The Einstein Pursuit (13 page)

‘What was your field of expertise?’ Payne wondered.

‘Molecular biology. Particularly with regard to cellular manipulation.’

‘You were a geneticist?’ Jones asked.

‘Not until much later,’ Sahlberg replied. ‘At the time, my studies were primarily based on notions of cellular immunity. For instance, is there a way to kill the agents that cause cells to become cancerous without killing the entire cancerous cell? And if so, is it possible to condition cells so that they are able to detect such agents and destroy them
before
they have caused the cells to become cancerous? A sort of cellular self-defense, if you will.’

‘What did that have to do with the steel industry?’ Payne wondered.

‘Absolutely nothing,’ Sahlberg said with a smile. ‘Absolutely nothing at all. It seems your father simply saw the writing on the wall. He knew the demand for steel could not possibly keep to the levels it was reaching, and he wanted to make sure that Payne Industries remained solvent – even prosperous – long after the demand had dried up. To that end, he began to diversify the company’s interests. And rather than switch the focus to established fields, he was looking toward emerging technologies.’

Jones laughed at the statement. ‘That’s kind of confusing.’

‘What is?’ Payne demanded.

‘We’re talking about emerging technologies in the past tense, which means we’re actually discussing things that have already been invented. I’m tempted to smoke a joint just so I can follow the conversation.’

Payne rolled his eyes. ‘Obviously he’s kidding about the drugs, and yet he brings up an interesting point. What was considered cutting-edge tech in that era?’

‘Let’s see …’ Sahlberg rubbed his chin. ‘Fiber optics came along in the mid 1950s, and shortly after that the microchip and the computer modem were introduced. Techniques for data storage, such as audio and video cassettes, were still being tested. And the first video game – a game called
Spacewar
– was invented by a computer programmer at MIT.’

Sahlberg took a sip of water before he continued. ‘From a medical perspective, you had studies concerning the hepatitis B vaccine, rudimentary versions of artificial skin and advancements in grafting techniques, and of course, the release of oral contraception.’

Jones grinned and stuck up his hand for the doctor to slap. ‘High five for that!’

Sahlberg laughed and willingly gave him a high five. ‘Yes, I have to admit, that’s a personal favorite of mine, too.’

Jones pointed at him. ‘Hell, yeah. The doc’s a playa!’

Payne ignored the comment – for now – and got Sahlberg back on track. ‘Which field interested my father?’

‘All of them,’ Sahlberg replied. ‘Your father was a visionary. No one knew which of these would bear the most fruit, so he explored them all. By keeping his options open, he ensured that Payne Industries would survive the eventual decline of the steel boom, that it would even survive its total collapse. And he succeeded. Just look at this place! Every advancement this company has made – every technology it has studied, improved and perfected – is a direct result of your father’s foresight. From the moment we met, I was certain about one thing: your father was a man ahead of his time.’

Sahlberg turned his head and stared out the window at the glistening lights of the city. He wanted to say more – something that conveyed how much he’d respected Payne’s father and how truly sorry he was that he hadn’t come forward years ago to share these memories – but he didn’t know how to put it into words.

‘Thank you for that,’ Payne said.

Sahlberg looked at him and smiled, grateful that Payne understood his sentiment.

Payne nodded once, then grabbed his water bottle from the table and took several large gulps as he reviewed the details in his mind. Something about it didn’t make sense.

The only Payne Industries research and development facility in the Pittsburgh area was located in the nearby city of Ambridge. It was a sprawling billion-dollar complex that housed countless scientists, engineers and computer wunderkinds, all of whom were working on top-secret projects in a variety of fields. It was exactly the kind of place that his father would have used to entice Sahlberg, if it had actually existed back then.

However, the Ambridge facility was brand new.

Before the new building opened its doors, the R&D division was run out of an industrial complex in nearby Sewickley. The location was built into a grassy hillside, and many of the offices were completely underground. For that reason alone, the facility was affectionately known as ‘the Mine’.

‘Were you one of the mole men?’ Payne asked. It was the preferred nickname of the scientists who worked inside the Mine.

