A team of researchers from MIT have developed a new technique on the genome-editing system known as CRISPR, which offers precise manipulation of when and where gene editing occurs.
Category: bioengineering – Page 222
Safer Gene Editing Without Cleaving DNA
It’s an add-on for CRISPR.
Researchers have created a new genome editing technique called Target-AID, which induces point mutations instead of cutting DNA
Gene editing technology has fantastic potential, but there are remaining issues and questions over safety and specificity. The major contender is currently CRISPR-Cas9, but this induces a double stranded break in DNA which is a slightly riskier approach — particularly if it cuts in other locations too that you don’t want it to. Research teams across the world are both optimising and customising the CRISPR system; creating more accurate versions or versions that regulate gene expression as opposed to editing it. One such team has now built an add-on to CRISPR, Target-AID.
Synthetic Biology Explained
From selective breeding to genetic modification, our understanding of biology is now merging with the principles of engineering to bring us synthetic biology.
Written, animated and directed by James Hutson, Bridge8.
Transcript can be found here:
http://technyou.edu.au/fun-stuff/videos/video-transcripts/
The Cyborgs Are Coming: Mankind Is On The Cusp Of Human Brain Augmentation With BrainGate Technology
BrainGate technology is no longer the stuff of science fiction. The science of interfacing human brains and other biological neurons with computers has been developing for well over a decade and now, the progress is amazing. While the human mind is an amazing organ, that surpasses any computer ever made. Many fantasize about improving on natural skills and abilities using technology in the form of some sort of brain implant. That dream is about to become a reality. In some ways, it already has according to the BrainGate website.
“BrainGate Company’s current and planned intellectual property (the technology) is based on technology that can sense, transmit, analyze and apply the language of neurons. BrainGate consists of a sensor that is implanted on the motor cortex of the brain and a device that analyzes brain signals.”
Cyborg and biohacking research history started in 1998 with Dr. Kevin Warwick and what he called Project Cyborg according to Digital Trends. Warwick began by implanting a simple radio-frequency identification chip or RFID in his own shoulder. He planned to use this chip to adjust lighting in his office and opening doors locked to others. The experiment was successful, and so Warwick went a bit further, experimenting on himself yet again. In 2002, Warwick had a surgeon implant a BrainGate technology device.
Liquid Metals to “Soft-Wire” Elastic Electronics
“Liquid Metals to “Soft-Wire” Elastic Electronics”
A few years ago, some friends shared with me an amazing experiment of theirs involving liquid/ fluid base circuitry. Definitely is amazing; and is going to be amazing in where we are taking this type of technology along with synthetic biology.
The shape-shifting metals behind the T-1000 android assassin in the sci-fi movie Terminator 2 may not remain science fiction for long with the development of self-propelling liquid metals that could lead to the replacement of solid state circuits by elastic electronics.
Modern electronics are mainly based on circuits that use solid state components with fixed metallic tracks. However, researchers are trying to create soft circuits that act more like live cells, moving around autonomously and communicating with each other to form new circuits rather than being stuck in a predefined configuration.
Liquid metal droplets have offered the most promising path for achieving this as they are malleable, contain a highly-conductive core and an atom-thin semiconducting oxide skin, all of which are needed to make electronic circuits.
If You Edit Genes Using CRISPR, Can You Undo the Effects?
#CRISPR can be used to alter the genes of not only one organism, but an entire species, through a method of inheritance known as a gene drive. But what happens if something goes awry?
World’s Scientists: “Human Consciousness Will Remain a Mystery”
More insights on human conscientious in relation to its state after we die.
Personally, (this is only my own opinion) I believe much of the human conscientious will remain a mystery even in the living as it relates to the re-creation of the human brain and its thinking and decision making patterns on current technology. Namely because any doctor will tell you that a person’s own decisions (namely emotional decision making/ thinking) can be impacted by a whole multitude of factors beyond logical information such as the brain’s chemical balance, physical illness or even injury, etc. which inherently feeds into conscientious state. In order to try to replicate this model means predominantly development of a machine that is predominantly built with synthetic biology; and even then we will need to evolve this model to finally understand human conscientious more than we do today.
Sir Roger Penrose, a mathematical physicist at Oxford University, has asked “what right do we have to claim, as some might, that human beings are the only inhabitants of our planet blessed with an actual ability to be “aware”? It is hard to see how one could begin to develop a quantum-theoretical description of brain action when one might well have to regard the brain as “observing itself” all the time! Beneath all this technicality is the feeling that it is indeed “obvious” that the conscious mind cannot work like a computer, even though much of what is involved in mental activity might do so.
Researchers succeed in developing a genome editing technique that does not cleave DNA
Major advancement in Gene Editing.
A team involving Kobe University researchers has succeeded in developing ‘Target-AID’, a genome editing technique that does not cleave the DNA. The technique offers, through high-level editing operation, a method to address the existing issues of genome editing. It is expected that the technique will be applied to gene therapy in the future in addition to providing a powerful tool for breeding useful organisms and conducting disease and drug-discovery research. The findings were published online in Science on August 5.
The team consists of Project Associate Professor NISHIDA Keiji and Professor KONDO Akihiko (Graduate School of Science, Technology and Innovation, Kobe University) as well as Associate Professor YACHIE Nozomu (Synthetic Biology Division, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo) and Professor HARA Kiyotaka (Department of Environmental Sciences, Graduate School of Nutritional and Environmental Sciences, University of Shizuoka).
Genome editing — which can directly manipulate the genome information of various organisms without leaving an artificial strand — has seen rapid progress in recent years and it is gradually becoming a revolutionary tool in fields ranging from life sciences to advanced medical research.
Beyond silicon: We discover the processors of your future tech
New updated article on the evolution of the processors of tomorrow.
Personally, I find this article runs short in only focusing on carbon, organics aka plastics, and QC as future replacement. With the ongoing emergence of synthetic biology and what this could mean for processors; I would suggest the author explore further the future of synthetic bio.
From stacked CPUs to organic and quantum processing.
The Man Biohacking Encryption From His Garage
A pioneer in the biohacking scene since the mid-2000s, Amal Graafstra’s been experimenting with RFID implants for more than a decade. Now Graafstra is developing implants that go beyond RFIDs.
In episode 2 of Humans+, Motherboard travels to his company Dangerous Things’ garage headquarters to get an early look at UKI, a prototype implant focused on encryption that’s expected to be released in 2017. Amal hopes that this technology will bring us one step closer to merging our physical and digital identities, but how will society react to having these technologies implanted beneath our skin?
WATCH NEXT:
This Mind-Controlled Bionic Arm Can Touch and Feel: http://bit.ly/2bShxqj
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