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It really is a brave new world. Not long ago, a group of prominent scientists announced plans for a project to create synthetic human DNA from scratch.
That seems appropriate for Valentine’s Day. If you don’t like your lover, one day you might just be able to design a new one.
The project will be led by synthetic biologists Jef Boeke, of the Langone Medical Center at New York University, and George Church, of Harvard Medical School. And it will take up where the previous project to read the human genome ended.
In 2003, the Human Genome Project (HGP) was completed. It was supposed to open the door to countless new treatments and cures for illnesses that had plagued humans for centuries. It didn’t quite work out that way. It seems understanding the relationship between genes and illness is more complex than scientists originally thought.
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The Human Genome Project-write (HGP-write), as the name implies, will attempt to synthetically write human DNA code. The idea is that writing and understanding genetic code made from scratch will help scientists learn more about those complex gene relationships.
And while creating the building blocks for human life in a lab may seem like science fiction, there is some precedent.
In 2010, scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute created bacteria controlled by a synthetic genome, effectively turning code back into life. HGP-write will be like that experiment, only on a much bigger scale.
Writing DNA is tedious and expensive work. It involves precisely manipulating tiny amounts of chemicals and a DNA molecule.
These chemicals are sugary building blocks designated A, T, C and G and they must be added in the correct amounts and the proper order hundreds of times to change the structure of DNA.
Boeke and Church believe completing HGP-write will shrink development costs for DNA fabrication by a factor of one thousand. If true, that could actually lead to all of the revolutionary treatments promised by the original Human Genome Project. Yet, pesky ethical questions remain.
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| Writing synthetic DNA is tedious and expensive work. |
These are heightened by Church’s own colorful and controversial history. In his 2012 book, Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves, he wrote about a world where humans with genomes made in the lab become immune to all viruses. According to Church this could be done simply by removing the host material from our genes that viruses need to replicate. And that’s just a start. He’s been vocal about his efforts to resurrect the wooly mammoth now that perfectly preserved DNA material from the prehistoric beast has been recovered. Church is also using CRISPR, a gene editing tool he helped develop, to alter pig genes so that their organs can be transplanted into humans. As for humans, he’s not shy about his cradle-to-grave outlook.
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He’s aggressively in favor of gene editing to avoid potential birth defects and he’s working with gene therapies to reverse the aging process. It doesn’t help that when he’s pressed about ethics, he demurs to comparisons to the industrial revolution. This type of talk often lands scientists in hot water. And Church has been cooked so many times that he should have developed a rubbery exterior by now. He’ll need it.
It should take $100 million and ten years to create the human genome from scratch. If the project is successful, scientists say they’ll restrict potential use cases to the petri dish to avoid ethical considerations. That’s not exactly Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein but it is one giant step closer to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.
As is often the case in biotech, the most reliable investment for investors in this space will be the proverbial picks and shovels: The makers of lab equipment and disposables, like Becton Dickinson and Co. (BDX), Teleflex Inc. (TFX) and Cantel Medical Corp. (CMD).
Of course, the members of my services – Tech Trend Trader – receive both more numerous stock recommendations and more detailed analyses of the companies behind them.
Best wishes,
Jon Markman
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Don’t go there! Don’t try to mimic God, it won’t turn out well. This is where pre-WWII Germany was going.
There are already private companies making synthetic DNA at a reasonably low cost. Twist, Inc. is the leader in this space. In addition to the biological implications of synthetic DNA, Microsoft is looking to use DNA as a long term storage solution for data, other companies are looking at synthetic DNA to manufacture products and chemicals useful in manufacturing. Gingko Bioworks is the current leader in this space and they recently announced the purchase of a synthetic DNA manufacturer.. Once DNA code is understood, there are no limits to the positive products people will be able to manufacture with DNA. At the same time, there are no limits as to what harmful things will also be able to be manufactured using DNA.
I’m a doctor. I don’t think the doctors doing this research are mentally bound to ethics in any way, nor do they FEEL morally bound to “draw the line.” They literally and narcisistically want to “play God.” I did much research at Stanford University (medical school and hospital) and know “these people” first hand, and I can tell you it’s all about ego, and money!! (government and other grants) than it is about ethics. I don’t remember once talking about ethics around that place (although, to be fair, I was not doing genetic research).
This is fundamentally WRONG and about as “wrong” as it gets, with the possible exception of “abortion” (a code word for murder). If you believe we are made in God’s image I can’t understand (maybe somebody can explain it to me like I’m a 2 year old!) how this is anything other than “playing God.” It’s obvious! A 2 year old probably COULD tell you that. I don’t think the use of genetic engineering in the treatment of disease is wrong (in fact, quite the opposite), but to CREATE a viable human being is most definitely wrong, and messing around with the embryo is somewhat questionable. Frankly, I don’t think God will permit it (perhaps throw some unsolvable aspect into the research methodology, or He did in the DNA itself, because He knew ahead of “time” (He’s outside of time, so everything that happened, is happening, and WILL happen is known to Him in the “present” (although that temporal descriptor does not appy to Him).
as in the days of Noah………. so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
You really ought to study the history of the antediluvian times as it’s all been done before.
This kind of thing is so dangerous that it should not be allowed under any circumstance for any reason.
What is written about here is part of “Post-Humanism.” It is somewhat akin to pantheism but in its technological garb. Humanity become one with everything else, because we can take our understanding of DNA and change individuals into anything desired. There will probably be a great deal to be made, until the whole edifice crashes down.
Something tells me Weiss doesn’t know what to write about the economy today, or for that matter that last few days. Dow going up? Although that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a positive. How long before the Far Left Media starts saying “Well a rising stock market doesn’t mean it’s positive.” Although when it went up for Obama they said that was good even though it couldn’t have been any worse in this country. Oh well.
good advice i appreciate it a lot i need it because i’m going to start investing in the stock market soon. But for now i’m just refreshing all about the stock market,
Fascinating article. Thank you. The one certain thing is that there will always be those that are for, those that are against and those that don’t care about this type of research. it’s in our nature to improve our lives and that is what science and technology is about. The next step for investors is to determine what the useful application of this research is and if there is a potential for profits now or in the near future.
We are the little green men. ..