The Laptev Virus

“So, where are we in terms of transmission?” asked Sarah. Since beginning research on the Laptev virus, she had become much more involved in the ongoing work of her researchers, and she was holding weekly meetings with them. Before, when they were investigating AIDS, she used to only meet with them about every two weeks, unless someone needed a more frequent reunion. This gave her more time, in turn, to focus on filling out grant applications and securing the necessary money to be able to purchase the expensive materials and supplies that they used, as well as to cover the salaries of her researchers. Writing the essays that grant forms required was practically a full-time job, and one which Sarah did not enjoy at all, but it was a reality in almost every university setting across the world.

“We’ve been able to confirm that it’s definitely a virus that is contained in the ice and that can be transmitted through the air,” said Drew. “We tried an experiment with an untainted sample of ice core that the company sent us. In an air-tight chamber, we placed human cells in open containers near the top walls of the hood, and used a hammer to smash the bits and release a few particles into the air. Within a few hours, the cells begin showing signs of infection.”

Sarah pictured the tissue culture hood, also called a laminar flow cabinet, in her mind. It was like a stainless steel box, often about three feet wide and two feet deep and perhaps 3 feet tall. Hoods were always incorporated onto a table or cabinet so that the base of the chamber was waist height and could be easily used when standing. The front of the chamber was covered with a sliding glass door. When the door was raised open, it disappeared into a slot at the top of the hood. Powerful and precisely aimed fans sent a strong layer of air down the front of the hood, where the glass door had been, creating an invisible curtain-like barrier across which the air in the room could not casually cross on tiny currents. This air curtain, known as laminar flow, also helped to protect the workers as airborne microbes tended to be trapped inside the hood when scientists were working with their arms reaching into the hood, while the rest of their body remained outside.

The inner “ceiling” of the chamber was a huge extraction vent, like the ones over a kitchen stove, but much more potent. Drew and his colleagues had probably used metallic clamps to hold the cells, growing on the inside part of transparent plates, to expose them to the bits of flying ice.

“Good work,” said Sarah, “but it’s bad news. That makes this virus the most dangerous one we have ever worked with. We all need to proceed with utmost caution. Aerosol viruses are really difficult to stop. Has everyone in the lab undergone the training for working with these viruses again?”

Sarah looked around and saw everyone assenting.

“I really don’t want to lose anyone,” she said seriously. “I cannot overstate the danger here. If you are the least bit tired or stressed, I don’t want you doing any experiments with Laptev, until you feel better, is that clear? I know we are under a time crunch, trying to find some answers in just a matter of weeks, but let me remind everyone that stress can lead to sloppy technique, and that could be harmful or fatal, so no one is going near the BSL-4 rooms if you are not fully focused on your work.”

Sarah felt a little like one of her professors who used to beat them up about the obvious things, but she preferred to err on the side of oversimplification than to assume that everyone understood the dangers and then later find out that someone had made a simple error in judgment and become contaminated with Laptev.

“All right, what else have we got?” Sarah asked. She looked fondly at her group of researchers with their lab coats buttoned to varying degrees. Emile, who was by far the neatest of them, always had an immaculate coat with his name embroidered on the pocket over his left breast. Shane, who was at the other end of the spectrum, had a stained coat, with one of the lower pockets partially ripped, its corner flapping uselessly. Where most everyone had their first and last names on their coat, Shane had only his first name messily scrawled in permanent ink over the breast pocket, as if it were an afterthought.

“I did some sleuthing into a plausible theory for its origin,” said Tally, reaching back to tighten her short ponytail. Her hair was barely long enough to pull back so she had to readjust it frequently.

Sarah smiled. She knew that Tally must have done this work outside of her time spent in the lab as Tally had been quite immersed in hands-on work with the HeLa cells, getting them ready for use as hosts, and this task had occupied countless hours in the lab. “Great, what did you come up with?”

“Well, what tipped me off was when you told us the part about the workers dropping the ice core sample.”

“Ha!” said Shane, “that’s a no-brainer. I would have dropped it too if bears had shown up!”