Some think the only way for humans to survive in space is to genetically modify them.
Category: genetics – Page 529
We Must Prepare for CRISPR Bioterror Threats
- An advisory council has urged the U.S. to establish a new body that creates plans for national biodefense and to set aside a $2 billion standby fund to address emerging bioterror threats.
- As gene editing technology advances, the potential for its use as a weapon increases, and preparing for such threats before they happen is of the utmost importance.
Though the technology promises seemingly innumerable ways to positively impact human life, gene editing is truly a double-edged sword, with nearly as many potentially negative consequences as benefits. Now, an advisory council to President Obama is urging the government to start creating countermeasures for the negative use of emerging biotechnologies.
This month, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) wrote a letter to President Obama recommending measures to address this potential for harm using new technologies. It advocates funding new research into antibiotic and antiviral drugs to combat resistance and having a $250 million fund for the stockpiling of vaccines.
A new CRISPR breakthrough could lead to simpler, cheaper disease diagnosis
The controversial laboratory tool known as CRISPR may have found a whole new world to conquer. Already the favored method of editing genes, CRISPR could soon become a low-cost diagnostic tool that could be used practically anywhere to determine if someone has an infectious disease such as Zika or dengue.
The controversial gene-editing tool may be able to identify infections reliably for pennies in places without electricity.
Gene editing opens doors to seedless fruit with no need for bees
Gene-edited seedless tomatoes don’t need pollinating to produce fruit – which could come in useful at a time when bees are on the decline.
Liz Parrish — Human of the Future
New one from Liz.
Full Video ► https://goo.gl/tHvTF5
BioViva ► http://bioviva-science.com
Liz Parrish is the Founder and CEO of BioViva Sciences USA Inc. BioViva is committed to extending healthy lifespans using gene therapy. Liz is known as “the woman who wants to genetically engineer you,” she is a humanitarian, entrepreneur and innovator and a leading voice for genetic cures. As a strong proponent of progress and education for the advancement of gene therapy, she serves as a motivational speaker to the public at large for the life sciences. She is actively involved in international educational media outreach and sits on the board of the International Longevity Alliance (ILA). She is the founder of BioTrove Investments LLC and the BioTrove Podcasts which is committed to offering a meaningful way for people to learn about and fund research in regenerative medicine. She is also the Secretary of the American Longevity Alliance (ALA) a 501©(3) nonprofit trade association that brings together individuals, companies, and organizations who work in advancing the emerging field of cellular & regenerative medicine with the aim to get governments to consider aging a disease.
Parrish received two kinds of injections, which were administered outside the United States: a myostatin inhibitor, which is expected to prevent age-associated muscle loss; and a telomerase gene therapy, which is expected to lengthen telomeres, segments of DNA at the ends of chromosomes whose shortening is associated with aging and degenerative disease.
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These Species Can Recode Their Own Genetics
Technically, an animal could use RNA editing to change the nature of its proteins without completely altering the underlying DNA instructions. This makes the cephalopods’ ability to do it a very interesting phenomenon, but it’s unclear as to why the species requires this much RNA editing. Many of the edited proteins were found in the animals’ brains, which is why scientists think the editing and their brainpower could be linked.
More than any other species on earth, octopuses are particularly smart—they can solve puzzles, use tools, and communicate using color. Now scientists are saying they’re also capable of editing their RNA.
A team of scientists led by Joshua Rosenthal at the Marine Biological Laboratory and Noa Liscovitch-Braur and Eli Eisenberg at Tel Aviv University have discovered that octopuses and squid are capable of a type of genetic alteration called RNA editing. The process is rare among other species, leading scientists to believe that the cephalopods have evolved to follow a special kind of gene recoding.
Normally, living creatures use the information contained in DNA to make proteins, and RNA is the go-between, simply transmitting the message in the DNA. More than 60 percent of RNA transcripts in squid are recoded by editing, and similar levels of RNA editing were identified in other cephalopod species, including two octopuses and a cuttlefish. This changes the message that gets sent out, which in turn changes the proteins that get produced. In comparison, other species like fruit flies and humans experience recoding events only a fraction of one percent of the time. But exactly how the gene editing mechanics work is a mystery.
Scientists Have Pinpointed the Annoying Genetic Mutation That Turns Us Into Night Owls
Carriers of the mutation are essentially playing catch-up for their entire lives.
Any night owls reading this will be familiar with the struggle of constantly trying to fit into a morning person’s world. And now researchers say they’ve finally identified the genetic typo that causes this social jetlag.
A new study has revealed that many people who stay up late and struggle to wake up in the morning aren’t lazy, their internal clock is simply genetically programmed to run between 2 and 2.5 hours slower than the rest of the population, thanks to a mutation in a body clock gene called CRY1.
“Carriers of the mutation have longer days than the planet gives them, so they are essentially playing catch-up for their entire lives,” says lead researcher Alina Patke from The Rockefeller University in New York.
Chinese biotech scientists plan to use big data in war on cancer
China has made the precision medicine field a focus of its 13th five-year plan, and its companies have been embarking on ambitious efforts to collect a vast trove of genetic and health data, researching how to identify cancer markers in blood, and launching consumer technologies that aim to tap potentially life-saving information. The push offers insight into China’s growing ambitions in science and biotechnology, areas where it has traditionally lagged developed nations like the United States.
Precision medicine a focus of latest five-year plan.
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 09 February, 2017, 1:42pm.
UPDATED : Thursday, 09 February, 2017, 1:42pm.
The future of the Earth through the eyes of futurists. Photo
Transhumanism stuff out in these stories: http://z-news.link/the-future-of-the-earth-through-the-eyes-of-futurists-photo/ & http://yemcentral.com/2017/03/29/would-robots-make-better-po…an-humans/ & https://player.fm/series/lions-of-liberty-podcast/287-zoltan…nd-liberty
Futurism, or more precisely, futurology, is the study of possible hypotheses, probable and preferred options for the future. To understand what futurists predict in the improvement of the human condition, consider the progress happening in the field of science, medicine and computing.
1. Cure Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease is type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking abilities and behavior. It is a progressive disease, which means that the disease gets worse over time. Only in the US estimated to suffer her 5.4 million people. Today for Alzheimer’s disease there is no cure, but one group of scientists believes that it will be able to figure out a way to deal with it.