Posted by Lieutenant Solal Segal (Oncology and Immunology) in Mysteries in the Blood

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Alexis Bonner (Assistant Chief Medical Officer) in Mysteries in the Blood
Alexis entered the medical lab and walked over to the secure storage locker where they kept patient samples. She keyed in her access code and glanced over the shelves. She pulled out the blood samples for Solal and V’alura. Alexis spent the time to prep the samples by hand. Then using a pipette she placed the samples into graduated microcentrifuge test tubes. She slipped the tubes into the centrifuge and then placed them into the sequencer.

Current technology made it a matter of moments before the computer was displaying the results of both their samples. Alexis returned the unused samples back to storage and then transferred the results to her office computer. She going to compile a complete genome sequencing. She could have gone for a clinical exome sequence, but that was obvious and could miss things. Alexis needed to look at everything. It would take hours, days even, to finish the analysis.

Bonner, AMO

Because their human DNA was so different, Solal’s human parent was Caucasian and likely from the midwestern US with ancestry tracing back to various parts of wester Europe, and V’alura’s mother was black, with little ancestry in common with Solal’s human half. Their Vulcan DNA was a match, originating from the same region of Vulcan. Alexis could separate out some parts of their human DNA based on its likely origin.

Then it would get harder to separate some of the genes. There were no genetic incompatibilities for either of them. There were no outright genetic defects, or at least not obvious ones. Solal’s genetics showed recessive genetics for brown hair, genetics for the sheeniness of his hair, a typically Vulcan trait. The gene for black hair was dominant. How it had expressed itself in solal was dark brown, shiny hair. His eyes were dark brown, a trait found on dominant genes in his DNA, but he carried the recessive gene for hazel eyes. From his DNA Alexis would be able to piece together what his mother might have looked like.

Medically, as was obvious, his body took mostly after a Vulcan, and unlike V’alura who had undersized lungs for a Vulcan, Solal’s were Vulcan sized. His blood was Vulcan, copper based, with some human antibodies and factors. His heart was in the typical anatomical position for Vulcans, but slightly undersized and beat slower than a typical vulcan’s heart.

There were increased likelihood for some known Vulcan diseases as well as some known human diseases. V’alura’s showed the same likelihoods for Vulcan diseases but a near completely different set of human diseases. An increased likelihood for autoimmune disease in general was in common between their profiles. Not every gene that seemed to be in common for them had a known trait or hereditary disease associated with it. Because both of their human parents were likely born in the US, there were some similar human genetics to pick apart from their shared Vulcan ancestry.

~ Solal(’s genetics)

The human genetic traits they shared was much shorter, and Alexis started with those. They were quickly ruled out. Then it was on to their shared Vulcan DNA. First Alexis separated out the human DNA from the data leaving her with only the Vulcan half. Even the recessive genes that were suppressed by the more dominant Human ones.

Then she began to run them side by side to see which genes they specifically shared. When she found a shared recessive she checked to see how they interacted with their human mix. There were no obvious incompatibilities, but it could be a matter of how they meshed.

Then once she had determined the dominate traits, it was a slow long process. She was able to determine what region of Vulca. Their paternal DNA originated. She had to wait for a response from the Vulcan Medical Council for information on illness and genetic anomalies common to the area. Even those not assumed to be genetic.

Once it arrived it was a slow but steady process of working through each line of genetic code looking for a connection.

Kane, AMO