lead, the group exited his office. They walked the length of the sizable lab since the organ bath unit was located at the far end on the opposite side from the biosafety unit. As they passed through the lab, some of the technicians looked up from their work and eyed them questioningly. Visitors to the organ bath unit were not common.
First they entered an anteroom where there were caps, gowns, booties, masks, and gloves. There was a similar room on the other side of the lab that guarded entrance into the biosafety unit, just as this room guarded the organ bath unit. Interestingly enough, the rationale was just the opposite. For the biosafety unit the gear was for protection of the visitors. With the organ bath unit it was called reverse precautions and was for protection of the contained specimens. It wasn’t until everyone was suited up and had been checked by Yamamoto that they proceeded.
5.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
NEW YORK CITY
MARCH 1, 2011, 2:00 P.M.
U sing a keypad, Dr. Yamamoto punched in a combination, unlocking a simple door. Although she wasn’t trying, Pia noticed it was the same code used for the biosafety unit, an alphanumeric sequence that was the time and date of Rothman’s birth. Yamamoto stepped aside and ushered the three students into a starkly modern, brightly lit room filled with the gentle, hypnotic sound of running water. Pia felt a slight breeze against her as she advanced. She knew that was evidence of the room having positive pressure, meaning air came out of the room, not in. That was the opposite of the biosafety room, where the laminar flow was into the room.
Stepping beyond the door, Pia shaded her eyes against the sharp bluish light that came from banks of recessed fiber-optic fixtures. She assumed the light had something to do with sterility in the room. Stopping with the others, she took in the scene before her. They had entered a large space painted bright white. Pia was puzzled as to how this lab fit in with the rest of Rothman’s suite—it seemed larger than it feasibly could be. At the back of the room, a figure dressed in similar protective garb was hunched over a stainless-steel cart mounted on wheels, making some adjustments on a control panel. There were three rows of such carts and Pia counted thirty of them in all. Set atop each were clear rectangular Plexiglas aquarium-like containers of various sizes. Below were shelves holding various and sundry equipment. Each also had an attached pole supporting a control panel with an LED display. One of the carts was a few feet to Pia’s left and she moved over to take a closer look. Lesley and Will followed.
This was one of the organ-growing baths whose contained fluid was what Pia would be investigating for the month. She leaned over and peered into the container at a miniature translucent object suspended in the liquid by a kind of spiderweb that she was later to find out was made of the same material as real spiderwebs. As for the object itself, she could see it was connected by filament-thin lines to a central clamp where the lines were gathered. A thicker cable fed out of the bath and down into the body of the cart, where there was a boxy device with multiple readouts monitoring the conditions in the bath. An attached magnifying device on a movable arm was also connected to the cart. Pia maneuvered it into position so she could see the contained object better. Although it was not too much larger than a pine nut, its appearance was unmistakably that of a kidney, albeit a very tiny kidney. Most of the lines contained red fluid along one larger one that was clear. The red ones were presumably functioning as veins and arteries. The clear one was acting as the ureter to take away the urine the miniature organ was producing. To one side of the container was a jet, like one attached to a pool circulator, only in miniature. It was pulsating at a very rapid rate. Gentle eddies of liquid coursed around the container,
First they entered an anteroom where there were caps, gowns, booties, masks, and gloves. There was a similar room on the other side of the lab that guarded entrance into the biosafety unit, just as this room guarded the organ bath unit. Interestingly enough, the rationale was just the opposite. For the biosafety unit the gear was for protection of the visitors. With the organ bath unit it was called reverse precautions and was for protection of the contained specimens. It wasn’t until everyone was suited up and had been checked by Yamamoto that they proceeded.
5.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
NEW YORK CITY
MARCH 1, 2011, 2:00 P.M.
U sing a keypad, Dr. Yamamoto punched in a combination, unlocking a simple door. Although she wasn’t trying, Pia noticed it was the same code used for the biosafety unit, an alphanumeric sequence that was the time and date of Rothman’s birth. Yamamoto stepped aside and ushered the three students into a starkly modern, brightly lit room filled with the gentle, hypnotic sound of running water. Pia felt a slight breeze against her as she advanced. She knew that was evidence of the room having positive pressure, meaning air came out of the room, not in. That was the opposite of the biosafety room, where the laminar flow was into the room.
Stepping beyond the door, Pia shaded her eyes against the sharp bluish light that came from banks of recessed fiber-optic fixtures. She assumed the light had something to do with sterility in the room. Stopping with the others, she took in the scene before her. They had entered a large space painted bright white. Pia was puzzled as to how this lab fit in with the rest of Rothman’s suite—it seemed larger than it feasibly could be. At the back of the room, a figure dressed in similar protective garb was hunched over a stainless-steel cart mounted on wheels, making some adjustments on a control panel. There were three rows of such carts and Pia counted thirty of them in all. Set atop each were clear rectangular Plexiglas aquarium-like containers of various sizes. Below were shelves holding various and sundry equipment. Each also had an attached pole supporting a control panel with an LED display. One of the carts was a few feet to Pia’s left and she moved over to take a closer look. Lesley and Will followed.
This was one of the organ-growing baths whose contained fluid was what Pia would be investigating for the month. She leaned over and peered into the container at a miniature translucent object suspended in the liquid by a kind of spiderweb that she was later to find out was made of the same material as real spiderwebs. As for the object itself, she could see it was connected by filament-thin lines to a central clamp where the lines were gathered. A thicker cable fed out of the bath and down into the body of the cart, where there was a boxy device with multiple readouts monitoring the conditions in the bath. An attached magnifying device on a movable arm was also connected to the cart. Pia maneuvered it into position so she could see the contained object better. Although it was not too much larger than a pine nut, its appearance was unmistakably that of a kidney, albeit a very tiny kidney. Most of the lines contained red fluid along one larger one that was clear. The red ones were presumably functioning as veins and arteries. The clear one was acting as the ureter to take away the urine the miniature organ was producing. To one side of the container was a jet, like one attached to a pool circulator, only in miniature. It was pulsating at a very rapid rate. Gentle eddies of liquid coursed around the container,
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