The next day, Brigitte and Ryder stood near the incubator, anticipation filling the air.
"It's time," Brigitte's eyes sparkled as the timer of the incubator reached zero. She walked over to the incubator and pulled out the petri dishes. "Now it's time to check which of these fellas successfully integrated the DNA."
Using a high precision microscope, Brigitte placed the first petri dish under the lens and started to adjust the focus. Peering into the lens, she scanned the specimen for a while before sighing. "This one's a fail," she murmured.
Ryder, wanting to know why it failed, nudged Brigitte and said, "wait, let me see."
Brigitte stood up and Ryder immediately took her place. Squinting his eyes while looking into the lens, he saw that the bacterial cells did not contain any genetic markers. The genetic markers would indicate that the bacteria have successfully incorporated the hybridized DNA.
The duo took turns scanning the petri dishes, but it seemed as if luck was not on their side today. Out of the 30 petri dishes scanned, not a single one contained all of the genetic markers needed. Some colonies had bacterial cells that successfully integrated the DNA, but they were far too few to be considered a success.
"I guess we have to try again," Brigitte moaned as she went to start the process again.
Ryder took all the petri dishes and looked at them. 'The success rate is even lower than I thought.' He then went to a nearby sink and prepared to wash them.
Once he finished, he walked back to where Brigitte was and heard her mutter.
"We have to use the genes of an even weaker demon…"
This piqued Ryder's curiosity as he asked, "what does that mean?"
Brigitte turned her head to face Ryder and smacked her head. "Right, I forgot to tell you," she said. "The success rate would be higher if we were to pair a weaker demon with a normal human's gene."
"Why?" Ryder asked.
"If we were to pair a high rank demon's gene to that of a normal human, there would be no compatibility at all as the demon's gene will completely overwhelm the human's." Brigitte explained.
"I see." Ryder started to understand what she was getting at. "Then why can't you use the genes of a mage or guard?"
This made Brigitte blush as she embarrassingly said, "it's cause I'm a researcher with lower priority. The genes of mages will be given to higher priority researchers."
Ryder was speechless. He shook his head which made Brigitte pout.
"To be honest, that run just now was an experiment to see whether the human genes would be compatible with a low-mid rank demon," Brigitte said. "That's why I only used just a couple of petri dishes. This time, I'm going all out."
"Uh huh," Ryder nodded slowly.
However, Brigitte wasn't joking. She filled a grand total of 200 petri dishes with transformed bacterial cells and left them in 5 incubators. This time, she used the DNA of a low ranked demon, which Brigitte claimed would certainly work this time.
Of course, Ryder helped her as well, and it took the duo the entire day to complete this arduous task.
"I'm spent," Ryder gasped as he leaned against a wall. His hands were visibly shaking in pain.
Even as an experienced biotechnologist, he wasn't used to doing large experiments such as this one.
"Thanks for your help," said Brigitte cheerfully. "I must say, you work very efficiently as a newbie!"
"Haha, thanks," Ryder said while internally rolling his eyes. If only she knew.
"Well, that's it for today." Brigitte went to clean up the mess they made. "Make sure to get a good night rest to prepare for tomorrow!"
"Sure, sure." Ryder waved his hand as he headed out. "You too."
The next day, Ryder and Brigitte stood near the incubators, with Brigitte filled with confidence this time. After the timer went off, her eyes sparkled with anticipation.
"It's time," she said as she walked over to the incubators and carefully extracted the petri dishes.
The bacterial cells in the first petri dishes failed to integrate the hybridized DNA, but that didn't bother Brigitte. Ryder helped as well and after the duo finished, they both observed the results.
Out of the 200 petri dishes used for transformation, only 46 petri dishes managed to pass, boasting a 23% success rate. Ryder looked at the petri dishes that transformed under a microscope and saw the faint glow of markers, which indicated that the bacterial cells had indeed integrated the hybridized DNA.
"Now that we have some successful specimens, it's time for the next trial." Brigitte looked more serious now as she pulled out a large vial filled with some sort of strange fluid. "These are host cells which the bacteria could invade and develop in."
This time, Ryder was stumped. He hadn't expected the hybrids to grow from real human tissues! He didn't even know where or how Brigitte had obtained those cells from.
But before he could say anything, Brigitte sat down and already started to implement the bacterial cells into the host cells via microinjection. Ryder knew this was one of the most delicate processes out there, and disturbing Brigitte would only bring about more consequences.
He watched as she positioned the micropipette under the microscope and injected the bacterial cells into each host cell with precision. The pipette's needle penetrated the cell membrane without causing much damage.
It was a long, taxing job and once Brigitte finished, the usual cheerful girl was also sweating and looked exhausted.
"Finally, it's done." Brigitte's voice contained a hint of pride. "Now all we need to do is place these cells into the nutrition tanks."
Ryder followed Brigitte to another part of the lab where there were dozens of nutrition tanks placed around. Most of them were relatively empty, besides some that contained cells in the early stages of development.
As Brigitte placed the cells into their respective tanks, she turned to Ryder and said, "the fluid in the tanks contains nutrients that are essential for these cells to develop."
Despite his initial hesitation, Ryder's scientific side of him was piqued. "How long will it take for them to develop?" He asked.
"At most a couple of months," she said. "But we should see some development over the next few weeks."
However, her face wasn't filled with excitement, but nervousness instead. "Now, it's just up to luck…" she murmured.
Ryder watched the cells in the tanks and said, "there's a high risk of rejection and mutations, I'd expect."
"Yes," Brigitte sighed. "There's no guarantee the host cells will completely accept and express the new genetic material correctly."
Ryder nodded, he already expected this outcome. There will never be a 100% guaranteed success rate when exploring a new field of biotechnology.
"But if it does work, the results would be extraordinary," Brigitte excitedly said. "Once the hybrids are fully grown, their strength and abilities will depend on how successfully the host cells integrate with the hybridized DNA."
"Hmm, but wouldn't the hybrids be unstable with such complex DNA within them?" Ryder questioned in a thinking pose. "How would you control them?"
"Oh that," Brigitte laughed. "We'll let the other researchers responsible for control take over then."