The lab was quiet again today, as it had been since the grant had been denied by the board at MIT. They said there was no foundation, no proof of evidence that his studies would be applicable to human beings. According to the board, the risk was beyond the reward. The potential for loss of human life ended his research abruptly. He enjoyed the calmness of the silence in the lab, it gave him time to think.
His thoughts wandered to the hustle and bustle of the lab in the early years of his research. Everyone on campus scrambling to attach themselves to his discovery. The fact is, the MIT Stem Cell Initiative did receive the grant money to move forward with Dr. Kinsley's work. The team celebrated with the doctor after the news was received. They bought him a couple of drinks at the Alibi Bar and Lounge. He wasn't a heavy drinker but had a couple more than usual due to the bad news he had received from the board. They did not grant the clearance or the funding for his work with circulatory transfers of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) transferred primarily from infants to the elderly. The board would not condone human studies on such vulnerable people. They were not willing to budge on the fact due to the high risk and the possible negative publicity to the prestigious name or the scientific integrity MIT has earned to date.
The lab will continue to study the astonishing results they have been achieving by connecting the circulatory systems of baby mice to that of an elderly mouse. The process has been conclusive, the old mouse showed age degeneration after sharing the blood of the young mouse. Dr. Kinsley and his team have isolated the miracle "golden cells" that are responsible for the age reversal in the old mice. The mesenchymal stem cells from an infant mouse are circulated through the elderly mouse's system. In the process the golden cells stimulate and wake up the old, tired cells by simply coming in contact with them. This waking up of tired cells causes age degeneration within the cells, which causes the aging process overall to stop and the effects of time to rapidly disappear from the recipient of the cells.
All living cells regenerate when they get damaged, the cell automatically sluffs off its outer layer and builds a new wall or coating when it has become damaged. The problem with this process is in the design of the cell itself. A living cell simply gets old and tired and stops fixing itself when it is damaged and in need of repair. This is the process of cellular aging. Nothing that lives can withstand the test of time. Dr. Kinsley knew that he had found the cure to this age old problem. He was just having trouble explaining the the negative side effects of the mesenchymal stem cells donors within his controlled research environment to the grant committee.
Connecting human circulatory systems was the obvious next step to Dr. Kinsley. The lab results were proof that his studies were not flawed. The elderly mice grew hair where they had previously been bald. Their bone density nearly doubled, frail mice were growing stronger by the day, rebuilding muscle tissue that had been gone for years, and mice with heart conditions were immediately cured of their ailments. The explanation lies within the science of the mesenchymal stem cell itself. Dr. Kinsley was absolute in his conviction, the research must be conducted on humans.
The mesenchymal stem cell is the starting point of life. The job of the MSCs in mammals is to create the organ tissue and shape the very body itself during development. All mammals use mesenchymal cells while they are growing and in their adult life to recover from injury. As adults, we possess a limited amount of mesenchymal stem cells or "golden cells" in our bodies. Most of them are diminished as we damage our bodies.
An adult who receives an introduction of human umbilical cord tissue mesenchymal stem cells (HUCT-MSC) into their system immediately shows tremendous anti-aging effects. The HUCT-MSC is legally harvested from post natal umbilical cord tissue and grown in a lab prior to injection into the patients. The golden cells immediately search the entire body for the repair they need to make. When dyed and traced during an MRI scan the mesenchymal stem cells proved to congregate around any injury they could find in the body. They regrow hair, mend tissue and bone injuries in record time, restore motor function, heal nerve injuries and cured multiple sclerosis.
The mesenchymal stem cells need only to travel next to a damaged cell to wake it up. On a microscopic level the vibration of a cell shows how healthy a cell really is. A healthy cell vibrates very fast, while an aging decaying cell vibrates very slowly. An introduction of HUCT-MSC makes every cell in the area vibrate like they are new again. The young, super-charged cells are invigorated and carry on a healthy life of regeneration. The continuous introduction of new golden cells re-stimulates old cells and the process of age degeneration can be maintained. The trouble is HUCT-MSC injections are expensive and hard to get your hands on. Besides, Dr. Kinsley knew he had a more powerful anti aging method by harvesting the stem cells directly from an infants blood.
Each dose of human umbilical cord tissue - mesenchymal stem cells is upwards of $10,000, plus the cost of a round trip plane ticket to Panama. The United States has banned the procurement of mesenchymal stem cells from umbilical cord tissue, so at the moment, Panama has picked up all of the slack. Dr. Kinsley wants to go a step further, he knows that his research proves the most efficient method to delivery mesenchymal cells is by connecting the circulatory system of the donor to the recipient. The continuous supply of golden cells will surely benefit the elderly adult the same miraculous way they have positively impacted the aging mice.
