It was a chilly autumn evening. Lia was lying in the hospital bed, fighting a fever and infection. It was her fifth visit to the hospital in a month. Dr. May, who was in charge of her case, came with blood test reports.
“Lia?”, said Dr. May gently to confirm whether Lia was awake.
Lia, half asleep, lost in her imaginary world, got up.
“Yes, Dr. May”, Lia responded.
“I know you’re a brave little girl. That’s why I won’t keep anything secret from you”, said Dr. May hesitantly.
“Great! I don’t like mysteries.”
“Well…Lia, you’ve got a condition called A…A…Ac…Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia”. Dr. May stammered in disclosing such devastating news to a 15-year-old child.
“Oh, I’ve it ALL!”, Lia joked without realizing the seriousness of the matter.
She was an optimistic child with a great sense of humor.
“What about the treatment Doc? Can I go back to school?”
“Yeah, dear! Very soon”. Dr. May gave hope to the poor child, but deep down, she felt helpless.
Dr. May left the room, hoping she could find some treatment for Lia.
Lia opened her tablet and researched ALL and the treatment options available. She found a news article about the same and began reading. Suddenly, she heard a voice from beneath the bed.
“Psst! Hey Lia! You There?”, the voice said.
Lia peeked beneath the bed and couldn’t believe her eyes. It was a tiny red ball talking.
“Wh..Who’re you? Are you real?”, Lia asked hesitantly.
“Yes, Lia. I’m 100% real in my world! I’m a Robot of Blood Circulation. RBC, for short. I’m here to take you to my world.”
At first, she was hesitant. But because she craved adventure, she followed the robot, and after some time, she found herself floating in a RED sea- the red-colored sea!
“Where are we?”, Lia asked with fear reflecting in her eyes.
“We’re inside a mega-living robot. Here you’ll find millions of mini robots like me. You’re currently floating in the blood of this mega robot.”
“Urgh!” Lia shouted in disgust. “Take me back home.”
“Have patience, dear. The best is yet to come”, Mr. RBC told Lia, trying to ignore the disgust.
“C’mon. Follow me, Lia. I’ll show you around.”
Mr. RBC gave her a tour inside the Mega-Robot. She saw millions of circuits in one region.
“Feast your eyes! Welcome to the control center of the Mega Robot”, exclaimed Mr.RBC. “This is the BraneTop and it controls the whole Mega Robot”.
Lia was fascinated with so many intricate circuits and connections. She went on to see the pumping machinery in HartyCenter, the 22 feet long pipe, twisted and turned in the GI-COLONy, and much more. Every region had specific robots which were doing their given task. Mr. RBC stopped when they reached a tunnel, full of spongy material.
“What happened, Mr. RBC?”, Lia asked
“This is the MarrowBurrow”, Mr. RBC sighed. “Here is the problem. See, all the mini-robots have one mission- To protect the CODE.”
“CODE? What code?” asked Lia.
“Yes, the Code of Life. They have to safeguard it and pass it on. But for several months, the robots in this region have been behaving strangely. It looks like their code has been corrupted.”
“What’s strange with them, Mr. RBC?”
“They keep making copies of themselves without doing their assigned tasks.
And the worst part is that the soldier robots of T-army do not recognize them as threats!”
“And what about B-army?”, asked Lia.
“Oh! My dear Lia, the corrupted robots you just saw are none but B-army!
Some ‘-ists’ call this condition Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.”
“Oh! You mean Scientists!”, exclaimed Lia
“Yeah. And they have found the cure also!”
While Mr. RBC explained this to Lia, some force was pulling blood robots out. Lia screamed, and before she could ask what was happening, Mr. RBC began to explain.
“This is the cure I was talking about. These -ists are taking T- soldiers from our blood robots and are reprogramming them”
“Reprogramming? That means changing their code? But that’s a violation! Robots have to protect their code!”, Lia protested.
“Wait, wait! They are adding some additional code while keeping the original code intact. They are making what they call a CAR-T cell.”
“You sell tea in the car? That’s how you make CAR- T cell!”, Lia commented jokingly.
RBC laughed.
“It’s CAR-T cell. They are reprogramming T- robots by which they can recognize our corrupted B-robots as threats.”
Lia could see the influx of new robots that resembled T-robots but had some fancy parts attached to their body. She followed these robots. She could see many such robots surrounding the corrupted B- robots. These new T-robots attached themselves to the corrupted robots.
“Match found!” “Target identified” “Proceeding with execution.”
These were the commands Lia heard the T- robots shouting. There was a rapid gunfire from these T- robots onto the corrupted robots.
“What are they firing”, Lia asked Mr. RBC.
“When these T- robots identify their targets, they fire explosives onto them. These explosives are called Granzymes and Perforins. These burst and destroy the corrupted robots.”
Lia enjoyed the firing show until each and every corrupted B robot was dusted out.
“You see how effective these Tea sellers are?”, joked Mr. RBC
“Haha! You’re quite HEMOrous! Mr. RBC”
“So, this is CAR-T cell therapy, dear Lia”, Mr. RBC sighed with relief. “And it IS the HOPE.”
“Lia! Lia! I’ve found the cure. We have a great HOPE.”
Lia woke up from her crazy dream to the excited shouts of Dr. May.
“I’m ready to sell Tea in a CAR, Dr. May,” winked Lia.
Mehwish Nafiz
Mehwish Nafiz is a Ph.D student in Dr. Sivaprakash Ramalingam's lab. Her research interest lies in cancer immunotherapy. She enjoys expressing herself through writing. She loves to read fiction and always seeks out exciting books to dive into.