A woman with TWO sets of DNA in her body says she could frame her brother by leaving blood he donated to her at a crime scene.
Ananya Bashyam, 24, is a 'chimera' as her body is an organism that contains at least two different sets of DNA.
She was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia - a type of blood cancer - in October 2021.
Her brother, Chaitanya, 21, a college student, saved her life by donating bone marrow in July 2023 – transfusing his new cells into her and replacing hers.
This means Ananya now has two sets of DNA – the blood of her brother and the rest of the DNA in her body is hers – also known as a chimera.
She is now recovering from her operation and has two more check-ups to go to confirm if she is cancer free.
Ananya, a former high school science teacher, from Houston, Texas, US, said: “I will forever have two sets of DNA in my body.
She has the DNA of her brother, Chaitanya, 21, after he saved her life by donating bone marrow.
“If I left skin or hair at a crime scene it would come as mine.
“If I left my blood – I could frame my brother.
“It’s really crazy.
“He has actually saved my life.”
Ananya was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in October 2021 after she experienced a loss of vision and a fever in September 2021.
She said: “I just froze.
“Part of me knew my life would never be the same after that.
“I was determined to fight my way through it.”
She had six weeks of chemotherapy and immunotherapy and was in remission at the end of 2021.
Unfortunately, Ananya relapsed in March 2022 and was told a bone marrow transplant was her last option.
Luckily for her, her brother was a 100 per cent match and willing to be a donor.
Ananya said: “I feel lucky.
“They got rid of everything in my current immune system.
“Then they took some cells from my little brother.
“They transfused his new cells into me.
“I have my own DNA in my skin and hair.
“My blood cells are my little brother's DNA.”
Ananya had her transplant in July 2023 at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas, but suffered with graft versus host disease – when the body's existing immune system battles the new cells.
She was able to come home in August 2023 and her immune system is now building itself up.
Once built up her blood type will then show up as her brother's - O negative.
Ananya said: “Your blood type changes.
“You can develop the same allergies a lot of the time as your donor.”
Ananya said sharing DNA with her brother has given them a “deeper” connection.
She said: “He’s my best friend.
“He’s the closest person in the world to me.”
Ananya is also starting medical school next Autumn – something she has always dreamed of.
She said: “This has made me realise what kind of doctor I want to be.
“I’m really excited to use my passion for that and impact people through medicine.”
Ananya Bashyam, 24, is a 'chimera' as her body is an organism that contains at least two different sets of DNA.
She was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia - a type of blood cancer - in October 2021.
Her brother, Chaitanya, 21, a college student, saved her life by donating bone marrow in July 2023 – transfusing his new cells into her and replacing hers.
This means Ananya now has two sets of DNA – the blood of her brother and the rest of the DNA in her body is hers – also known as a chimera.
She is now recovering from her operation and has two more check-ups to go to confirm if she is cancer free.
Ananya, a former high school science teacher, from Houston, Texas, US, said: “I will forever have two sets of DNA in my body.
She has the DNA of her brother, Chaitanya, 21, after he saved her life by donating bone marrow.
“If I left skin or hair at a crime scene it would come as mine.
“If I left my blood – I could frame my brother.
“It’s really crazy.
“He has actually saved my life.”
Ananya was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in October 2021 after she experienced a loss of vision and a fever in September 2021.
She said: “I just froze.
“Part of me knew my life would never be the same after that.
“I was determined to fight my way through it.”
She had six weeks of chemotherapy and immunotherapy and was in remission at the end of 2021.
Unfortunately, Ananya relapsed in March 2022 and was told a bone marrow transplant was her last option.
Luckily for her, her brother was a 100 per cent match and willing to be a donor.
Ananya said: “I feel lucky.
“They got rid of everything in my current immune system.
“Then they took some cells from my little brother.
“They transfused his new cells into me.
“I have my own DNA in my skin and hair.
“My blood cells are my little brother's DNA.”
Ananya had her transplant in July 2023 at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas, but suffered with graft versus host disease – when the body's existing immune system battles the new cells.
She was able to come home in August 2023 and her immune system is now building itself up.
Once built up her blood type will then show up as her brother's - O negative.
Ananya said: “Your blood type changes.
“You can develop the same allergies a lot of the time as your donor.”
Ananya said sharing DNA with her brother has given them a “deeper” connection.
She said: “He’s my best friend.
“He’s the closest person in the world to me.”
Ananya is also starting medical school next Autumn – something she has always dreamed of.
She said: “This has made me realise what kind of doctor I want to be.
“I’m really excited to use my passion for that and impact people through medicine.”
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00 Also...
00:02 I don't know.
00:05 Hey besties, come with me for a very realistic day recovering from my bone marrow transplant.
