More like Liam Hulkstra
March 31, 2009 12:29 PM   Subscribe

Meet Liam Hoekstra. He is a remarkable toddler with a rare genetic disorder called Myostatin-Related Muscle Hypertrophy, which causes him to have accelerated muscle mass and development, which leads to enhanced strength, speed, and agility. Supposedly, the same genes were manipulated to create these beefcakes [previously].
posted by aftermarketradio (51 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Can he take on Richard Sandrak?
posted by twoleftfeet at 12:35 PM on March 31, 2009


I apologize in advance if this is a scientifically ignorant question.

Is that related to this?
posted by Joe Beese at 12:36 PM on March 31, 2009


I bet I could still kick his ass.
posted by Pastabagel at 12:38 PM on March 31, 2009 [2 favorites]


This adds a whole new dimension to that how many kids could you beat up meme.
posted by kbanas at 12:39 PM on March 31, 2009 [3 favorites]


It looks like kinda, joe. It would seem to be a mutation in a part of the dog genome that plays an analogous role to the portion of the human genome that bears the interesting mutation in Liam's case.
posted by Mister_A at 12:40 PM on March 31, 2009 [1 favorite]


....aaaaand the Yankees have just signed him.
posted by not_on_display at 12:48 PM on March 31, 2009 [4 favorites]


Fuck guys, seven comments in and no one has asked if his nickname is Bam-Bam? Y'all are slipping.
posted by Caduceus at 12:54 PM on March 31, 2009 [4 favorites]


Pastabagel, you might kick his butt, but he'd grab your you know what and use his rope-climbing skillz and there you are : )
posted by Laotic at 12:54 PM on March 31, 2009


Is that related to this?

To expand on Mister_A's answer, according to this link from the FPP and this link from the story you linked to they both involve mutations of the GDF8 (also called MSTN) gene. I could not tell by skimming the articles if the mutations are the same, but it is definitely the same gene.
posted by TedW at 12:59 PM on March 31, 2009 [1 favorite]


I wonder if that DNA is something that's different between humans and chimps, since they are so much stronger. But it sounds like he just grows more muscle, whereas I think chimps just have stronger muscles.

As far as evolution goes, I think that if it was evolutionarily advantageous for humans to have this kind of strength, we would have. We might never have lost the 'super' muscles that chimps and other apes have.

When you have a lot of muscle mass, you need to eat more food in order to maintain it. So by having weaker muscles, humans can get along with fewer calories. According to this website one extra pound of muscle results in the burning of 15 calories a day. But other sites put the number at 35 or so.

Evolution is all about finding optimal balances, if you have X amount of food, what's the best way to use energy in your body? Is it fighting cancer, is it going to the immune system? building muscles? reproduction?

Of course, in our modern society, people have as much food as they want, and so having a body that was pre-disposed to building muscle would be very helpful as we wouldn't end up getting so fat that we got heart disease, etc. But I think in prehistoric times, that was less of an issue.
posted by delmoi at 1:00 PM on March 31, 2009


The kid's pretty cool, but I want a breeding pair of Bully Whippets.
posted by RussHy at 1:04 PM on March 31, 2009


In cows, previously.
posted by Science! at 1:07 PM on March 31, 2009


Superb post title, by the way.
posted by Mister_A at 1:09 PM on March 31, 2009


I wonder how this condition will affect him in later years. He's THREE YEARS OLD, and already his parents are talking about college football?

also, if he does decide that athletics are for him, he probably can put in half as much effort as the other kids and still be the best athlete on the field; without a solid work ethic he might well not be competitive the higher levels of sport. on the other hand, if he works his ass off, he'll be damn near untouchable, which is what I'd encourage if I was his parent.

although, since he can probably already beat me up, I probably shouldn't be shaping a budding athlete.
posted by ScotchRox at 1:15 PM on March 31, 2009


delmoi: "I wonder if that DNA is something that's different between humans and chimps, since they are so much stronger. But it sounds like he just grows more muscle, whereas I think chimps just have stronger muscles.

Chimps express a functional version of the protein Myosin coded by gene MYH16. Our shitty version of that gene has a mutation that makes the protein non-functional. Turns out that maybe that mutation allowed for our skulls to get bigger and maybe allowed us to become smarter.

Man, fuck those chimps. We have Nintendo and fighter planes. What do they have? Bananas and throwing their shit at each other? Have fun trying to throw your shit on me while I fly over you in my jet fighter, on my way home to play Nintendo you stupid chimp.
posted by Science! at 1:16 PM on March 31, 2009 [41 favorites]


Oh, you wait until the government bans mutants and they begin to hunt him down. he won't see so cool then will he?

Also, I can become invisible but only when no one is looking at me.
posted by GuyZero at 1:17 PM on March 31, 2009 [1 favorite]


Man, fuck those chimps. What do they have?

Chimps sometimes catch smaller primates and eat them alive; makes Chuck Norris look pretty weak.
posted by GuyZero at 1:18 PM on March 31, 2009


I just loved the way his story read like a superhero's. He's adopted. His real father is of unknown origins, but it he was known to be super strong. He has some unquantifiable amount of "enhanced" strength and agility. He can metabolize any amount of food instantly, and convert it to muscle.