‘No, I never worked in Sewickley, nor in Ambridge for that matter. In fact, my retirement coincided with the opening of the new facility.’

‘Then where did you work?’

‘I ran my own facility on the University of Pittsburgh campus.’

‘At Pitt? I didn’t know you had a facility there,’ Jones said.

‘Neither did I,’ Payne admitted.

‘Good!’ Sahlberg said, laughing. ‘Then my colleagues kept things quiet like they were supposed to.’

Jones smiled. ‘Why there?’

‘Fifty years ago, the University of Pittsburgh was the center of the scientific universe, so your father felt it was the perfect place for me.’

‘Any idea why?’ Payne asked.

‘Your grandfather kept him on a very short financial leash. He was happy to invest in technologies applicable to the steel industry, but he wasn’t about to waste his fortune on flights of fancy. Our research was significant, but it had no relevance to the company as your grandfather envisioned it. As such, there was no room for us at the Mine.’

‘Given that it didn’t have my grandfather’s support, how many years did your laboratory last?’

‘More than fifty,’ Sahlberg said proudly.

‘How is that possible?’ Jones asked.

‘Jonathon’s father established means for my work to be funded in perpetuity. I don’t exactly know how he did it – I never asked, and he never mentioned it – but I’ve had access to the same credit line for half a century.’

Payne’s curiosity was piqued. He leaned forward, bringing himself closer to Sahlberg. Though they were in the privacy of his penthouse, he actually felt the need to lower his voice to a whisper. ‘Doctor, what
exactly
is your area of expertise?’

Sahlberg grabbed his glass and gulped his wine.

He had been dreading this moment for many years.

Sahlberg knew the general public had an uneasy relationship with the scientific community. People clamored for safer, more effective drugs, but they preferred the testing to be done in a way that didn’t put anyone (or any animal) at risk. And that was just for starters. When the topic turned to something more controversial, like stem cells, emotions tended to flare.

Stem cells were essentially ‘blank’ cells that could grow into any number of specific cell types, depending on how and where they were introduced to a larger organism. Many scientists believed that they offered the best possibilities for combating or eliminating conditions such as Parkinson’s and paralysis, and yet some people were completely against this research because certain types of stem cells could only be obtained from human embryos, and since the extraction process destroyed the embryo itself, they regarded it as tantamount to murder.

Sahlberg understood their position – he just didn’t agree with it. Such was the nature of his work. ‘Are you familiar with perpetual cell lines?’

‘Assume for the moment that I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ Payne said.

‘Because he doesn’t,’ Jones added.

Payne glared at him.

‘What?’ Jones said, laughing. ‘It’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’m not exactly sure what he’s talking about either, and I’m
a lot
smarter than you.’

Payne rolled his eyes and told Sahlberg to continue.

‘As you probably know, cells are the basic structure of all living things, but within those cells there are even smaller structures called telomeres. Think of them as a tiny chain. Each time the cell divides, a link of the chain is knocked off in the process. When the last link is destroyed, the cell essentially withers and dies. The telomeres serve as a biological clock, if you will. A device that counts down to the cell’s inevitable death. Sometimes that countdown can last for decades – for instance, the cells in your brain – while other cells, such as those that form your skin, only last for a few hours. The length of a cell’s lifespan is determined by the Hayflick limit, which refers to the number of divisions, or cell cycles, a cell can undergo before it has used up all of its telomeres.’

Sahlberg paused to give Payne and Jones a moment to digest everything. He raised an eyebrow, looking for permission to continue.

‘With you so far,’ Payne said.

‘Me too,’ Jones assured him.

Sahlberg nodded. ‘However, some very special cells are able to produce an enzyme that prevents the links in the telomere chain from shearing off. With no biological clock to signal the end of its lifespan – or, perhaps more aptly, a
malfunctioning
clock that never counts down – the cells never stop dividing. They replicate indefinitely, for ever.’

‘I’m not sure if I like where this is headed,’ Payne said.

Jones tried to lighten the mood. ‘Doc, if you have a ten-thousand-year-old monkey man living in your basement, I’ve got to meet him!’

