Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome

File:Worf-de-evolved.jpg

Lieutenant Worf after being devolved by Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome

Counselor Troi after being devolved by Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome

Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome is an artificial disease, accidentally created by Dr. Beverly Crusher aboard the USS Enterprise-D in 2370. Attempting to cure Lieutenant Reginald Barclay of Urodelan flu, Dr. Crusher used synthetic T-cells to activate the gene that would fight off the infection. However, an anomaly in Barclay's genetic structure caused the T-cell to mutate and activate all of Barclay's dormant genes, including his latent introns. Interaction with the Urodelan virus caused the T-cells to become airborne, spreading throughout the ship and causing the crew to "de-evolve." The syndrome was cured by using amniotic fluid to create a retrovirus, eliminating the effects.

Initial symptoms of the disease include abnormal behavior, irritability, hyper-activity or decreased activity, chills, fever and paranoia.

Ultimately, the newly active genes aggressively express themselves, drastically altering the body and causing the suffering patient to physically regress into an earlier form of his or her respective species, or possibly even a combined form of multiple animal types. (TNG: "Genesis")

List of victims

Though every lifeform aboard the Enterprise-D was affected, the following is a list of people actually shown to have been affected:

• Reginald Barclay: spider
• Beverly Crusher: put in stasis upon being injured by Lt. Worf
• Dern
• Livingston
• Alyssa Ogawa: an ape-like creature
• Jean-Luc Picard: nearly turned into a primitive primate (lemur or marmoset)
• William T. Riker: an early hominid (Australopithecus)
• Spot: lizard
• Deanna Troi: an amphibious humanoid
• Worf: a savage, primordial reptile of the Klingon homeworld, capable of spewing acid

Background

The science behind "Genesis" is mostly apocryphal. Activating the transcription of pseudogenes within or outside of introns would not make a human "de-evolve." Instead, the large number of aberrant proteins created would most likely cause death by any number of pathways; however, Dr. Crusher does claim that the synthetic T-cell had mutated, which would no doubt have unknown and unexpected effects on a body.

Further, as the progenitors of insect-like organisms (including spiders) and of all vertebrates (including humans) diverged relatively early in Earth's history, the pseudogenes necessary for Lt. Barclay's transformation into a spider would not have been present in his DNA. The last common ancestor of the two lineages would instead likely appear more worm-like in shape.

Toward the end of the episode, Dr. Crusher comments to Barclay that it is traditional to name new diseases after the first sufferer. If true, this tradition apparently appeared after our own time period. Eponymous diseases (those which carry a name) have almost always been named for the first person to describe them in medical literature (Parkinson's disease; Down's syndrome; Marfan's syndrome; Kartagener's syndrome). Rare exceptions from our time include "Legionnaires' disease" (so named because the first known outbreak occurred at an American Legion convention) and "Lou Gehrig's disease" (informally named for its most famous sufferer, though today called Amyotrophic Laterosclerosis [ALS], a form of muscular dystrophy). Therefore, following modern-day nomenclature, Dr. Crusher would have likely named it "Crusher's Protomorphosis Syndrome", or simply, Crusher's Disease.