If I didn't know better, I'd say he was Kal-El...or at least Luke Cage.
posted by aftermarketradio at 1:19 PM on March 31, 2009 [8 favorites]


I hear you about the chimps. Also: dolphins can suck it!
posted by adipocere at 1:22 PM on March 31, 2009 [2 favorites]


Sigh. Just tell me when I can buy this in pill form.
posted by Salvor Hardin at 1:28 PM on March 31, 2009


World's strongest kid meets world's most out of shape gymnastics coach.
posted by TimTypeZed at 1:31 PM on March 31, 2009 [4 favorites]


That would be so cool to be able to enable and disable this gene at will. Turn it on, for a workout - turn it off. Build to some reasonable non freak like amount and then turn it on only to maintain. It's like steroids without the shrunken testicles.
posted by Memory-Foam-Matt at 1:38 PM on March 31, 2009


In Liam's case, the myostatin his body produces is rejected by muscle cells. He and others with his condition can have up to 50 per cent more muscle mass than the average person, experts said.[From the first link.]

This kid produces normal myostatin, but lacks a functional receptor on his muscles.
posted by jamjam at 1:39 PM on March 31, 2009


I guess it's equivalent to androgen insensitivity disorder in the sense that the hormone is produced but the body doesn't do the right thing in response. I forsee this kid having his own very special episode of "House" next season.
posted by GuyZero at 1:44 PM on March 31, 2009


equivalent is probably the wrong word. Analogous is probably more apt.
posted by GuyZero at 1:45 PM on March 31, 2009


As interesting as this is and all that. when are we going to be able to tailor our mutations? I want the ability to lock my muscle fibers the way starfish do. that way I could sit on a barstool FOREVER and never have to hold myself up!
posted by Severian at 1:45 PM on March 31, 2009 [2 favorites]


I saw this earlier on FARK and thought it was a joke - then did some followup. That's some weird stuff, man. I wonder how that affects his bones and tendons? I mean, its all fine and good to be Baby Hulk, but if your bones or connective tissue can't handle the extra mass, what, you flex and rip your tendons off? I guess there's a few more cases of this, but I couldnt find a case where there was an adult for comparison. Is this a new mutation? Anyone with greater Google-Fu than me find more?
posted by elendil71 at 1:47 PM on March 31, 2009 [1 favorite]


I was born with this disorder but, with a strict regimen of inactivity, slothfulness, and slacking, I have been able to live an almost completely normal life.
posted by otolith at 1:55 PM on March 31, 2009 [7 favorites]


Just tell me when I can buy this in pill form.

Initial development work was being done on an anti-myostatin antibody that would block the effector function of myostatin. You'd have to inject it, though.

I think the general conclusion was that the number of people with a legitimate need for such a drug was pretty small and the number of people who would abuse the hell out of such a drug was huge.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 2:44 PM on March 31, 2009


Between this and the story of the woman who was injected with an experimental, untested vaccine, it seems like we're entering the dawn of the superhero age.
posted by deanc at 2:47 PM on March 31, 2009


Myostatin inhibitors have been under active development for a while. The thinking is that it would be great for old people who tend to waste muscle.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 2:58 PM on March 31, 2009


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

exceedingly eponysterical
posted by GuyZero at 3:13 PM on March 31, 2009


I think the general conclusion was that the number of people with a legitimate need for such a drug was pretty small and the number of people who would abuse the hell out of such a drug was huge.

And this caused development to stop? I'm disappointed in you pharmaceutical industry, that used to be your business model.
posted by formless at 3:20 PM on March 31, 2009


It's not clear to me this is a good thing for this kid; here's a paragraph from an NYT article about the German baby whose myostatin is defective:

Dr. Schuelke cited one concern: Muscle cells are surrounded by immature satellite cells that lie dormant until the muscle is injured. Then they migrate into the muscle, replacing injured or dead cells. A recent paper indicated that myostatin might normally function to keep satellite cells quiescent. Without myostatin, he said, the satellite cells might be so active building muscle that they become depleted early in life.

Liam and the German boy might still have all the sources of muscle cell loss that everyone else does (inactivity, overexercise, voluntary or involuntary calorie restriction, etc.), but they lack the mechanism which prevents these muscle cells from being replaced in many circumstances. So they replace them automatically and may run out of muscle cells at an early age, leading to a potentially tragically premature and rapid decline.