00:09 I had one of these core power shakes for breakfast because ketone radiation side effects have really been hitting and I literally cannot get
00:14 solid food down. Throat and mouth sores have been literally insane
00:17 and I had to record this two days late because I actually couldn't speak. Had my meds and then immediately got nauseous
00:22 I had my cute little bark bag with me. Got some nausea and pain meds.
00:25 I know that I post a lot of positive content
00:27 but I kind of wanted to show y'all kind of what a real day looks like and also kind of why I haven't been posting
00:32 as much recently. I forced myself out of bed, went on my silly little walk. Also,
00:36 Hall of Fame update coming soon. And the cherry on top of all these side effects is that my hair is also starting to fall
00:41 out in literal chunks. You think it'd be easier the second time it happens, but it really never does get easier.
00:45 At this point the pain had gotten so bad
00:47 they gave me something called a patient controlled pain pump where basically it's just a continuous stream of dilaudid through my IV
00:52 and then if I click a button I get an extra dose of dilaudid that also comes through my IV.
00:56 Highly recommend. This has made it so much easier to control my pain. Lunch was a strawberry banana protein smoothie.
01:01 I couldn't really finish the whole thing because I was too nauseous and my mouth was still hurting,
01:04 but it was pretty good.
01:05 And then I took a nap, probably like my fourth one of the day because all my medications make me sleepy and the radiation
01:09 also made me really really sleepy. And then Krishna came over to visit. Look at him fixing up my little Roku for me.
01:14 Sometimes I just love men because you can just turn your brain off with them. Like, oh,
01:17 I don't feel like figuring out how to set up my Roku. That's okay. He'll figure it out.
01:20 Here's nap like 28. That's only probably a slight exaggeration, honestly.
01:24 And then I got nauseous again. Honestly,
01:26 I feel like all my horrific hangovers in college prepared me for the after effects of radiation.
01:30 I really didn't have it in me to go on another walk, so my dad and I watched a few episodes of Ghosts.
01:35 And then it was time for dinner. I ordered some solid food because I was trying to be optimistic,
01:38 but I still couldn't get it down.
01:39 So I just ended up eating an orange popsicle on Italian ice. Honestly, can't complain.
01:43 And then you'd think the universe would give me a calm ending to the day, right?
01:47 But no, the universe said, "Fuck you," and I went into SBT. Basically,
01:50 my body was so stressed out from the radiation and chemo, my heart rate shot up into the 190s.
01:53 They were only able to get it back down by using a medication that literally stops my heart for a millisecond and then restarts it again.
01:59 Even though it's happened to me before, it was still super stressful,
02:01 and I also felt like a robot with all these wires coming out of me. And then the day was finally over. Good night.
02:06 I'm officially a chimera, which is what you call someone with two different sets of DNA within their body.
02:10 So for me, I have my brother's DNA in my blood and my own DNA everywhere else.
02:14 In about three to six months, my blood type will change completely to his. For a little while there,
02:19 I'll actually have two blood types, mine and my brother's.
02:22 So I got this question a lot about the blood transfusions. And so while I have two different blood types,
02:27 they would have to do a type and screen test on me to see which blood type is kind of more
02:32 dominant, and that's the blood they would transfuse me with.
02:34 But for the rest of my life, if they ever test the DNA in my blood,
02:37 it'll actually be my brother's DNA that shows up, not mine. And so this actually makes it really complicated for like,
02:43 crime investigations. Like, if I committed a crime and my blood was left on the scene and they did a DNA test on it,
02:51 it would be my brother that would get accused of the crime, not me, because it'd be his DNA that showed up.
02:57 Not saying I want to commit a crime, but if I ever did.
02:59 So some partial results from my last bone marrow biopsy just came back, and this might be one of the coolest,
03:05 weirdest side effects of getting a bone marrow transplant. TLDR, the DNA in my blood is now completely male.
03:11 So as you can see, they ran a chromosome analysis report on the DNA in my blood cells,
03:16 and the summary showed that I have a normal
03:20 male karyotype, meaning that the chromosomes that they looked at in the lab are
03:25 identifiable of a male, not a female. Which makes sense,
03:29 and it's a good thing, because it means my brother's cells have engrafted genetically into my bone marrow,
03:34 but it's still so wild to look at, because I'm a girl!
03:37 For reference, this is from two bone marrow biopsies ago,
03:40 and you can see that the chromosome analysis says that I am in fact female genetically in my blood.
03:45 Don't worry though, if you test me genetically anywhere else, like my hair, my skin, my nails,
03:50 I would still show up as female.
03:52 It's just in my blood, because that is now my little brother's DNA.
03:57 Anyway, science is so cool, and I am still a girl, I promise.