Chromosome 6 (novel)

Chromosome 6 is a 1997 science fiction novel by the American novelist Robin Cook. It follows a minor forensic pathologist, Dr. Jack Stapleton, as he and Dr. Laurie Montgomery, another forensic pathologist, try to identify a badly mutilated body with various parts missing. On the other side of the world in a small country called Equatorial Guinea, researcher Dr. Kevin Marshall is part of a firm named GenSys, in which he takes the major histocompatibility gene on chromosome 6 and transfers it to a relative of the chimpanzee, the bonobo. Jack and Laurie soon learn that the dead body is of a mafia kingpin whose liver is transplanted but cannot be traced back to any donor. Finally, this quest to find the liver takes Jack and Laurie to Equatorial Guinea where they discover the truth of about Gensys and Kevin's project with the bonobos.

The main part of the novel describes the almost reality of xenografts that have no rejection or no side effects from primates to humans. While showing the reality that this is almost impossible with current technology. The major histocompatibility gene on chromosome 6 turns out to make these bonobos into proto-humans, which then leads Kevin to find the truth about Gensys and decide the ultimate fate of the captured bonobos.