The scientific board of advisors would not grant Dr. Kinsley and his team permission to move the study of circulatory mesenchymal stem cell transfer into human beings. Their decision was based on the troubling fact that each of the infant mice used in the experiments had difficulty thriving in their adolescents and many of the specimens did not reach adulthood. The mice were stripped of their ability to develop their own organs and tissue to maturity and the other mice who made it to their full potential seemed to be stripped of all their own golden cells and could not recover from the most basic of ailments.
The only solution Dr. Kinsley's team could find to rectify this catastrophic problem was to give the young, depleted donors a circulatory mesenchymal stem cell transfer from another infant specimen, in turn exacerbating the initial problem. Their research created a league of unhealthy rodents who were dependent on the golden cells of additional donors to keep them healthy enough to live. The perplexing cycle of death and sickness was enough to have the request for a grant and permission to move forward with the research of circulatory mesenchymal cell transfer to humans shut down with a uniform decision by the board.
Dr. Kinsley sat quietly in his overcoat, balancing his six foot, seven inch body precariously on the edge of a black leather office chair, pondering of how he could bypass the board and fund the costly research experiment himself. His previous research with MSCs and his salary combined with his military pension had afforded him a modest savings. He had spent a portion on his retirement project. He purchased the sailboat in hopes to live on it after the research had been completed. He had worked his entire adult life for this grant, he felt that this was the discovery that would bump him into fame and bigger money. Upon retirement, his plan was to sail down to the Sea of Cortez and never come back to Boston. He had a passion for the crystal blue water, especially where it met the rising red sand towers of the Baja California Desert.
Dr. Kinsley had sailed to Baja the past three summers, each time docking in a different cove with different Spanish names, such as Puerto Machudo. He would stay for a month, the solitude is what he sought. No one bothered him, he was in a world of his own for the three month vacation and voyages. He pondered the idea of going to Mexico before his retirement and never coming back. He knew his team at the lab could bring their research to the finish line without him. Dr. Kinsley got up from his chair, grabbed his coffee cup and went home to pack for his trip.
The amount of food needed for the voyage to the Panama was shocking. He filled the hull of the boat with his food and belongings. He would restock his rations in Panama as he had done in the past. Dr. Kinsley began to think about all the trips into the ports of Panama. The ones he remembered now, were the return trips. His voyages home after spending time in the Sea of Cortez were always so zestful and full of life. He worried that having no return trip plan would change the feel of the Sea. He hoped it still gave him solace and comfort and a sense of adventure. After all, he was made to navigate the rocky coast line and search for and explore the perfect cave system.
The Baja Coast line was riddled with caves the Doctor had never seen or explored. He was not your average spelunker, in fact, it wasn't even one of his favorite things to do. It was a necessity for him to fulfill his burning desire to pursue his true passion, entomology. That's right, the study of bugs, not just any bugs. Dr. Kinsley was after an undiscovered insect. He was searching those caves for varieties of the silverfish species that had previously gone undiscovered. He loved catching them, the collection process was a thrill to him, however, he loved drawing them more. Silverfish are only identifyable from one speices to the other by their genitals. He'd inspect the specimen's genitalia thoroughly to verify if it was indeed a new species. This takes a high powered magnifying glass and an educated eye. Upon discovery of each new species, Dr. Kinsley drew an exact replica of the silverfish's genitalia and sent it to the scientific board for publication. To date he has discovered 13 new species of silverfish, all residents of the caves off of the Baja coast.
He knew that when he stopped in Panama this time he would seek help. He had visited a doctor several years back that had got him up to speed on all of the human umbilical cord tissue mesenchymal cell research they had been doing. He would need to recruit someone from outside the United States to partake in his scientific endeavor. He prepped for the trip, countless hours of packing but more importantly to him were the hours he invested in his sales pitch. He needed to impress the doctors at the clinic to the point of flooring them. They needed to believe in his research and help him to continue the progress with his new discovery of circulatory mesenchymal stem cell transfer to humans. He worked tirelessly documenting every detail of the process and publishing all of his research findings. The end result was a polished presentation fit for the most prominent of medical professionals. He was ready.
Dr. Kinsley traveled through the Panama Canal in record time. He had not stopped to fish in the Florida Keys as he had in the past. He was about business. Upon his arrival at Puerto Manzanillo, he could barely keep himself from breaking out in sweats he was so nervous. He worried the medical review panel he was meeting with the next morning would reject him as the board at MIT had. He spent the afternoon rehearsing his speech and procuring rations for his stay off the Baja Coast.
The meeting ended abruptly. He had revealed the negative lab results of the stem cell donors to the medical panel and they had reacted in precisely the same way. They had been smiling and extremely interested in the positive lab results, however, they seemed very concerned with the discovery of the cyclical pattern of death in the lab specimens. Dr. Kinsley was quick to point out to the board that his studies proved that one hundred percent of the circulatory mesenchymal stem cell recipients showed signs of age degeneration.