Transfection Contents

Introducing Tina's next Novel. She will be posting new chapters here on a regular basis.

Thanks Tina!

Hundreds of thousands of Americans claim that they have been, or are being, abducted by aliens from outer space. A growing number of reliable psychiatrists have extensively examined many of these abductees, and have come to the conclusion that these people really are being abducted, for they can find no other reasonable explanations for the occurrences these people claim to have experienced. Though completely unrelated to the alien abductions, there are also many very reputable scientists and ufologists, who have blatantly accused the U.S. Government of covering up any research that they have done on the UFO phenomenon during the last 50 years. The above statements are facts. Are the government cover-ups and the alien abductions really so un-related?

In "The Transfection", Megan Omera, a young woman molecular biologist, who works for Omnigene, a biotech company in Monterey, CA, discovers that the DNA she has been engineering into retroviral vectors is not what it is supposed to be. The retroviral vectors are to be used to infect developing neurons in the brains of patients suffering from genetic brain disorders, and if the vectors are coupled to bi-functional NGF anti-transferrin receptor antibody fusion proteins, they will permeate the blood-brain barrier and be integrated into that patient's germ line, thus protecting any offspring that the patient may have in the future, from inheriting the brain disorder. But, after completing four years of research and development on these vectors, she discovers that the DNA she has been manipulating into them does not match any DNA known to man. What is this strange DNA? It all starts when Megan's friend, Kristie, decides that she has reason to believe the vectors Megan has been engineering, are being used to transfect dolphins that are being studied at the marine institute; and since the dolphins have recently acquired the ability to levitate above water, and communicate with humans telepathically, coupled with their greatly changed physical appearance, Kristie thinks the DNA in the vectors is not from Earth. Megan has never believed in the UFO phenomenon; she is a scientist, and is sure that only paranoid schizophrenics, and most kooks in general, believe in UFOs.

Kyle Sommers is a fourteen year old boy, who, one year earlier, while living in Los Angeles with his mother, had been arrested for being under the influence of alcohol, and possession of marijuana. His mother, not knowing how to handle her troubled son, sent him to live in Mendocino, California, with his father, step mother and six year old step brother, Echo Page. After an apprehensive first year of living under his father's roof, Kyle seems to be settling down with his new family, and is beginning to earn the much guarded trust of his father and step mother. One early summer evening, Kyle's parents allow him to baby-sit Echo Page, while they go into town to have dinner and see a movie. Kyle immediately seizes the opportunity to take Echo Page and go with his high school friends for a drive, up into the forest, to steal some marajuana plants from a private, hidden, illegal farm. While the kids are in the forest, they see something they aren't supposed to, which goes against everything they've ever believed to be reality. After that night, their lives are never the same again. "The Transfection" is a chilling novel about the outer boundaries of cloning and genetic engineering, that will be enjoyed and appreciated not only by science fiction fanatics, but also the average reader. It fits together much to well for comfort, and contains an important message about humanity and its place in the universe, that will really make the reader think. If The Transfection isn't already happening, it is only a matter of time...