Now, there is a question that must be asked when it comes to atheletes and CRISPR. As we have seen over the years with doping/ atheletic enhancing drugs, etc. how will we know for sure that an athelete from China, Russia, or even US was not enhanced as an embryo with CRISPR to be a superior athelete? Sure we can claim to set up a world wide database; however, in lile all things done before not everyone plays by the rules.
The future of sport, and how technology and genetics may change it, and the lesson for business.
This summer, more than a million tons of chardonnay grapes are plumping on manicured vineyards around the world. The grapes make one of the most popular white wines, but their juicy fruit and luscious leaves are also targets for diseases such as downy mildew, a stubborn fungus-like parasite.
The main goal of a tumour cell is, above all, to survive, even at the cost of damaging the health of the organism to which it belongs.
To do this, it is equipped with skills that healthy cells do not have, including the ability to continue surviving when glucose levels are very low.
This could be one of the reasons why widely-used anti-angiogenic agents often fail to eliminate cancer, no matter how much they starve it by hindering the development of the blood vessels that provide nutrients in general and glucose in particular.
Nice — another step forward for all things connected.
Scientists can now talk to and even command living cells–to a limited degree at the moment, but with massive implications for the future. MIT biological engineers have created a computer code that allows them to basically hijack living cells and control them. It works similarly to a translation service, using a programming language to create a function for a cell in the form of a DNA sequence. Once it’s scalable, the invention has major ramifications. Future applications could include designing cells that produce a cancer drug when a tumor is detected or creating yeast cells that halt their own fermentation if too many toxic byproducts build up.
That’s not to imply it isn’t a big deal already. The code allows anyone, even someone without a biology background, to modify a pre-existing cell. All that’s required is knowledge of the programming language, which is based on one commonly used for computer chips called Verilog. “You could be completely naive as to how any of it works,” MIT biological engineering professor Christopher Voigt said in a press release. “That’s what’s really different about this. You could be a student in high school and go onto the Web-based server and type out the program you want, and it spits back the DNA sequence.” To learn more, read the full story here. For more on the confluence of biology and technology, watch this TED Talk below.
Indeed, if we set ethical and safety objections aside, genetic enhancement has the potential to bring about significant national advantages. Even marginal increases in intelligence via gene editing could have significant effects on a nation’s economic growth. Certain genes could give some athletes an edge in intense international competitions. Other genes may have an effect on violent tendencies, suggesting genetic engineering could reduce crime rates.
We may soon be able to edit people’s DNA to cure diseases like cancer, but will this lead to designer babies? If so, bioethicist G Owen Schaefer argues that China will lead the way.
“An ultimate goal of stem cell research is to turn on the regenerative potential of one’s own stem cells for tissue and organ repair and disease therapy,” said Dr. Kang Zhang of the UC San Diego School of Medicine.
You’ll soon be able to see the future with eyes grown in petri dishes. Scientists in Japan’s Osaka University have found a new way to turn stem cells into a human eyeball in what is (needless to say) a remarkable breakthrough for the medical community. According to lead biologist Kohji Nishida, a small sample of adult skin is all that would be required in order to grow retinas, corneas, lenses, and other key components of the eye.
To help visualize the process, the video above demonstrates the growth of human iPS cells over several weeks, as they spontaneously form four concentric zones. Each of these zones exhibits the characteristics of a different part of the eye, including the cornea, the lens, and the retina.
During the trial phase of their experiment, the Japanese team managed to culture and grow sheaths of rabbit corneas that actually enabled blind animals to see again. In tests, lab-grown corneas were given to rabbits born without this crucial part of the eye, resulting in restored vision. And while humans have yet to experience the potential benefits of this breakthrough, our species is next.
As reported today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology*, the IBM team’s results show size-based separation of bioparticles down to 20 nanometers (nm) in diameter, a scale that gives access to important particles such as DNA, viruses and exosomes. Once separated, these particles can be analyzed by physicians to potentially reveal signs of disease even before patients experience any physical symptoms and when the outcome from treatment is most positive. Until now, the smallest bioparticle that could be separated by size with on-chip technologies was about 50 times or larger, for example, separation of circulating tumor cells from other biological components.
IBM is collaborating with a team from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to continue development of this lab-on-a-chip technology and plans to test it on prostate cancer, the most common cancer in men in the U.S.
