if i look back, i am lost
Monterey Bay Aquarium
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Today's Document
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he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
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we're not kids anymore.
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@thegeneticistisin
”It’s like a placebo effect. It’s not really working, but it makes you feel better anyway.”
“ Mm, I see. “
He rubs two fingers over the scruff of his chin in thought.
“ But will it make me feel better now that you’ve told me? “
"Oh, yes, I have given you actual medication. Poor analogy. But it's important you remember you're not actually well, just feeling like it. Try to avoid doing anything rash or strenuous until Mij gets back and can fix you up properly."
“Oh, thank you!” Uthan bent over an open crate to examine the contents, then straightened up looking as if she’d been given a birthday present. “Mij, you remembered.” Ordo expected to see something exotic and wonderful in the crate. Instead, there were just packs of woodpulp sheets, the kind of absorbent material used in medcenters. “That’s because I wrote it down,” he said, smiling. “And if you look in the cool-pack … I always say the way to a woman’s heart is with a lovely box of noxious pathogens. Nebellia and rhinacyria virus samples. Knock yourself out, Doc.” Uthan positively glowed. “I’ll find a home for them right away,” she said, making the viruses sound like a bouquet in need of a vase. “As soon as I’ve modified them, we can make a start on the cell cultures.”
Imperial Commando: 501st
Uthan only glances up to verify which clone she’s speaking to (based more on the armor than anything) before her attention immediately reverts to her monitor.
“As well as can be expected. Remind me to put my notes in order so your next geneticist doesn’t have to decipher the deliberately cryptic ramblings of a narcissist,” she replied very dryly.
“Tagged and noted.” He arched a brow, still eternally amused at her prickly exterior. “Though you can always leave the cryptic ramblings alone in the sidelines, complete with citations and footnotes to… ah, impress upon the narcissism on the next unsuspecting geneticist.”
He turned his attention to the monitors she focused on. “Have you made any headway?”
"I actually meant my notes on Ko Sai's research, but thank you for the assessment of my ego."
Uthan leaned back in her chair, rubbing her temples. "And I have, actually. But not as much as I, Mij, or your father would like. I've isolated several of the physiological mechanisms, but I haven't been able to correlate them all with the changes in your genome. I almost wish I could use animal models, but even if I had the facilities for that, it's far too complex a system of changes."
[Uthan’s expression sobers the rest of the way, largely intentionally, to make it clear she’s not being flippant.]
Well, that depends on how opposed they are to having cancer.
Never joke about these things.
I just want my boys safe and sound and able to go on with their lives. Healthily.
Unfortunately, I'm not joking.
*sigh* The main mechanism behind the clone's accelerated aging is the inhibited production of a chemical called telomerase. Normally, this lengthens -- Uh, suffice it to say it builds up a sort of 'pad' that increases the number of divisions a cell can undergo before reaching senescence. Before it wears out.
Hypothetically, we could give them telomerase artificially as a stopgap measure. It might help, but, ah, that 'pad' wearing out is also what keeps cells from dividing too many times. If you remove that limit, it might go out of control, resulting in... cancer, as I said.
thegeneticistisin started following you
“Dr. Uthan,” Mereel greeted the woman with a polite nod and a small smile. “I trust everything’s going well?”
Uthan only glances up to verify which clone she's speaking to (based more on the armor than anything) before her attention immediately reverts to her monitor.
"As well as can be expected. Remind me to put my notes in order so your next geneticist doesn't have to decipher the deliberately cryptic ramblings of a narcissist," she replied very dryly.
allgutsallheart said:
And that would be?
[Her grin fades a little, mostly because Skirata doesn’t really have the science background to appreciate the step forward she’s made.]
Nothing you’ll find satisfactory, I’m afraid. But I believe I’ve isolated the main physiological mechanism of the accelerated aging.
And how long will that be until you have something that can save my boys?
[Uthan's expression sobers the rest of the way, largely intentionally, to make it clear she's not being flippant.]
Well, that depends on how opposed they are to having cancer.
allgutsallheart said:
And that would be?
[Her grin fades a little, mostly because Skirata doesn't really have the science background to appreciate the step forward she's made.]
Nothing you'll find satisfactory, I'm afraid. But I believe I've isolated the main physiological mechanism of the accelerated aging.
[Uthan looks like the feline that caught the proverbial avian.]
I may be dangerously close to having something.
Spar: So when do we get the fix for premature gray? Is that your recipe, too?
Uthan: Soon, I hope. You want to volunteer for trials?
Spar: Yeah. Yeah, I do.
Uthan: You're awfully trusting.
Spar: And Sergeant Gilamar is an awfully good shot, ma'am. I can afford to trust you.
[For a split second a surprisingly besotted grin flickered across Uthan’s face.]
It is distinctly refreshing to have medically qualified company. Government psychiatrists aren’t much better than soka flies in that regard.
I’d be inclined to agree with you there.
- there was a barest hint of a smirk evident on his lips as he crossed his arms -
I am glad you find some value in our crop of practitioners. We mando’ade may be distressingly old-school with some of our treatments, but then again, we’re used to improvisation.
You've done very well at it. I'll admit, I was... rather concerned about what I'd be working in, initially. I suppose I shouldn't have been, given how thorough you were with the data, but I didn't expect to find a lab like this out here.
