The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human

by Siddhartha Mukherjee

I was interested in talking to Greengard about making new humans. “You mean genetically?” he asked. He was referring to new technologies, gene editing among them, that had allowed researchers such as He Jiankui to attempt deliberate alterations in the human genome. But I didn’t mean genetically—or at least not just genetically. Think of Emily Whitehead, whose immune system was rebuilt with T cells weaponized to kill her cancer. Louise Brown, the first baby born through IVF. Or Timothy Ray Brown, the patient with AIDS who had received a bone marrow transplant from a donor with cells resistant to HIV. He, too, had been rebuilt with new cells. Nancy Lowry, living with her sister’s blood. Helen Mayberg’s first patients, implanted with tiny electrical stimulators, with electrodes and bolts of energy running through the neurons in their brains. Why not extend the building of human parts to other cellular systems? Rebuild the failing pancreas in a type 1 diabetic with insulin-producing cells, or replace an arthritic woman’s grinding joints with new cartilage. I told him about Verve and how it was trying to create humans with liver cells that would permanently lower cholesterol.