Will We All Be Tweaking Our Own Genetic Code?

Will We All Be Tweaking Our Own Genetic Code?

www.bbc.co.uk

About 30 years ago, Prof Church was one of a handful of people who dreamed up the idea of sequencing the entire human genome - every letter in the code that separates us from fruit flies as well as our parents. His lab was the first to come up with a machine to break that code, and he's been working to improve it ever since.


He envisions a day when a device implanted in your body will be able to identify the first mutations of a potential tumour, or the genes of an invading bacteria. You'll be

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is a very interesting article as professor Church is aiming at an implant device to detect the first mutations of a tumor or invading virus and even make it possible to pop a cancer pill aimed at the renegade cells! He has been working on this now for 3 decades and believes he is only getting started. This coupled with the dramatic reductions in price to appeal to the average consumer is a bit concerning.

I personally don't want to a) be implanted with anything nor b) live to be 150 years old as I predict that quality of life would not be all that appealing at say..136 years old!

In his other work he is also looking at high-efficiency, non-polluting fuels!

This guy is one hard worker! I wonder if he'll be 'acquired' by any shadowy organisations or if he's a righteous scientist? It does say he advises for some of" the the 30-or-so advanced genomics companies in the United States".





www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Hopefully this guy will continue with his work without us finding him the next day dead due to him "commiting suicide"

reply to post by Pirateofpsychonautics

Eventually they'll come up with a small programmable AIDS-like virus that you can implant a genetic payload into that will do a timed change of all of your cells while temporarily deprogramming the p238 protein marker so you don't end up having your auto-immune system attack all of your altered cells during the changeover. With the right "accessories" for your laptop, like a genome "printer" you could probably make your own designer injectable serums at home ;-)

It's all in the payload deliver at the cellular level though and the AIDS virus if made benign, smaller and usable would easily migrate to all parts of the body, including across the blood-brain barrier. Timing however is critical, also the speed at which the virus replicates and its in-situ life span.

Cheers - Dave

Man I really hope editing my own genes is something that I can do before I die. I would like to live forever, in all honesty. So much to be learned... Heck, maybe one could edit their genes to make their brain better and more efficient. That, coupled with living forever = knowing SO FREAKING MUCH.. Oh man.... Drool...

Cheers

Originally posted by Qemyst
Man I really hope editing my own genes is something that I can do before I die. I would like to live forever, in all honesty. So much to be learned... Heck, maybe one could edit their genes to make their brain better and more efficient. That, coupled with living forever = knowing SO FREAKING MUCH.. Oh man.... Drool...

Cheers

And including resistance to all germs and viruses

I, for one, find genetic engineering to be a very exciting topic. The possibilities extend well beyond the realm of known genetics.

Even at that - the capabilities of other cellular structures, should they be applied to our own bodies in a successful manner, have vast potential. Perhaps the most drastic and most telling is the elimination of age-induced death. Long ago, for some reason or another, multi-celled organisms ditched telomerasse for the main cell line and limited it to meiotic processes only. Genetic engineering has the potential to re-enable this process in the main cell lines as well as resolve any issues that may sit behind their evolutionary reasons for being discarded.

In theory, that would eliminate aging almost entirely (although it is unclear how telomeres are linked to physical maturity - which may be a bit of an issue to work around).

From a more basic standpoint, a number of enzymes can be added to saliva and other bodily fluids to improve immunity, dietary flexibility/performance, as well as the potential for 'gimicky' additions (spit into oil and it begins to be broken down into hydrocarbons).

Honestly, I look forward to it. Sure - as with anything, there will be those who abuse its potential and use it for nefarious purposes, but that's been going on since people were using stones and sticks as tools - and human kind can be said to be better for the hammer (in spite of the club).