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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Success!

Hello everyone! I apologize for the length of time that has gone by since the last entry. To compensate, I will give you the best news so far:

We have a success!

Well, more of a success than a failure. After the first 8 variations were tested, 5 of them were scrapped, and 3 of them were sent back to the drawing board for a bit more modification. There were also 2 more variations that were created as well. They are the B0L75 and the G12M0 variations, lovingly called the "Bolts" and "Gizmo" variations by me. Ah, the strange things being a lonely lab tech will make you do...

This cycle has happened more than a few times at this point. Several modifications and modifications on modifications have been created, tested, and failed. I have gone through 76 variations total. None of them have been successful.

Anyway, initial results on all of the modified variations as well as the new variations didn't look very promising. Apparently the parasite became unstable and weak as a result of the modifications, and although I could keep them alive in a dormant state, as soon as they were administered to the subjects, certain functions failed. Mostly it was reproduction. The little guys just can't do it on their own.

We had heard rumors of possibly splicing a piece of genetic material from a type of virus, as viruses are masters at reproducing. They basically make the cells of whatever it is that they infected get really confused and start making copies of the virus itself.

The idea was to give the protozoan parasite variations the ability to reproduce like a virus. As far as I know, splicing a parasite and a virus together has never been attempted, let alone been successful. Trying to keep the same traits that we are looking for in the parasite (which I am not even sure of at this point) as well as making it able to reproduce on it's own in a relatively short time is the ultimate goal.

Two new "viral parasite" variations were presented a few weeks ago. They were labeled "L0K1" and "L0N6," following the same pattern as before where the part of the genetic code that was altered is named, and you can see the "L0" that is apparent in each label is representative of a gene responsible for reproduction. To me, the two new variations are called the Loki Variation and the Long Variation.

The success came today, we were told that rapid reproduction has been observed in the test subjects. Evidently, the Loki Variation has provided most of the wanted results in the subjects, and can also reproduce on it's own, very rapidly. Again, I can't tell you much about the desired effects, or the actual results of the testing, either because of NDAs I signed, or because I just don't know, but it's an exciting time right now at the lab.

Since the Loki Variation is the one that has come closest to producing the criteria wanted by the company that hired our lab, it looks like the more in depth part of my internship will begin. The Loki Variation will be reproduced outside a host, and it will be up to me to keep them alive, and to observe their patterns when they are not inside a host. I also will be able to compare my observations with the observations of the test team, so I will finally be able to see what the results of the parasite on living creatures will be. I'm nervous and excited.

I feel that I could go into a rambling fit at any moment, so I will end here. But rest assured that I will post more as soon as I have news.

1 comment:

  1. CKMueller@atlaspro.com6:49 PM

    That is incredible. I am constantly awed by science and technology, I did not think we were advanced enough yet to combine the DNA in that manner. Science fiction isn't fiction anymore. COngrats!

    ReplyDelete

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