Geneticist required for 4017 A.D. (Page 1 of 2)

Thanks, dagnee. I'll wait to see if anyone on the site has any knowledge on the subject and then contact DiSalvo with (hopefully) intelligent questions.

I do plan to keep the mental illness a secret from most of the character's family and the galaxy at large, as I do currently. However, my previous attempt at this fell apart after several chapters. I'm hoping to avoid that in my next draft.

Thanks for the lead.
Dirk

The character, Apollo, experiences tremors in his left hand and forearm, especially when he is under stress. Tentatively, it's called Trembler's disease. There's no known cure and the only way to control it is with narcotics. By the time the story gets rolling, Apollo is already an addict.

The mental disease plays into a larger theme in the story about Apollo and his cousin, Joseph, both secretly hearing the voice of God, their reactions to him, and the consequences for the galaxy.

The disease manifests as noted above, resulting in visible trembling, which can be taken as a sign of mental illness. Apollo comes from a long line of psychopathic emperors who routinely overthrow each other using the family motto for cover: Only the mentally fit shall rule! Apollo has a half-brother who wants the throne but is not in the direct line of succession, so he's looking for an excuse to move against Apollo.

There are many ways I could represent this, including a disease that's not well understood but is believed to be the result of long-term genetic engineering. With that sentence alone, I'm halfway home. I could stop there, but I'd like to throw in a little genetic depth, on the order of a paragraph.

For example, if the illness is the result of genetic engineering that modified a single gene who's only other known purpose is to, say, improve night vision, then you stop messing with that gene in humans, and the illness goes away. If, however, the gene change(s) provide the only known defense against the "Ebola" of the fifth millenium, then there is no alternative. Again, I could stop there.

However, I'd like to make it so fundamental to genetically-engineered humans that there is no way to change the gene(s) in question without a cascade of deadly effects from other, dependent genes that have also been messed with. Essentially, is it possible to construct a house of cards from which there is no realistic hope of return?

My second question I can probably research on my own, which is how is gene therapy able to alter all copies of a defective gene in a body with trillions of cells that are constantly dividing?

Ideas?
Dirk

Nice! So there is a potential cascade effect.
Good to know.

Thanks
Dirk

Thank you, Karin.

Lets see, you are writing a book about 4017, and you want to be genetically accurate?   Duh, what's wrong with this picture Dirk.  LOL,  Mike

That's a cool quote.

Mike, I just want more than "It's a mental illness and there is no cure." I'm hoping to make it a genetic change that can't be altered because, as NJC, suggested, the change would be incompatible with the human body in that future era because of too much tinkering.

I'll probably include a galaxy-wide ban on genetic engineering, enacted some time in the 22nd or 23rd century after too many severe side-effects come to light that can't be undone. Apollo's illness will just be one more resulting illness. A ban on genetic engineering will explain why humans in 4017 aren't genetically-engineered supermen, which seems to be where we're headed.

Thanks to all. I'll follow up on some of the posts to this thread.

Now to put this baby on steroids!

As mentioned in my earlier post, genetic engineering of humans will be banned some time in the next few hundred years because of too many unintended side effects, including Apollo's incurable Trembler's disease. I was hoping to make the cause for the ban huge, big enough to scare the human race from ever resuming engineering on humans.

Specifically, I've always wondered if it was possible to genetically engineer ourselves into sterility that doesn't show for a few generations. Billions of people potentially becoming evolutionary dead ends. Probably the result of providing resistance against an ebola-like worldwide epidemic. The unintended consequence would be a great reason for a universal ban. They'll call it God's Law (i.e., don't mess with creation).

Can anyone envision a scenario as to how that might work?

Thanks.
Dirk

Most gene therapies are introduced via virus. If a virus carrying a gene therapy were to mutate, it could potentially result in a worldwide outbreak (even an intentional one). Just a thought.

Karin et al, thanks for the additional info. I'll start hunting where you suggest.

Following is the part I'm most unclear about. Let's say that most men and women are innoculated via gene therapy against a highly contagious and fatal disease. Everything seems fine. People go back to their normal lives and start having babies who are now probably carriers of the modified gene by inheriting it from their parents. Those children have babies, etc.

How might the modified gene eventually cause sterility or defective babies several generations beyond the original innoculation? I understand the basics of DNA from the parents combining after conception, but not how such a defect would creep in after a few generations.

Thanks.
Dirk

Max, I'm very sorry about your health problems. Feel free to go off on tirades any time you like. PM me if you want and we can trade horror stories. :-) For my own demons, I tend to incorporate them into my two main characters. As a result, they are two very screwed up characters, increasing with each chapter.

I think this may be easier than I thought. Most of us are carriers of one disease or another due to recessive genes. It's only when you pair up two recessive genes that you get an actual disease. Given that, I think it would be easy to create an effect with an undertested vaccine. You vaccinate the population in one generation causing recessive gene damage in that generation, leading to a pair of damaged genes in 25% of the offspring, who then have an actual disease. In this case, the disease is sterility.

How's my logic?
Dirk