Qail closed her eyes, looking tired. “Hard to say. We’re in uncharted territory here, because I don’t need to tell you how closely commercial geneticists guard their secrets. Clone telomeres shorten at an accelerated rate, but is it because they’re flawed in some way, or simply because their natural repair mechanisms have been inhibited? No one’s done research on the distinction. It will actually be easier when I’ve identified the genes that have been switched.”
“And of course, aging has many, many factors involved — I’m focusing on the telomeres because nearly all naturally occurring progeriod diseases known so far have been linked to them. If telomerase didn’t have such tumorgenic tendencies, I’d suggest using it as a stop-gap measure.”
Mij sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. She had done it again. This was what knowing half of a language must feel like. You understood some of it, and then completely lost the entirety of it because of what you didn’t understand.
“Basic Uthan, basic. I only filter in about half of what you tell me. I know it’s hard for you to dumb this stuff down, but unfortunately I need you to. Is it possible to recover any information from the Kamino geneticists? A hack, a data drive, or do you think it was all destroyed? I’m sure we can find something. You can’t just create this much information and then it never be found.”
Uthan winced, and reached out to put her hand on his wrist. "Sorry, Mij. But you wouldn't have needed me if this were simple. But in a nutshell -- telomere shortening acts as a limit on cell division. So anything that reverses that risks essentially giving cells permission to divide out of control, and I don't think I need to tell you what that means."
She managed a very wry smile, then her gaze drifted off slightly. "Ko Sai herself did a number on Kamino's records when she defected. And her personal notes are as cryptic as you would expect from someone being hunted by multiple governments. She clearly didn't want them to be too useful without her. Narcissist. "
*Uthan looks slightly amused* I’ve already injected you all with pathogens, remember. I daresay if I wanted to kill you, I’d have done so then.
And yes, he is. Drawing blood isn’t really my area.
Ah, but you didn’t. That tells me a great deal.
- Vau looked partially amused as well, turning around with his eyebrow a fraction higher -
I’ve never seen the man so excited to converse about virology with somebody before.
[For a split second a surprisingly besotted grin flickered across Uthan's face.]
It is distinctly refreshing to have medically qualified company. Government psychiatrists aren't much better than soka flies in that regard.
thegeneticistisin started following you
“So let’s be honest, usually I end up with really hot babes or guys with guns so I’m not really quite sure what to make of you. Unless you’re a really hot babe with a gun and you’re just wearing a really, really good mask in which case that’s cool babe, I wear one too.”
Uthan fixed him with an icy, very unimpressed glare. "I don't need guns," she said blandly, and continued to tap away on her datapad. "Since you weren't shot by a Mandalorian on your way in, I'll assume you're a friend of the clan."
“As in, a chemical agent?” Uthan frowned, considering. “Unlikely — it would have to be both highly specific and they’d have to engineer the clones to produce it naturally. While the Kaminoans are brilliant, I have a hard time believing an anomaly like that wouldn’t show up on the clone’s bloodwork. And it would be much easier to, say, either engineer said telomeres to be ‘fragile’, so to speak, or to inhibit their natural production of telomerase.”
Mij sighed. He was completely out of his element on this. He was a doctor damnit, not a geneticist. But he thought of Kal and his boys, all the clones that had passed, and he knew he would keep up this fight.
“Possibly. Do you know any ways to check the telomeres for frailties like that? Or is it something that we can’t prove beyond a suspicion?”
Qail closed her eyes, looking tired. "Hard to say. We're in uncharted territory here, because I don't need to tell you how closely commercial geneticists guard their secrets. Clone telomeres shorten at an accelerated rate, but is it because they're flawed in some way, or simply because their natural repair mechanisms have been inhibited? No one's done research on the distinction. It will actually be easier when I've identified the genes that have been switched."
"And of course, aging has many, many factors involved -- I'm focusing on the telomeres because nearly all naturally occurring progeriod diseases known so far have been linked to them. If telomerase didn't have such tumorgenic tendencies, I'd suggest using it as a stop-gap measure."
mandowithascalpel replied to your post: Uthan, I have a theory. Have you had a chance to look at any of the DNA samples yet?
Mij typed away, showing a DNA model. “Okay, so its been postulated that telomeres control aging. What if there’s an acceleration agent in the telomeres that’s making the clones rapid age?”
"As in, a chemical agent?" Uthan frowned, considering. "Unlikely -- it would have to be both highly specific and they'd have to engineer the clones to produce it naturally. While the Kaminoans are brilliant, I have a hard time believing an anomaly like that wouldn't show up on the clone's bloodwork. And it would be much easier to, say, either engineer said telomeres to be 'fragile', so to speak, or to inhibit their natural production of telomerase."
Trust me when I say I find working under pressure vastly preferable to stewing in in my own boredom.
Besides — in the end, you’re the ones who have to trust me.
Touche. Still, I’d think twice about crossing Kal. He’s not the type that forgives graciously, to say the least.
- is looking at the various vials with interest -
I take it Mij is helping you get samples, yes?
*Uthan looks slightly amused* I've already injected you all with pathogens, remember. I daresay if I wanted to kill you, I'd have done so then.
And yes, he is. Drawing blood isn't really my area.
Uthan, I have a theory. Have you had a chance to look at any of the DNA samples yet?
I've looked at all of them, but I've only gone in depth on our Kaminoan samples. Unless you count my previous research, of course.
Tell me.
