It's not like designing DNA is simple, where you just decide you want a protein that does some task or a new body part and you can determine what DNA will generate that.
It's not like designing DNA is simple, where you just decide you want a protein that does some task
Actually it kinda is that simple. I've spliced the beta galactosidase gene into literally countless bacteria, along with genetic code for anything from a novel phenylalanine hydroxylase mutant protein to canine heartworm IgG. It's the same way medical-grade insulin and HGH are made too. Certain cells have well-characterized genomes that can be cut in specific places (enzyme digestion) and have custom-tailored DNA fragments inserted through heat shock or a number of other techniques.
Now yea a new body part or creating an entirely-new metabolic pathway or even just creating one new protein in a multicellular biological system and not upsetting the rest of the balance is, well, nigh impossible. But we manipulate DNA to produce proteins for us all the time and have been since... like the 60s I think? It's been in regular practice since at least the 70s.
Thanks for your post, that was a good read.
I have learned over the years that whenever I hear an opinion on a specific enough of an issue that has a high degree of certainty as part of the narrative that it is almost always wrong because:
1) The universe is messy and imprecise.
2) The universe seems to trend toward higher entropy and creating order (and therefore higher levels of precision) requires energy applied in very specific ways.
Keeping that in mind makes all sorts of interesting accidents are incredibly likely regardless of how sure we are of our selves. I appreciate you posting about rna writing into dna a possibility, everyone seems so unbelievably sure this cannot happen.
The other day Linus Torvalds posted a beautiful example of why leadership is difficult - he posted a set of propositions about mrna gene therapies and assumptions around them with such clarity and certainty that it is absolutely clear to anyone with even minor experience that he must be wrong. To anyone with even a slightly favourable view toward mrna based gene therapies he came across as gods word on the subject. It was really interesting to watch everyones response.
I really like posts like yours because you speak about the probabilities of risk / reward and what can possibly happen in a way that matches observed reality. I enjoyed watching Brett and Pierre talking about this subject matter with a similarly balanced approach:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q01LUg97eto
Thanks for your thoughts, please keep on posting.
What you describe involves having libraries of DNA from another genome, characterized, and the tools to cut it, no? I assume an organism wouldn't have this available. Or do you actually mean just composing new sequences from scratch to do some desired thing?
What you describe involves having libraries of DNA from another genome, characterized, and the tools to cut it, no? I assume an organism wouldn't have this available
Yes and no. In a laboratory, you harvest a DNA plasmid, use a to create the ends of the DNA you seek to hybridize, then use polymerase to insert your gene, then insert that plasmid into the host cell. But those enzymes exist in nature... but yes some wild cell out in nature isn't going to just encounter, idk, a plastic straw and think, "Oh, I need a protein that can cut PVC, I'll just build a DNA sequence that codes for a protein that can do that!" But certainly genes are accidentally spliced in nature.
Or do you actually mean just composing new sequences from scratch to do some desired thing?
Usually the sequence to code the protein is actually built from scratch. DNA/RNA synthesizers can be had for ~$10k or so, and I think there are synthesizers out there than can produce entire genomes (been out of that game for over a decade, but I would suspect they exist).
In my student research days ~20 years ago it was just: translate the AA sequence to an RNA sequence, translate that to DNA (avoiding thymine dimers and other rules), then drop that off at the "synthesis shop" and come back in a day or however long it took them to get to you (sometimes same day). Like dropping off fabrication specs at a machine shop... kinda nuts looking back on it.
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