Death Benefit

17.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER NEW YORK CITY MARCH 3, 2011, 6:23 P.M.

Pia glanced up from her reading to see that it was almost six-thirty, and she wondered how long she was going to have to wait. She was sitting in the deserted lab outside her office, which continued to be off-limits. She was waiting for Rothman, who was still in the biosafety unit trying to finish up the data for the Lancet article. Yamamoto had told her to wait because Rothman wanted to speak with her. What about, she had no idea. Whatever it was, it made her feel uneasy.

The day had been interesting in some regards although it had not been one of her best. She had spent the morning doing the lab equivalent of KP duty, washing and rewashing glassware. For the second day in a row Pia had been actually late, not just late by the secretary Marsha Langman’s standards. For the second day in a row George had failed to appear at her door, and she wondered why. It irked her to a degree because she’d come to count on it, even though she was the first to agree that he wasn’t obliged to come and wake her. She’d slept badly again, as she’d been doing for a week or more. As per usual it was nightmares involving childhood memories she’d battled to suppress and which surprised her in their lucidity. Even after years, they still possessed ample power to shock and disturb her.

The head technician, Arthur Spaulding, had seemed amused by Pia’s punishment. He had made a point of detouring when in the lab to pass by Pia, saying nothing. He didn’t have to, his smirk was enough. Spaulding had been at the research center for years, and he liked things done just so. He’d started working for Rothman only in the last eighteen months, and Spaulding got on with him about as well as his predecessor had before he was fired. Spaulding seemed to take exception to any irregular request from Rothman, and Rothman being Rothman, most of his requests were irregular.

“Do you need something, Mr. Spaulding?” Pia said finally on about his fifth pass. “You seem to go out of your way to come over here.”

Spaulding said nothing and left, as Yamamoto had suddenly appeared and come over.

“Miss Grazdani, we would like to see you in the organ bath lab.”

Dr. Yamamoto hadn’t directly said anything about Pia being late, and he didn’t need to; Pia had gotten the message. She suited up quickly and went in the lab to join Lesley and Will, who had been in there all morning. They were standing in a side room with Rothman, who was holding a thick paperback book in one hand and pressing impatiently at the display of a newly installed machine that looked like a large inkjet printer.

“Dr. Yamamoto, it appears we have bought a lemon,” Rothman said.

Will gestured down to the power strip in the wall, and Yamamoto bent down and flicked on the surge protector. The machine wheezed and babbled into life.

“Anyone know what this piece of machinery is?” Rothman said, not missing a beat and bending forward to stare into the innards of the device. As she moved closer, Pia could see how intricate the engineering on the device was, with tracking bars and a large array like the inkjet of a printer. Pia opened her mouth, but Lesley beat her to it. “An organ printer?” She had seen the cover of the book Rothman was holding.

“Yes, for three-D bioprinting. We have an older machine, but this one is new. Someone from the manufacturer is coming tomorrow to show us how to use it.”

“Perhaps we should wait till then to turn it on, Doctor,” Yamamoto said.

“No harm in warming it up. Mr. McKinley, what do you know about three-D bioprinting?”

“I think it works like a regular printer, spraying living cells onto a sheet of . . . a sheet of something. It goes back and forth building up the layers into a three-dimensional structure. The cells can often organize themselves to function collectively. So far it has applications making skin and cartilage.”

“Indeed. You can print a spinal disk. Which I may need to try by tomorrow,” said Rothman, straightening up and rubbing the small of his back.

“We’re all going to get up to speed on this machine together. As this engineering matures it might be quicker than growing organs. At this stage I’m thinking of using it to fix defects in the organs that we’re growing. But who knows? The value of this technology is that an organ would be fashioned as the mirror image of the patient’s by using data from MRI studies. As is often the case with organogenesis, the hardest part is not in replicating the function of the organ, or gland, but in connecting it to the rest of the body-veins, arteries, ducts, and so on have to be oriented appropriately to make the surgery feasible.”

Rothman had found a switch and he toggled it on and off. He then reopened the instruction book and immediately became engrossed.

Yamamoto ushered the students away. Will looked back at Rothman.

“I hope that thing’s still working when the guy comes tomorrow.”

The students spent the rest of the day monitoring the organ baths. They’d found that some did experience small changes in temperature or pH spontaneously, and the three talked with Yamamoto about designing an alarm system even for those minor fluctuations. It seemed to them that even such small changes might impact the results. It was real science, demanding and exciting for each student. Will and Lesley worked closely, keeping a respectful distance from Pia, who was in her own world.

After Dr. Yamamoto dismissed the students for the day, he asked Pia to stay behind for a moment. “Dr. Rothman would like to speak with you later, after we’re done in the level-three lab. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Of course not,” Pia had said. What else was she going to say?