 55 October 2030, Cambridge Chapter 56 October 2030, The Vatican Chapter 57 October 2030, Alpnach, Switzerland Chapter 58 January 2031 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 Chapter 61 June 2031, St. Patrick’s Church, Dundalk Chapter 62 September 2031, Tronavis Headquarters, Basel Chapter 63 October 2031, Nairobi, Kenya Chapter 64 October 2031, Alpnach Caverns, Switzerland Chapter 65 Chapter 66 May 2032, MacLeod Clinic, Nairobi Chapter 67 Chapter 68 Chapter 69 Chapter 70 Chapter 71 January 2033, Basel Chapter 72 Chapter 73 June 2033, Tronavis Headquarters, Basel Chapter 74 July 2033, Alpnach Center, Switzerland Chapter 75 December 2033, Cambridge, England Chapter 76 April 2034, Boston, USA Chapter 77 July 2043, Alpnach Center, Switzerland Chapter 78 July 2058, Alpnach Center, Switzerland Chapter 79 July 2083, Alpnach Center, Switzerland
About the Author

Mike O’Neill is a former senior executive of a US company in the field of Health Sciences. Throughout his career, he got to know many of the world’s leading scientists and Nobel laureates.
Mike’s academic background is in science and engineering and when he left the company, he was responsible for World-Wide Commercial Operations and almost five thousand employees. After that Mike became an independent consultant and investor and established four businesses.
For ten years Mike served on the Dean’s Advisory Board at the College of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine. He also served for seven years on the Advisory Board of the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine.
For eleven years Mike served on the Board of Directors of Newport Corporation, a publicly traded company, as well as six years as a member of the American College of Corporate Directors.
Mike was also a very early member of the Innovation Society at Oxford University and served for a period of five years.
A lifelong runner, completing several marathons and over fifty half-marathons, Mike splits his time between England and the United States.
Dedication
Dedicated to Susanne,
the sunshine in my life.
Copyright Information ©
Mike O’Neill (2020)
The right of Mike O’Neill to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781398401914 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781398417663 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgements
I would first like to thank all the readers who gave positive reviews of my previous novel, The Resurrection . Many of the same readers requested that I should write a sequel. I sincerely hope that in the sequel, I have satisfactorily addressed the questions that readers of The Resurrection felt needed to be answered.
I especially would like to acknowledge the six-person review panel of Mike Belbin, Bob Gamez, Chris Ley, Dave McKee, Susanne Raven and Chris Rennie, who put in the effort to review the chapter flow, grammar, spelling, and provide valuable feedback on the plots and sub-plots.
Prologue
On a cold and blustery day in February 1953, British biophysicist Francis H. Crick burst through the doors of the Eagle pub in Cambridge and announced to the world that he had discovered the Secret of Life.
Crick’s younger colleague, American molecular biologist, James D. Watson, straggling a few paces behind, was embarrassed by Crick’s premature bragging of their discovery of the structure of DNA.
Nine years later in 1962, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Their discovery, as well as giving hope to millions of sufferers of genetic disorders, would lead to greed, corruption, and political manipulation.
Thanks to Watson and Crick’s earlier research, Cambridge geneticist, Francis MacLeod, would discover a mechanism, the genon, that when switched on, corrects faulty genes, for which he was awarded a knighthood and a Nobel Prize.
MacLeod created a new biotech company, Genon, plc, to develop his technology and he and his scientific team went on to discover Perfect DNA – a flawless genetic code.
He teamed with Swiss Pharmaceutical giant, Tronavis, and together the two companies developed protocols and therapies that would change the world of medicine forever and Tronavis became the world’s largest healthcare company.
With any success comes jealousy and competition. MacLeod was no exception.
Seventy-five years after Watson and Crick’s discovery, at an anniversary conference in their honour. Sir Francis MacLeod was to give the plenary lecture and tell Academia first about his research. Rumours circulated that he was going to make a startling revelation.
Moments before he was about to tell the audience that he and his company had discovered the Secret of Life , he collapsed at the podium.
Sir Francis was not without enemies and the police immediately suspected foul play and started a homicide investigation.
Key Characters
Sir Francis MacLeod, PhD, FRS
World-renowned geneticist, Nobel laureate in Physiology/Medicine.
Founder and Managing Director of Genon, plc.
Kathleen Murphy, PhD
Biochemistry, Trinity College, Dublin and Oxford.
Fiancée of Sir Francis MacLeod
Ian Walton, PhD
Biochemistry, Cambridge, Geneticist and formerly from Alpha Genetics.
Born in Oundle, Northamptonshire, England
V. J. Gupta, PhD
Math and Engineering, MIT, Software Engineer, formerly from Microsoft.
Head of IT at Genon, plc. Born in Hyderabad, India
Rob Elliott, PhD
Molecular Biology, Newcastle University, an expert in Stem Cell research,
Born in Newcastle, England
Darren Richards, PhD
Biochemistry, UCI California and a US citizen, born in Encinitas, California
Co-conspirator of Henry Anderson
Other Characters
Pope John Paul III
First Irish pope in history and first cousin of Kathleen Murphy
Bishop Keegan
Prefect of the Pontifical Household, the Vatican
Hans Meir
Chairman & CEO of Swiss Pharmaceutical Co., Tronavis, and partner of Genon, plc.
Peter Fischer
Senior Vice-President of Technology Transfer at Tronavis
Henry Anderson
CEO of U.S. Pharmaceutical Co., SMB and antagonist of Sir Francis MacLeod
Gordon Duncan
Detective Chief Superintendent, Cambridge Police
Tom Butterfield
Detective Chief Inspector, Cambridge Police
Chapter 1

January 2028, The Vatican, Rome
During his first hundred days in office, the new pope, John Paul III, had put plans into motion that shook the entire Roman Catholic Church to the core. The first Irish pope in history, had been elected with a huge mandate, having received ninety-seven of the one-hundred and twenty eligible votes from the College of Cardinals – and on the first ballot at that. He had ruffled a lot of feathers among the more traditionalist cardinals when he declared that in future only cardinals under the age of sixty-five would be eligible to become pope and the future retirement age for the pope would be seventy-five. Cardinals would have a mandatory retirement age of eighty, after all they were no longer eligible to elect a pope after that age. However, upon retirement they would now become part of a new organisation, the Senior Council of Cardinals, who would act as a Senate of Church Elders. The most explosive bombshell of all was when he took power away from the College of Cardinals by appointing five regional deputy popes. Although future popes would still be chosen by the eligible Cardinals, the only candidates would be the five regional popes.
The pope and his five regional deputies were having only their second meeting since they had been inaugurated three months earlier. JP III asked them if they had studied the agenda. They all nodded, acknowledging that they had. The pope had already decided who would do what and assigned the tasks to his chosen five.
‘I hav