Transhuman

A scientific thriller by six-time Hugo Award winnerBen Bova

Luke Abramson, a brilliant cellular biologist who isbattling lung cancer, has one joy in life: his ten-year-old granddaughter,Angela. When Angela is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and given lessthan six months to live, Luke wants to try a new enzyme, Mortality Factor 4(MORF4), that he believes will kill Angela’s tumor.

However, the hospital bureaucracy won’t let him do itbecause MORF4 has not yet been approved by the FDA. Knowing Angela will diebefore he can get the treatment approved, Luke abducts her from the hospitalwith plans to take her to a private research laboratory in Oregon.

But Luke is too old and worn-down to flee across the countrywith his sick granddaughter, especially with the FBI on their trail. So heinjects himself with a genetic factor that stimulates his body’s production oftelomerase, an enzyme that has successfully reversed aging in animal tests.

As the chase weaves across the country from one researchfacility to another, Luke begins to grow physically younger, stronger. He looksand feels the way he did thirty or forty years ago. Yet his lung cancer is notabating; if anything the tumors are growing faster.

And Angela is dying.