Double Helix by Nancy Werlin Synopsis

Could you imagine a world where everyone is perfect and no one has to suffer through
genetic disorders? Werlins Double Helix creates a world where genetic disorders can be
prevented and no one has to suffer through the disease again. But will the perfection go too
far?
Summary
Double Helix by Nancy Werlin is a fictional novel about Eli Samuels, an 18-year-old
man who works at Wyatt Transgenics under Dr. Quincy Wyatt. Eli is over six feet tall and is
healthy, has a girlfriend named Vivian, a father named Jonathan, and a mother named Ava. Ava
has been diagnosed Huntingtons Disease. Jonathan does not always agree with Eli and since Eli
is taking a year off from school and is not attending college Jonathan is not happy. Eli enjoys his
job at Wyatt Transgenics, encoding the DNA of bunnies and not having to think or worry about
college. One day, Eli gets a note from his father asking him to quit the job because he does not
like Wyatt. Eli asks his father why he dislikes Wyatt so much, but he would not tell him.
Concurrently, Eli is still mad at his father for hiding a letter from Wyatt from years ago,
containing the test results of a person that tested negative for Huntingtons Disease. Also, Eli is
still worried that he himself might have Huntingtons Disease since the offspring has a fifty
percent chance of inheriting the disease. He continues to work for Dr. Wyatt despite his fathers
exhortations. When Eli takes out a bunny from its cage it slips out of his hands and runs around
the building. When he is chasing the bunny he comes across a secret elevator door. He was very
curious and explores more, but he was not able to open it so he leaves it alone.
Later, Dr. Wyatt invites Eli to his home and he meets Kayla Matheson, a perfect, athletic,
flawless girl, who also knows Quincy Wyatt and is living with him for the summer. After

meeting Kayla, Eli gets engaged into a very deep conversation about the future of genetics with
Kayla and doesnt show up to his date with Vivian. Vivian gets worried and goes to Jonathans
house and they wait for Eli to return. During this time, Jonathan tells Vivian everything about his
family and how Eli has a chance of getting Huntingtons Disease. Eli meant to keep it a secret
from Vivian so that she wouldnt have to worry about her boyfriend dying. Meanwhile, his
mother gets worse and worse, and she passes away. While Eli and his father look through his
mother's belongings, they begin to bond and understand each other. When Eli goes through her
old pictures, he finds a picture of his mother when she was seventeen. She looks very similar to
Kayla as if she could be her sister. Eli was shocked and went to his father for an explanation.
Eli's father explains that twenty years ago, Wyatt Wyatt took a clutch of eggs of his mother and
looked at the karyotype of each egg and found one that did not have Huntington's Disease. Eli
was the single egg that successful. On the other hand, Kayla was one of the eggs that did have
Huntingtons Disease. In spite of this, her egg was still fertilized and given to another family. The
family then implanted the fertilized egg into the surrogate mother. Soon after that, Eli gets a
flashback of his mother and his father getting a call from Wyatt Transgenics when he was about
seven years old. They called saying that the father did not have HD. He pieces this information
with the letter that was sent years ago that he found in a desk that contained the test results of a
Huntingtons Disease test. He thought it was his fathers test results, but the letter was for Elis.
Dr. Wyatt had taken Elis blood sample and put under Jonathan's name since the testing is only
available for people over eighteen years old.
Eli was very confused and wanted answers from Dr. Wyatt. He goes to Wyatts office and
demands for answers. He gets some but still needs a better explanation. He is still curious about
the secret elevator door so he checks it out one more time and runs into Kayla who is trying to do

the same thing. They both go down to the extra basement level and see Wyatt's work. In the
basement, they encounter three doors. One door lead to an apartment like place, with toys, beds,
televisions, etc. Wyatt had shown this to Kayla before, and this was the room that Eli's other
"siblings" would go to be tested while it seems like as if they're just playing. Wyatt had tested
Kayla and Eli without them knowing before also. The other door was an office, just like Wyatt's
office in the main building, with two computers, Eli was curious and looked through them to find
his and Kayla's data and found their DNAs. They were well hidden, but Eli found them. When
the results loaded, Eli's DNA showed that he did not have HD and that Kayla's did. They took the
hard drive for evidence because they knew that what Wyatt was doing could not be legal. The
third door led to a lab with Wyatts work. They found a freezer that was filled with all of Avas
eggs. To Kayla and Eli, this was inhuman, Wyatt was using them for his experiments, something
that Jonathan didnt want. Jonathan felt as if he was failing in protecting his children. Kayla
and Eli destroy Wyatt's lab and got him arrested. The Wyatt Transgenics is no longer of Wyatts,
but is now General Transgenics. Once Wyatt was released from prison, he continued his work out
of the country, where his work was not illegal. The book then skips ahead to a future Eli, maybe
a year later, where Eli goes to school with Dr. Fukuyama, who explained that years ago she
discussed with her colleagues of ways to engineer genes to prevent Down Syndrome. Then, a
person with Down Syndrome came up and asked what was so wrong with them that they needed
to be rid of? They didnt do anything wrong. From then on, Dr. Fukuyama felt that genetic
engineering is not always the best way to go.
Biological Aspect
Double Helix relates to the biological aspect of in vitro fertilization. This method has
been used for years for women that have trouble carrying a baby. Scientists are also able to look

