189 – DNA

“Dr. Li, your next surgery is ready,” said Nurse Yuen.

Li Yun had finished with most of his surgery, and there was only one simple surgery remaining. 

“Do you have a moment?” Asked Chief Zhang, interrupting Li Yun’s investigation.

“Chief Zhang, please have a seat,” Li Yun stood up and welcomed Chief Zhang into his office.

“I’m sure you are aware that many people have been requesting consultation,” said Chief Zhang.

Li Yun knew, but Chief Lim only took cases that were confirmed or likely required surgery. It wasn’t just at the hospital, his appointment for Dong Xuan Clinic was also booked.

“We thought of an idea to reduce the load.”

Li Yun listened patiently to what Chief Zhang had thought out.

“How about a class where you teach your method to the resident?” asked Chief Zhang. “You usually finish your consultation early on the first day, and can send the later half to teach?”

“You mean, to create doctors with credentials?”

“Yes, if you’re not available, we can ask the client if they are willing to see a doctor that studied under you.”

Li Yun nodded, it wasn’t a bad idea There was a limit on what he could perform on his own. Conducting a class would benefit more people. He had successfully trained Mi Xuan and An Luchang by passing down his knowledge of mien shieng. There were other generations of doctors who needed guidance.

“Also, Mi Xuan sent me a draft of your EKG and pulse reading research,” Chief Zhang was curious about what journal Li Yun was planning to submit the study to.

As an attending, Li Yun was required to submit a research paper under the hospital name. However, as much as he enjoyed writing calligraphy, he hated to write anything else. While Elder Yi and Yi Ansha provided data on different pulses used from antiquity, Mi Xuan wrote the bulk of the paper, and An Luchang edited everything. Li Yun provided the content and analysis.

Mi Xuan and An Luchang mentioned TCM sparingly, but anyone who had read the research paper without knowledge of TCM may feel lost in the matter. 

“What do you think?” asked Li Yun.

“It is quite interesting, have you considered what journal you want to submit the paper to?” asked Chief Zhang.

“The National TCM Journal,” said Li Yun.

Chief Zhang sighed. He thought Li Yun would be more ambitious.

“Chief, I understand you think this will affect more people, but I don’t think this study will make any headlines,” said Li Yun.

“So are you using this as a soundboard for something else?” asked Chief Zhang. He wondered what Li Yun was planning. 

“I’m going to study genetics.”

“That’s quite an undertaking,” Chief Zhang wasn’t entirely surprised that Li Yun wanted to study genetics. If there was a key to solving many incurable medical maladies, it was genetics. 

In the medical field, genetics was considered an emerging field. The Human Genome Project started in 1988 and it took more than 10 years to sequence just a draft. Thirty years later, although it was considered complete, there were still gaps in the sequence.

Once completed, scientists may need another thirty years or even fifty years to understand what it all meant. It was like a software engineer reading the source code of an unknown program. Without dissecting and analyzing the different parts, it would be meaningless. Not to mention, genetics were several hundreds and thousands of times more complex than any computer software. 

Every human cell in the body contained DNA grouped into chromosomes. The DNA within the cell contained directions on how to replicate and survive. The ability of the DNA to encode information into living beings was one of the biggest marvels and miracles of life. 

There was new information published everyday. Humankind was close to mapping out the route of many illnesses. From cancer, aging, mental health, to addiction, almost every single disorder could be traced to genes. 

The cure for cancer and many neurological disorders came down to understanding how the body could turn on and off different gene expressions. There were many genetic markers for different types of cancer that turned on and off during the process of tumor growth. 

Scientists were tasked with finding the switch to stop abnormal cell growth like cancer. To find a compound that altered genes wasn’t difficult, the difficulty was finding a compound that could alter a select group of genes. A compound that could stop cancer growth in the liver, but then trigger cancer cells in other parts of the body wouldn’t have many usages.

“What specifically are you looking to research?” Asked Chief Zhang. Genetics was a huge field, and it was impossible to understand everything about genetics.

“Just a broad overview for now,” said Li Yun. He hadn’t read any books on genetics since college. Since then, he had only researched the PTGS1 gene to better understand the mechanism of COX-1 enzyme and how it expressed inflammation and pain.

“I see, but you have to be careful when working with genetics.”

Li Yun nodded. There were still many restrictions and ethical questions to the study of genetics.

People were wondering if serial killers and murderers had genetic dispositions that made them prone to kill. If behaviors could be altered by genetics, not to mention removing part of the brain, what level of free will did humans truly have?

Li Yun did not concern himself with those types of questions because the answer would be useless to him. He was rather concerned with questions that yielded progress.

He wanted to understand whether his meridians had changed his body into something supernatural, or was this something natural that could be replicated by other humans?

For example, his superhuman strength wasn’t outside of human physics. He couldn’t lift beyond what his body and tendons could hold. It was more accurate to say that his muscles were evenly regulated and his pain limiter had been raised.

Pain tolerance was highly subjective. The more insensitive to pain, the more people could push themselves to the limit. However, pain was needed to allow the body to gauge its limitation and prevent itself from performing harmful tasks. Without pain, the body wasn’t able to know that attempting to hold a ton cauldron could rip the hands off the body.

Not being able to feel pain was not a superhuman condition, but a serious medical condition called congenital insensitivity to pain and anhydrosis (CIPA). Patients with CIPA had a high mortality rate, rarely surviving to adulthood without medical intervention. They could be bleeding out, but would not know until it was too late. Through the evolutionary process, the condition had been regressed. However, in certain individuals, the trait had reappeared.

Li Yun believed that his system was something activated in his genes. It was an ability that may have existed in ancient times, but regressed through the evolutionary process. Humans could theoretically live up to 160 years. In ancient times, it was believed that many Taoists lived longer than regular people.

The reason it was phased out of the evolutionary process was simple, the lack of resources. Li Yun couldn’t imagine what the world would be like if everyone existed with his abilities. The amount of chaos and destruction it would cause was enough to understand why the Taoists of the past had chosen to hide away their secrets of their immortality.

Certain genetic expressions randomly reappear in individuals and manifested themselves as rare disorders or abnormalities. The process was important for natural selection. A gene expression 1000 years ago maybe useless back then, but that same gene may be useful for the current generation. Six fingers, tails, and fangs? They were all possible, but unneeded appendages for human survival.

The question was, were humans ready to have the immortal gene reactivated? Was that what Zhuangzi and the monk had predicted back then? That someday, the immortal gene would be reactivated?

Li Yun did not have an answer for when that will happen, but by understanding both the nervous system and genetics, he may be able to perfect his understanding of meridians.

Looking into his own DNA, he was so confused by the clumps of proteins. He had a long way to go before he could understand what he was looking at.

chocomug