Invasive Procedures

George Galen is a brilliant scientist, a pioneer in gene therapy. But Galen is dangerously insane – he has created a method to alter human DNA, not just to heal diseases, but to “improve” people – make them stronger, make them able to heal more quickly, and make them compliant to his will. Frank Hartman is also a brilliant virologist, working for the government’s ultra-secret bio-hazard agency. He has discovered how to neutralize Galen’s DNA-changing virus, making him the one man who stands in the way of Galen’s plan to improve the entire human race. This taut thriller takes the reader a few years into the future, and shows the promise and danger of new genetic medicine techniques. Publishers Weekly In this intriguing medical thriller from bestseller Card ( Ender's Game ) and screenwriter Johnston, George Galen, a disgraced geneticist, feeds and medicates the downtrodden with the help of a genetically altered band of helpers known as Healers. In the form of a virus called V16, Galen has developed an effective treatment for many incurable genetic diseases; the problem is that when V16 isn't expressly tailored for each individual patient's DNA, the results are disastrous. Enter virologist Lt. Col. Frank Hartman, recruited by the federal Biohazard Agency to catch Galen and create an antidote. As Frank and his team work frantically, romantic threads unspool, while Galen insists that if the government would just stay out of his way, he could save countless lives. Based on Johnston's screenplay for Card's 1977 story Malpractice, the novel plays out with few surprises, but raises pertinent regulatory questions. (Sept.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information "The Healers move in secrecy through the city streets, their huge, strong bodies hidden in dark cloaks. They bring a deadly promise to the poor of Los Angeles.. They can cure the incurable diseases -- Parkinson's, sickle cell -- and they ask for nothing in return. But the genetic therapy techniques they are using are so targeted that what will cure one can, and will, bring certain painful death to anyone else exposed. Frank Hartman is a brilliant virologist working for the government's ultrasecret biohazard agency. It is to Hartman that the BHA turns to find a way to cure a deadly disease that keeps breaking loose in Los Angeles. Bust just curing the disease isn't going to stop the men who are spreading it. This taut thriller takes the reader a few years into the future, to the promise and danger, of genetic medicine"--Back cover of paperback edition George Galen is a brilliant scientist, a pioneer in gene therapy. But Galen is dangerously insane - he has created a method to alter human DNA, not just to heal diseases, but to "improve" people - make them stronger, make them able to heal more quickly, and make them compliant to his will. Frank Hartman is also a brilliant virologist, working for the government's ultra-secret bio-hazard agency. He has discovered how to neutralize Galen's DNA-changing virus, making him the one man who stands in the way of Galen's plan to "improve" the entire human race. This taut thriller takes the reader a few years into the future, and shows the promise and danger of new genetic medicine techniques. Frank Hartman, a virologist working for the government's top-secret biohazard agency, is the only man capable of stopping George Galen, a geneticist who has discovered how to "improve" humans by making them stronger, healthier, and compliant to his will.