In order for anyone to make safe use of myostatin blockers, it seems to me we will have to figure out how to block some of the normal pathways leading to the death of muscle cells as well.
posted by jamjam at 3:21 PM on March 31, 2009


Where's the kid with the glass bones?
posted by Smedleyman at 3:23 PM on March 31, 2009 [1 favorite]


Whippet good.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:44 PM on March 31, 2009


Oops, Joe Beese beat me to it.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:45 PM on March 31, 2009


So, how many of these kids would you have to eat to gain their powers?
posted by klangklangston at 3:49 PM on March 31, 2009 [1 favorite]


So enabling this attribute in people without the myostatin mutation would probably be achieved through some form of RNA interference, is that right? It seems pretty doable.
posted by Auden at 4:08 PM on March 31, 2009 [1 favorite]


For Liam's parents, the most pressing challenge is feeding the boy enough protein every day to fuel his body's high-performance motor. The wiry but muscular toddler eats six full meals per day and still struggles to gain weight.

The kid's much more likely to be eating you, klang.
posted by jamjam at 4:23 PM on March 31, 2009


Have fun trying to throw your shit on me while I fly over you in my jet fighter, on my way home to play Nintendo you stupid chimp.

by Science! at 4:16 PM on March 31


Science, once again for the win.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:45 PM on March 31, 2009


I'm glad that article says there's "no known negative side effects" but I'm kinda skeptical. He has "zero body fat" at age 2? Little tiny kids have fat for a reason and it isn't because they are lazy and eat too much.
posted by DU at 5:26 PM on March 31, 2009


what, you flex and rip your tendons off

Interestingly, tendons actually have a built-in mechanism that "turns off" your muscles when you reach a certain threshold of stress on the tendon. For most people, the tendon shut-off valve kicks in somewhere in the 50-80% range of their full muscular capacity, but through training you can kick this number up to 90% (awesome!) or higher (probably a bad idea). Training techniques exist to target this mechanism so you can get a ~30% increase in apparent strength while not actually making your muscles any stronger.

[Cite: Training for Climbing from memory, so the numbers might be off a bit]
posted by 0xFCAF at 5:47 PM on March 31, 2009


    Oops, Joe Beese beat me to it.
Yeah, but yours is more nightmare fuel-y.
posted by Decimask at 6:04 PM on March 31, 2009


Anyone check for a barcode on the back of his neck?
posted by lysdexic at 7:45 PM on March 31, 2009


> Training techniques exist to target this mechanism so you can get a ~30%
> increase in apparent strength while not actually making your muscles any stronger.
> [Cite: Training for Climbing from memory, so the numbers might be off a bit]

Given the preponderance of tendon and ligament related injuries in sport climbing, I don't know that this sort of training is exactly a good idea. There are a lot of ex-climbers out there who are capable of training to very high levels of specific strength, but are not capable of doing it and not injuring themselves.

In fact, given the incidence of soft-tissue injuries in people who are simply at the upper end of the normal strength range, I don't hold out much hope for this kid. I'd be betting that once puberty hits and he can build some real muscle strength, he'll be having the first of many reconstructive surgeries.

Still, if it came in a pill form, I'd be shoveling them in my face hole, consequences be damned.
posted by tim_in_oz at 9:15 PM on March 31, 2009



Man, fuck those chimps. We have Nintendo and fighter planes. What do they have? Bananas and throwing their shit at each other? Have fun trying to throw your shit on me while I fly over you in my jet fighter, on my way home to play Nintendo you stupid chimp.
posted by Science! at 1:16 PM on March 31


seconded. Also, eponysterical.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 9:42 PM on March 31, 2009


Two days after he was born, Liam could stand up and support his weight if someone held his hands to provide balance

Holy crap!

And yes, there are adults with this (or similar?) condition: from the first article: When they found 100 adults to participate [in a study of people with the condition], Liam was no longer needed. So I guess they are pretty confident that he'll be able to grow up safely.
posted by jacalata at 10:32 PM on March 31, 2009


Interestingly, tendons actually have a built-in mechanism that "turns off" your muscles when you reach a certain threshold of stress on the tendon.

Yeah, it's the Golgi Tendon Organ. The training your talking about is Plyometric Training (wiki). Please do not do plyometrics unless you have a) sufficient training under your belt, and b) you know how to do them correctly. I went through a bunch of youtube videos of *ahem* "demos" and I couldn't find a good one.
Here we go, this is an Olympian, Linford Christie doing some plyos

I'd be betting that once puberty hits and he can build some real muscle strength, he'll be having the first of many reconstructive surgeries.

I'll take that bet. He'll be fine as long as his parents don't push any of those grandiose ideas into his head to soon. Well...now that I think about, judging by those videos they already have. So, yeah, he'll hurt himself from overzealous parents pushing him into training rather than UNNATURAL GENETICS ZOMG!
posted by P.o.B. at 11:07 PM on March 31, 2009


There's a soccer coach in Scituate, MA that wants him...
posted by sfts2 at 12:18 AM on April 1, 2009


I did quite a lot of reading about myostatin a couple years ago. I came across few negative side effects in adults. The chief one seems to be a sort of continual muscle soreness as various muscles reenter the rebuilding phase or whatever. Also of interest, is that failure to produce myostatin , or the lack of adequate myostatin receptors (both conditions produce essentially the same results) only affect skeletal muscle. This is good, since if it affected other muscles, such as the heart, it could be a real problem.
posted by digibri at 8:21 AM on April 1, 2009


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