(This felt really awkward while I was writing it, so let me know if I need to change anything.)
Retroviruses



Name:RNA Introducing Retrovirus Vectors

Manufacturer:Ezekiel Stoll; Self-employed

Year Created:2196

Classification:Vector for Genetic Engineering

Advantages:Extremely rapid introduction of foreign RNA, and following that, DNA into the patient's body. Following introduction, the retrovirus changes every cell of the body, or just the target area, into the desired type of cell.

Disadvantages:Massive bio-energy usage. Without enough available nutrients, the cells will attempt the RNA-induced change regardless of anything else, and begin ingesting the body to fulfill their "programming". Almost always illegal.

Description: A pre-existing organism in nature, the retrovirus, a virus by name, has key differences from a normal DNA capsule virus. As the name would suggest, a retrovirus contains RNA instead of DNA, and translates it into DNA when infecting a host cell instead of using DNA to produce proteins, like most viruses. This difference allows for the Retrovirus to overwrite the DNA of a host cell, changing it to the RNA contained with the retrovirus. Using this natural process, scientists were able to insert plasmid vectors into a retrovirus. Reproduction of the target gene retrovirus would follow, and then finally, insertion into a host. Once inside of the host, reproduction occurs in a pattern encoded into their RNA, following only what was pre-written, and changing the DNA of cells to the desired traits. Through this, cell growth and regeneration could be changed at will, all hinging upon the usage of energy by the host. Usually the host must, before accepting the retrovirus, increase their bodies natural metabolism through a much slower retrovirus that absorbs 'food' through natural processes. This allows for the possibility of nutrient solutions, allowing the host's body to survive the faster changes needed for in-combat use, such as the hardening of skin, propagation of muscles, or even creation of new bone or limbs, depending on a carefully measured nutrient solution.

We are regenerating limbs with a virus? Did I understand that right?

A retrovirus. That's correct.
Even using modern scientific theory, it's somewhat viable- if a bit far fetched given current research on the subject. Still, people have been looking into it.

Based on the current technology in the Mass Effect setting, it could be possible. However, this would be a long, lengthy process in "growing" a limb back. And I do mean LONG. Is this your perception of the virus?

Is the chosen length of time for balance reasons, or for technological reasons?
As far as I know, and I like to think sometimes that I do know at least a bit about biology and genetics, the amount of time that cells require to divide has a cap on it based only on the genetic code of those cells. Should the retrovirus overwrite that cap, the only reason I see for the limbs to take a great deal of time would be as a result of limited materials.

A new bone, for example, would require a great deal of calcium. In real life, the cells that create new bone cells have limited rates of division because, evolutionarily speaking, it was selectively advantageous to do so. Calcium was rare. Nowadays, it is relatively easily accessible. With that in mind, the time limit cap could be removed so long as the needed materials were added to the body in pre-measured amounts.

If, on the other hand, it is for balance issues... I suppose I have nothing to argue about, there. You are the Keeper, not myself.

Edit: Also, I apologize for the delayed reply. I was here, but I was expecting an email update when I received a reply. Strange.

I should point out that cell division is not instantaneous (from what I gather the retrovirus inject the RNA "programming" the cell to do its bidding).
The division itself takes time and the cells can't divide again instantaneously after a division.
A quick search on the internet reveals that one of the fastest growing bacteria has an optimum division time of 10 minutes.

So to get a bit clearer picture a simplified calculation.


Let us say that the cells are in fact uniform 20 micrometre blocks. What we want to regrow is a 61cm arm.

So the you need 30500 blocks to get 61cm in length (arm length/cell size). The growth itself is exponential (the number of cells doubles every division).

Using this data we can put together this: 2^14.9 = 30573.
Basically this means that you need 14.9 divisions to regrown an arm... so you need 14.9 time units (a time unit can be anything... a second, minute, year etc.).

I hope you both don't mind this post. I just wanted to put thing in perspective.

Hello :) thought I'd put my 2 ¢ in.

There has been cases of individuals regrowing severed fingers extracellular matrix extracted from a pigs bladder(powdered form"pixie dust"), the process claiming to take mere months at the most. For other areas, it would take longer and hasn't been proven to be successful, yet.

Stimulation of the cells could provoke the cells regeneration cycle(cytokins, I believe) through the use of He-Ne and Ga-As lasers, which has been proven to help the cell growth cycle by augmenting collagen synthesis, modulate maturation of newly synthesized collagen and enhance the biomechanical characteristics of the selected area....

I'm sure there are other ways to stimulate cell reproduction, but there is one for you to work with. Not sure if it helps much, but yeah... :)

Hi! Thank you both for the replies ^^; I'm honestly sort of surprised that this topic got so much attention. >-<''
Anyway!
@Guru
Despite the fact that this really isn't helping my cause, I have to note that the growth of the limb would not be exponential. An exponential growth assumes an infinite amount of space to grow, and that cells on the inside are not surrounded by their newly created cells. Ah...something like that. I hope you get what I mean. ^^;

@Namaste
That sounds interesting... I'm surprised they haven't tried something similar with humans. Aghk. Still, I have to insist that, while these methods are interesting, other methods have surely been developed by 2196. The huge amount of research that must have been done on the subject is fairly daunting. But even still...!
The natural rate of growth, regardless of what it is in the fastest of bacterial cells, is fairly irrelevant. The variation in speed, I believe, proves the point that I would like to make: the speed of cell division is determined by the proteins involved, and is thus determined by the genetic code of the cell.

Still, it isn't really up to me. I'm just letting you know what my opinion is.
Speaking of, the length of time for the regrowth of a limb to the point of usefulness in combat that I would /prefer/ is about 7-9 minutes.

Thanks,
Zetal :)

I hope this isn't too unorthodox, but.. bump? I'm in college now so I have less time to check, but what's the situation? =x

Sorry for the delay here. Taking into consideration the advances of sciences in Mass Effect and the balance required to prevent some lab tech from being overpowered I would propose the time it takes to regen completely be one hour. On top of that such a technology needs to be very rare and new in the galaxy so it isn't exactly picked up by all yet. Does this sound good and if not I'm open to a discussion over it.

I guess I'm okay with the hour thing- it's better than not having it at all. As for the galactic usage, don't worry about alot of people having it- it would be illegal, and the only known research would be locked up in citadel-run labs, or with Ezekiel and he isn't sharing haha. So, is it approved? =)