at a person's karyotype and can see what disorders you have. They have found a way to make
babies free of genetic disorders by taking a womans egg and checking the karyotype for genetic
disorders. If there isnt one present then the egg will be fertilized and inserted back into the
mother. Though this is possible, it is very expensive and there is only about a 32% chance of
success. There is also risks like having twins or triplets, an ectopic pregnancy, or ovarian
hyperstimulation syndrome. An ectopic pregnancy is when the embryo inserts into the fallopian
tube instead of the uterus, therefore, the baby cannot grow and will ultimately die. Ovarian
hyperstimulation syndrome is when too many eggs develop in the ovaries. These consequences
can be dangerous to the mother (IVF, 2015, para 1-15).
Considering that the book was also based on Huntingtons Disease, I went further into the
subject to gain knowledge about the subject. Huntingtons Disease also abbreviated as HD for
short, is devastating neurological disorder that is from the degeneration of nerve cells in the
brain. HD is a progressive disease that only gets worse and kills the patient over a span of years.
The symptoms are shown on the right.
The disease is hereditary and the
offspring is very likely to inherit the
disease. If one parent has the disease,
the offspring has a fifty percent chance
of obtaining the disease. Since the
discovery of the disease in 1872,
scientists and researchers have made
huge advancements and made
treatments to help control the symptoms but no cure has been found (Christy Taylor, n.d., para 1).

Comparison
The author was very accurate with the biology aspect of the book. She didnt give any
wrong information and her descriptions of the biology aspects were on point. In contrast, her
ideas seem far fetched that Dr. Wyatt was able to find the certain egg that did not have HD and
fertilize it and implant back into the mother while still having the embryo survive. Technically, it
is possible but the chances are very slim. Researchers are just now discovering ways make the
possibility of the offspring inheriting the disease slimmer without using the test tube method. A
new study shows that they might be able to use therapies and treatments to silence the genes with
the disease. One scientist stumbled across this when he noticed that famine, drug abuse, and
stress can silent genes so he thought that it would be possible for HD also. This treatment and
therapy will have a lot more testing and altering before it will be open to the public (The Scripps
Research Institute, 2014, para 1-15).
The part that Werlin was a bit vague on was when she wrote about how Dr. Wyatt found
the egg without HD. She did have all of the information correct, but she didnt go in depth with
it. She never mentioned the karyotype of the egg or what chromosome HD was located on. She
did make up for it with the in-depth description of HD. She knew a lot about the disease. She
mentioned that if you have more than 40 CAG repeats, you would have HD for sure. The CAG
repeats are the repetition of the nitrogen bases cytosine, adenine, and guanine. There is no reason
why but there is conclusive evidence that if you have 40 or more CAG repeats you will have HD.
There have been advances that help the symptoms of the disease. A new study shows that
pridopidine may be able to help with the involuntary movements from the disease. There was an
experiment tested and the patients with the drug showed fewer spasms and involuntary

movements than those without it (Mikaela Conley, 2011, para 1-26). Even though we dont have
a cure, we still are making new advancements all of the time.
Conclusion
All in all, the book was very informational while still maintaining the storyline. There
were some things that happened in the book that would not likely happen in the real world, but
that was the science fiction part of it. If this scenario happened in the real world our society
would be based on if you are genetically altered and perfect or if you are naturally made. This
would lead to discrimination and make the world an awful place. As Dr. Fukuyama mentioned,
Theres a difference between using gene therapy for the treatment of existing medical
conditions, and using our growing, but far from perfect knowledge of genes-or humanity-to
declare that we absolutely know who has-and who hasnt-a right to life at all