Part 9 (2/2)

Yos.h.i.+zumi tried to wear a warm smile. ”Please tell me the truth, Mr. Anzai. I realize a parent such as yourself has only his child's best interests in mind and naturally wanted this operation... But Mariko didn't, did she?”

”No,” Anzai confessed, his head drooping. ”I don't know what to say, after all you've done for her. It was the same when the coordinator called. Mariko kept it from me at first. I was surprised to learn we'd been contacted about a transplant. And when I returned the call to give the go ahead, Mariko was so furious that she was spasming... She was abnormal.”

”Abnormal...?”

”She yelled, 'I'm not a monster'...”

Yos.h.i.+zumi didn't know what to make of this and changed the subject. ”She's been having constant nightmares since the operation. Any idea?”

”None.” Anzai shook his head in despair.

”I think she's afraid of something. She might have developed a bad image of transplants. So she didn't want one and is having nightmares now. She wasn't this way the first time. It's as though it's not being operated on that she hates, but transplants and transplant doctors like me. Any idea why she feels this way?”

”I'm sorry, but I really have no clue.” Anzai could only hang his head in shame. He seemed to be pleading for an answer himself.

Yos.h.i.+zumi felt much sympathy for the man. He said gently, ”I've been informed that the other recipient's been diagnosed with accelerating rejection.”

”Accelerating?”

”It can occur anytime from twenty-four hours to a week after the operation when the recipient turns out to have had an antibody against the donor's antigen. He's being treated as we speak.”

Anzai was speechless.

”Thankfully, Mariko's condition is stable. But I can't predict how it will turn out in the long run. I will, of course, do anything in my power. If she has no will to get better, though, we could lose her to an infection. We have to get her to open up to us.”

”...how wonderful that would be...”Anzai a.s.sented feebly.

7.

Tos.h.i.+aki sat before a co-focal laser scanning microscope and entered his calibrations with an external computer mouse. After staining the Eve 1 cultivation with Lodamine 123 stain, he placed its flask onto the platform inside the machine.

Tos.h.i.+aki had cloned Eve in the past few days. The batch that displayed the strongest propagative abilities he named ”Eve 1allowing it to multiply for experimental use. The laser microscope had just been installed in the joint lab on the second floor this past spring. It was an ACAS ULTIMA, the newest model. A rather large piece of equipment, it took up the s.p.a.ce of an entire business desk. An inverted microscope was fitted on the left side while the right was furnished with a command monitor that displayed all the data. Behind it was the laser tube. The central computer itself was located underneath the desk.

Tos.h.i.+aki examined Eve l's mitochondrial structure. The Lodamine 123 stain caused the mitochondria to glow with a distinct fluorescence that made them more visible. The laser activated a fluorescent agent that emitted photons of certain wavelengths. These pa.s.sed through an optic cleansing filter and clearly outlined the shape of each mitochondrion. The most remarkable feature of the ACAS ULTIMA was that any part of a cell could be isolated.

Cells themselves had a thickness and weight to them and one could not completely lay out their structural details using standard microscopic technology. Gathering information through the latter therefore had its limitations. But with this machine, one could cut many tens of layers from top to bottom of any cell and view images of individual sections on the monitor.

After this, the image data were rendered into a three-dimensional model of the cell. This device exhibited unsurpa.s.sed accuracy in the research of nerve cells and others requiring 3-D constructive a.n.a.lysis.

Tos.h.i.+aki clicked to start the program. Mitochondria appeared in succession as slender green shapes, scattered here and there against the black background of the screen.

When he was finished looking over the data, he entered a series of commands into the computer and a 3-D blot graph appeared. At that moment, Tos.h.i.+aki simply couldn't contain the sudden exhalation that left his lungs. These mitochondria were unlike any he had ever seen before. They were expansive and fused together in a vast, advanced network, as if energy superhighways had been built between them.

He felt a thrill of hope throbbing in his heart. He selected other cells inside the flask and performed similar scans to identical results. A radical change had occurred in Eve 1's mitochondria.

Tos.h.i.+aki printed out his findings and shut down the machine, then returned to his lab on the fifth floor to check how many stained Eve 1 cells were left by using the flow cytometer, a device which measured the intensity of fluorescence in cellular material through a process known as a histogram.

He collected cells from the flask and placed them into a centrifuge. After purifying them with a buffer, Tos.h.i.+aki took the cells and returned to the joint lab once again. He turned on the flow cytometer. A moment later, the previous images reappeared on the monitor. He put in a new set of parameters.

Tos.h.i.+aki hooked up a nozzle from under the machine to the tube. The cells were then sucked into the cytometer and sent to a laser apparatus. Because the collection tube was so thin, cells pa.s.sed through it in a linear fas.h.i.+on and were hit by a laser one at a time to detect their fluorescing properties, the levels of which were dependent on the amount of agent used.

This machine differed from the microscope in that it calculated the degree of stain in each cell individually, plotting their distinctive features on a graph.

