Page 13 - Nutshell 4

And she said no more until they had parked and found Dr. Manus
in his office. He was talking with a short dark woman, also in a white
lab coat.
“Hello, Tommy,” he said. “I am Dr. Manus. And this is Dr.
Gliedmassen. We are both professors in the university’s regeneration
laboratory. Come on down the hall with us and take a look at a really
high-tech experiment we’re working on.”
Tommy was suddenly alert
“You mean, like a time machine or finding new elements?”
“Oh, nothing like that. But come with us. You’ll see for yourself.”
The Tennysons followed the two scientists past offices to a series
of laboratory clean rooms they could see into through large plate
glass windows. They stopped at one and motioned Tommy to look
inside.
“What do you see?” asked Dr. Gliedmassen.
Tommy peered intently. “I see a table with a bell jar and a bunch of
tubes going into it.”
“And what is in the bell jar?”
He squinted. “It’s hard to see because of the liquid swirling around
in there. But it looks like a pair of gloves.”
“Very good,” said Dr. Manus. “Almost correct: those are not
gloves. They are hands. Your future hands, if you want them.”
“What? No! Do you mean that? Is it possible?” Tommy glanced
wildly from the bell jar to the people around him to his own hands.
His mother hugged him. It was an emotional moment for all
concerned.
Finally, Dr. Gliedmassen broke the silence.
“Tommy, I see that you have an interest in science. This is an
entirely new development in limb regeneration. We have every
expectation that your new hands will be ready for transplantation on
your sixteenth birthday, when you have finished growing. They
started their life soon after your birth, when your parents agreed to
grant us use of your DNA to begin the process. We corrected the
gene suppressing normal finger ontogeny using CRISPR technology,
and began the process of feeding the multiplying cells within a
medium engineered to provide necessary nutrients based on your
own blood type. As the extracellular matrix reached the stage where it
would be connected with the nerves and tendons of the forearm, we
established those connections biomechanically to keep the hands
flexible. When they are attached to your forearms, there will be no