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Human evolution: Details of being human

Nature volume 454, pages 21–23 (2008)Cite this article

A difference in one molecule led physician Ajit Varki to question what sets humans apart from other apes. Bruce Lieberman meets a man who sees a big picture in the finer points.

The human body does not welcome an injection of horse serum. Ajit Varki discovered this when, as a young San Diego doctor in 1984, he administered some to a woman with bone-marrow failure. The serum was a standard treatment intended to stop the woman's T cells from destroying her bone marrow. But it was also known to prompt a reaction called 'serum sickness' and, sure enough, the patient broke out in hives a week after treatment — the result, Varki assumed, of her immune system's assault on proteins from another species.

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  1. Bruce Lieberman
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Bruce Lieberman is a freelance science writer based in San Diego.

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Lieberman, B. Human evolution: Details of being human. Nature 454, 21–23 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/454021a

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