‘It’s nothing like that!’ Sahlberg protested. ‘We’re only talking about
clumps
of cells that continue to proliferate. Extending the longevity of something as simple as tissue is well beyond the scope of what we’re capable of achieving, much less the continued existence of an entire organism. And even then, the cells that have been discovered with the necessary enzymes to inhibit the telomere breakdown are limited to an extremely narrow range of material. Three-T-three: a cell line from the fatty connective tissue of a mouse. Jurkat: a cell line from the lymphocyte of a leukemia patient. And HeLa: a cell line from a cancer patient in Maryland.’

Payne nodded. ‘You’re talking about Henrietta Lacks.’

‘Indeed I am. Are you familiar with her story?’

He nodded again. ‘Back in the early fifties, a woman named Henrietta Lacks was admitted to a hospital in Baltimore because of extreme stomach pain. After finding a large tumor on her cervix, the doctors did a biopsy and discovered that it was cervical cancer. They also discovered that the cancer cells from her biopsy continued to replicate long after they should have stopped. Properly incubated, the cells simply wouldn’t die. This meant they were perfect for scientific studies, because you could run test after test after test and know that the subject material was identical in each experiment. Even if the process took years, the cells used as the base of the study remained exactly the same, which eliminated one important variable in research: the “what if the differing results were caused by a small difference in the sample cells?”’

‘Exactly,’ Sahlberg said. ‘Lacks’s cells were mass-produced and shipped all across the world so that everyone’s experiments could use the same subject material. These cells allowed for monumental advancements in the study of cancer, AIDS, gene mapping, and so on. Over the years, so many of her cells have been produced that if they were amassed together they would weigh more than
five hundred times
her original body weight.’

Payne glanced at Jones. ‘Still with us?’

‘Who, me?’

‘Of course
you
. We’re saying all this for your benefit.’

‘For
my
benefit?’ Jones said, half insulted. ‘Sorry, I thought you guys were just thinking out loud, not lecturing me. As an educated black man, I’m quite familiar with Henrietta Lacks and the billion-dollar industry that her body spawned. I also know that her impoverished family was never paid a single cent for the mass production of her cells – or even notified that her cells were being used for research – even though every HeLa cell in the world is traceable back to that original biopsy in Baltimore. The only thing I don’t understand is why
you’re
familiar with her – your knowledge base is generally limited to the sports section.’

Payne winced. ‘First of all,
ouch
. That was uncalled for.’

Jones smiled but didn’t apologize.

‘Secondly, I know about HeLa cells because of Jonas Salk. He was hired by the University of Pittsburgh in 1947 and was tasked with finding a polio vaccine. Less than a decade later, Salk announced the creation of a successful vaccine, one that would save millions of people from the crippling effects of the disease. One of the keys to his discovery was the use of HeLa cells in his experiments.’

Sahlberg nodded. ‘Do you know how Salk got the HeLa cells to begin with?’

Payne shrugged, unsure.

‘They were sent to him by George Otto Gey, a Pitt alumnus who was the head of tissue culture research at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He was the doctor who first studied the tissue sample from Henrietta Lacks, and because of his association with the University of Pittsburgh, he was quite familiar with the research that Salk was conducting. If not for the Pitt connection, who knows how many more lives would have been lost?’

Payne smiled with pride. ‘My dad used to talk about that stuff all the time. Salk’s discovery actually happened while my father was a student at Pitt. He used to tell me stories about all the great scientific minds that worked in Pittsburgh during that era.’

Sahlberg nodded. ‘It truly was an amazing time to be a scientist. In fact, that was one of the main reasons that I was willing to move to Pittsburgh from Sweden – to work with and learn from many of the pioneers in their fields. It changed my life for ever.’

The smile on Payne’s face lingered for a few more seconds before it began to fade as he shifted his focus from warm memories of his father to the violence of that afternoon. Stories about Jonas Salk and the golden era of research were entertaining, and yet Payne was smart enough to realize that the gunmen weren’t after Sahlberg because of the polio vaccine.