Tos.h.i.+aki set the tube in place and clicked on the word ”GO” above the image. At once, countless dots appeared on the monitor, each denoting a single cell. Tos.h.i.+aki focused on the histogram to the right as its line graph moved in short spurts.

”My G.o.d...”

The intensity was off the charts. Beyond comprehension. The mitochondria in each cell of Eve 1 were indeed increasing and their forms undergoing dramatic changes. The mechanisms which normally governed them were causing anomalies via excessive mitochondrial production. Tos.h.i.+aki knew of no research having ever reported anything remotely like this. ”Astounding” was the only word he could think of to describe it. That the cells had acquired some strange propagative capability suggested a sudden change in gene-linking proteins. There was a high possibility that this was influenced by the mitochondria within the cells themselves.

Tos.h.i.+aki was shaking with excitement. Something new and unknown had awakened in Kiyomi.

He printed out these results immediately and ran back to his lab, where Asakura was performing a DNA extraction.

”Asakura, come here for a moment.”

Tos.h.i.+aki grabbed her and rushed her to the Cultivation Room. He showed her the Eve 1 flasks in the incubator. She eyed them with suspicion.

”Can you extract the mRNA from these cells for me?”Tos.h.i.+aki placed a flask under the microscope and urged her to look. ”I want to determine the induction of beta oxidation enzymes in a Northern blot.”

”...these cells, what are they?” Asakura asked as she took her eyes from the lenses, clearly shaken from what she saw. Tos.h.i.+aki lied, explaining he had received them as a laboratory sample from another university. Asakura's face did not indicate acceptance, but she pried no further into the matter, choosing instead to nod her head in resignation.

That evening, Tos.h.i.+aki dreamt about something other than Kiyomi for the first time in a long while. He was back to grade school days, sitting on his bedroom floor in knee-highs and a T-s.h.i.+rt, working on a toy model. An electric fan blew cool air onto Tos.h.i.+aki's back at regular intervals. Wind chimes echoed faintly outside and sweat dotted his forehead from the hot summer day.

Unlike his peers, Tos.h.i.+aki preferred to stay at home all day reading books and sharpening his engineering skills. He enjoyed educational magazines, had a particular fascination for dinosaurs, loved zoos and museums.

The end of summer vacation was already approaching. His father had taken him to a science museum earlier that day, where Tos.h.i.+aki spotted an unusual plastic model on display at the gift shop. A group of life science researchers had created a robot which mimicked the movements of a crab, manipulated freely by remote control. A plastic model version was soon merchandised, eventually finding its way to the display window which graced Tos.h.i.+aki's curious eyes. Seeing how much his son was drawn to it, Tos.h.i.+aki's father bought it for him and he began putting it together the moment he was home.

The model had very few parts, so a.s.sembly was effortless. When he switched on the remote, its joints began moving and large claws swayed back and forth, feeling their way around. To his young eyes, the crab appeared to be truly yearning for the ocean. With quiet awe, he pressed another b.u.t.ton on the remote. The legs moved in alternating motions, propelling the crab sideways just like its natural counterparts. More than ecstatic, he made his new creation walk all around the house.

Tos.h.i.+aki was startled when he realized that the crab's movements were being driven by uncomplicated mechanical parts. A single small motor gave it life. He wondered if all creatures were so simple, but knew this was impossible. He remembered raising tadpoles some years before, when he watched with great antic.i.p.ation as they sprouted hind and front legs from nowhere then lost their tails. Robotics would never be able to replicate such mystery.

A revolving lantern turned slowly in the corner of his room. He had made it during his free time last summer with veneer and cellophane from the stationery store. At night, Tos.h.i.+aki took it out onto the verandah. He lit a candle inside and the paper propeller on top turned slowly, making the cellophane cylinder spin. It changed to purple in the darkness, then to red and green, quietly turning around and around...

Before long his dream flashed to middle school, then to high school, when Tos.h.i.+aki learned that all living organisms were governed by their DNA. He was impressed by the perfection of this system. Why did existence have the ability to design such a beautiful code?

And how could such a simple structure account for the endless diversity of life forms?

Again, the dream switched scenes. Tos.h.i.+aki was now in his lab, but it was very outdated, not even the most basic equipment to be found.

A conversation from his senior year at college followed: ”I think you should concentrate on studying mitochondria,” said Professor Is.h.i.+hara to a still young Tos.h.i.+aki overflowing with vitality. The professor had just been appointed to the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences the year before and was searching for a new research topic. ”These days, there are few researchers, if any, who are really thinking about extranuclear genetics. Sooner or later, n.o.body will be able to talk about the essence of human life without some understanding of it. We tend to forget there is also a society among cells on par with the center we consider so superior. If any one part of that microcosm becomes dysfunctional, the whole thing's a goner. I believe it's our duty to look at the whole picture.

What do you think, Nagas.h.i.+ma? Would you be willing to give it a shot? I'd like you to come up with some ideas.”

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