Regeneration

When Dr. Alison Harrington is talking to is talking to her daughter'a co-wife Emily Alexander-Harrington about whether Emily would like to have her own child, Alison mentions that she isolated the gene responsible for people being unable to regenerate. Given that, it is at least possible, that she or someone else building on her work will come up with a way to overcome this defect. This would raise a number of intriguing considerations for our favorite Fleet Admiral and her family.

First, while Honor would never have chosen to replace an undamaged arm or eye with a prosthetic (this is fairly common on some planets), would she choose to have those same prosthetics removed now that she has them? While it is made clear that even the best prosthetics never feel completely natural, her arm and eye do offer significant performance advantages over their natural counterparts. And she is bound have at least some reservations about any unnecessary surgeries.

Even more interesting is the question of how the relationship between Honor, Hamish and Emily would evolve if Emily was no longer an near quadriplegic completely dependant on her life-support chair. Overall, I think that it would be a wonderful thing for all three of them and everyone who loves them, but it is bound to cause at least a few awkward moments along the way.

That's something I've thought a bit about, and come up with nada.

In addition, if the GA should ever get their hands on nanotech, THAT could also play into the family's regeneration issues.



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Ensign Re-read wrote:That's something I've thought a bit about, and come up with nada.

In addition, if the GA should ever get their hands on nanotech, THAT could also play into the family's regeneration issues.
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They've got access to nanotech-- Allison's solution to the Grayson's genetic damage was a nano- solution. What has not been discovered is a way to overcome whatever makes it so that the Meyerdahl Beta's can't use the newer techniques. Once that's solved, it will apply to the next generations, not Honor and Emily.

SharkHunter wrote:

Ensign Re-read wrote:That's something I've thought a bit about, and come up with nada.

In addition, if the GA should ever get their hands on nanotech, THAT could also play into the family's regeneration issues.
.

They've got access to nanotech-- Allison's solution to the Grayson's genetic damage was a nano- solution. What has not been discovered is a way to overcome whatever makes it so that the Meyerdahl Beta's can't use the newer techniques. Once that's solved, it will apply to the next generations, not Honor and Emily.

Not necessarily, Alison Harrington's discussion with Reverend Sullivan about the genetic engineering performed on the first generation of Graysons, and her discussion with Emily both imply that some genetic changes can be affect the current generation. Obviously, changing a gene in an adult when it primarily impacts fetal or childhood development is not going to do much good. And as the Grayson example shows, making any changes is something you do only after long and careful study.

On the other hand, even now, identifying the specific gene associated with a genetic disease is a big step forward in identifying the mechanism by which that disease manifests itself and in devising a non-genetic therapy.

So while it is by no means certain that Alison's work will benefit Honor and Emily, it is plausible that it will do so. Btw, is anyone aware of any mention of when regeneration techinques were developed in the Honorverse?

--snipping--

looksbeforeheleaps wrote:Btw, is anyone aware of any mention of when regeneration techinques were developed in the Honorverse?

Likely the Honorverse has had "quick heal" for longer than that, but fully regenerating a limb would take much much more. I'll let the other forum experts chime in also, but I think it is about as recent as "prolong", which as far as I can tell is "one generation before Elizabeth & Honor, and originated on Beowulf but was basically released as a medical technology to the rest of the galaxy soon after. Beowulf, Manticore, and places in the old SL are supposed to have the most advanced prolong facilities for example.

Timeline wise, Hamish is "first generation prolong", Honor is "third generation" but that's type of treatment, not literal generations. He's about 40 years older than she is chronologically, but biologically more like "10-15" and they will both live for a couple hundred more years due to prolong. Allison and Alfred are prolong recipients, their parents are not; King Roger was the first Winton to receive prolong, that's Elizabeth's father, etc.

Does that help? Folks, chime in here!

We don't have any textev for when regeneration was invented. It may have been around for a couple hundred years, for all we know.

As for prolong, that was first introduced to Manticore in 1826 P.D. We have no textev for when it was invented on Beowulf. Most speculation on the forum assumes that it came from Beowulf to Manticore fairly quickly, given the long ties between the two planets and the speedy access provided by the wormhole. But prolong does not appear to have anything to do with regen therapy, so this doesn't tell us anything about when regeneration was invented.

looksbeforeheleaps wrote:When Dr. Alison Harrington is talking to is talking to her daughter'a co-wife Emily Alexander-Harrington about whether Emily would like to have her own child, Alison mentions that she isolated the gene responsible for people being unable to regenerate. Given that, it is at least possible, that she or someone else building on her work will come up with a way to overcome this defect. This would raise a number of intriguing considerations for our favorite Fleet Admiral and her family.

Can you give me the citation for this? I can't believe I missed this. I gotta re-read that section!

SWM wrote:

looksbeforeheleaps wrote:When Dr. Alison Harrington is talking to is talking to her daughter'a co-wife Emily Alexander-Harrington about whether Emily would like to have her own child, Alison mentions that she isolated the gene responsible for people being unable to regenerate. Given that, it is at least possible, that she or someone else building on her work will come up with a way to overcome this defect. This would raise a number of intriguing considerations for our favorite Fleet Admiral and her family.

Can you give me the citation for this? I can't believe I missed this. I gotta re-read that section!

Here's the key bit

At All Costs: Ch 16 wrote:"You know what Honor's been through in terms of physical injury. Nothing that's happened to her was as severe as what happened to you, but it was more than enough to make her worry about passing her inability to regenerate on to her children. Fortunately for her, her mother happens—if I may be pardoned for blowing my own horn—to be one of the Star Kingdom's leading geneticists. I made identifying the gene group which prevents her from regenerating a personal project, and I found it years ago. The problem child is a dominant, unfortunately, but it's not associated with the locked sequences of the Meyerdahl modifications—if it were, Alfred wouldn't regenerate either, and he does—so it's not automatically selected for at fertilization. Once I'd determined that, I also determined that she carries it only on the chromosome she received from her father, and I've done a scan on her child. As a result of which, I was able to reassure her that she hasn't passed it along to him."

and then

At All Costs: Ch 16 wrote:I can't give you an absolute, categorical assurance that you and Hamish could produce a biological child who will regenerate. The probability that you couldn't, especially with my intervention, is so vanishingly small I literally couldn't quantify it, but it does exist. What I can guarantee you, however, is that with my intervention you won't produce a child who can't regenerate."

SharkHunter wrote:

Ensign Re-read wrote:That's something I've thought a bit about, and come up with nada.

In addition, if the GA should ever get their hands on nanotech, THAT could also play into the family's regeneration issues.
.

They've got access to nanotech-- Allison's solution to the Grayson's genetic damage was a nano- solution. What has not been discovered is a way to overcome whatever makes it so that the Meyerdahl Beta's can't use the newer techniques. Once that's solved, it will apply to the next generations, not Honor and Emily.

Just a bit of a nit here. Alfred, who is Meyerdahl B does regen.

Don

n7axw wrote:

SharkHunter wrote:They've got access to nanotech-- Allison's solution to the Grayson's genetic damage was a nano- solution. What has not been discovered is a way to overcome whatever makes it so that the Meyerdahl Beta's can't use the newer techniques. Once that's solved, it will apply to the next generations, not Honor and Emily.

Just a bit of a nit here. Alfred, who is Meyerdahl B does regen.

Correct.

I could be mistaken, but I believe it is mentioned in either HotQ or SVW that about 30% of Meyerdahl Beta genies and an unspecified but much smaller percentage of the general population are unable to regenerate.