Vitals, by Greg Bear

I liked the first 3/4 of Greg Bear's Vitals much better than the last part. I must've gotten lost in there somewhere, because it got to where I couldn't figure out what was going on. From the back cover:

Fueled by a wealth of research and the money of influential patrons, Hal Cousins combs the ocean depths for organisms that might lead him to the most sought-after discovery in human history: the key to short-circuiting the aging process. But he barely reaches the surface with his valuable samples when his world explodes in violence. Suddenly on the run for his life, Hal is trapped inside an ever-twisting maze of shocking revelations, including news that his identical twin brother, a fellow scientist working on the same research, has been brutally murdered....

There's a wealth of pop culture references in the book, including one to Star Trek's original episode "Mudd's Women" and one to "Elvis has left the building" and one involving the old "Kung Fu" TV series. That was fun.

This is not, by far, my favorite book by Bear, but it was interesting and readable.

Oh, and it also features mitochondria. I've been fascinated by mitochonria since I first read A Wrinkle in Time.