Build your own species

Posted by: MattJ

Build your own species - 06/30/07 10:37 AM

From the Baltimore Sun -

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-te.venter29jun29,0,5049830.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines

"Scientists at a Rockville biotechnology institute say they have completely replaced the DNA of one bacterium with that of another, effectively changing its species. The experiment could open the door to production of artificial organisms whose original genetic material is replaced entirely by man-made DNA, the researchers said. That way, they believe, they can program bacteria to produce useful metabolic products, such as new biofuels.

Critics said the experiment raises concerns about the unknown risks of artificial organisms and the emerging science is too loosely regulated. The scientists were led by J. Craig Venter, a biotech maverick and entrepreneur who once competed with the publicly funded Human Genome Project to map the human genome, a race that ended in a tie in 2003.

In his team's experiment, Venter said, the bacterium that received new DNA began acting like the donor species, which confirmed the success of the transfer. "This is equivalent to changing a Macintosh computer to a PC by inserting a new piece of software," he said Wednesday in a telephone news conference.

The findings of the experiment, which took place at the J. Craig Venter Institute, were published online yesterday by the journal Science. Venter's group and others are trying to determine the minimum number of genes that bacteria need to survive. Then, separately, they want to construct simple, man-made DNA in the lab so scientists could add desirable genes to the bare-bones synthetic DNA and use that to replace the bacteria's DNA.

Such bacteria, the theory goes, would follow human marching orders and be useful in fields such as medicine and energy production. Genetically modified organisms are already used to manufacture drugs and other products, but they're produced by changing only small sections of DNA. In contrast, whole genome transplantation might allow scientists to make more significant genetic changes to bacterial DNA or design artificial organisms from scratch.

Venter said wholesale replacement of an organism's genome with synthetic DNA might avoid the need to disable undesirable genes that interfere with the cells' desired function. It would also allow scientists to build DNA from the ground up, he said, giving them more control over cellular function. Venter acknowledged that the research is still in its early stages but said the results were promising - particularly as the experiment involved swapping DNA isolated from all other cellular material. Scientists worry that such "naked" DNA might not flourish in a new cell because it would lack certain helper proteins.

"We want to be sure the DNA itself could boot up the new cell," Venter said. "The fact that we can do this with naked DNA and that it doesn't require accessory proteins is a huge enabling step for this field."

Venter and the company he founded, Synthetic Genomics, have applied for patents related to the creation of artificial organisms. His company signed a contract with London oil giant BP this month to research new clean energy technologies. Arthur Caplan, chairman of the department of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania, saw both promise and peril in Venter's work.

"The techniques Venter has perfected are going to result in some very important products," he said. "We're not there yet, this is a proof of concept." But he cautioned that attempts to create synthetic organisms raise some ethical concerns. "We don't really have in place an oversight system for this type of technology," he said. "We need to ensure that microbes aren't going to escape into the air or down the drain. We also need to be alert to the fact that this technology can make bad bugs rather than useful bugs."

Eckard Wimmer, a genetic researcher at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, said concerns about the possibility of creating artificial life might be premature, fueled by Venter's high profile rather than real risk. Wimmer said Venter's team has "superb scientists," but his "knack for blowing his horn loudly" could cause unwarranted alarm."
Posted by: Cord

Re: Build your own species - 06/30/07 03:06 PM

I work around people who can do this sort of stuff everyday, its impressive and weird and scary all at once. I remeber talking with this professor on night shift and he was explaining that we were within 70 years of being able to create a tiny, fully functional, expanding universe in a lab- from (little) big bang onwards. he then went into the quantum physics of it and the concept of scale and other stuff. I really only got a tiny hint of what he was on about and it made me feel a bit queasy trying to assimilate the enormity of being told, in casual conversation, that man would be a god within a century.
Mary Shelly was a visionary, not a writer of fiction.
Posted by: Dauragon c mikado

Re: Build your own species - 06/30/07 05:09 PM

So by the sounds of things they are effectively splicing DNA?
I wonder what this will hold for the human race?
Posted by: Mr_Heretik

Re: Build your own species - 06/30/07 08:43 PM

I just hope something epic like this, whether good or bad, happens during my lifetime.
Posted by: Leo_E_49

Re: Build your own species - 06/30/07 08:52 PM

I once watched a video of a lecture hosted by the Google company discussing whether this technology could be used for the purposes of making humans effectively immortal. Interesting stuff...
Posted by: Lucky_shinobi

Re: Build your own species - 06/30/07 10:13 PM

Quote:

I just hope something epic like this, whether good or bad, happens during my lifetime.




I just want anything epic to happen. I desire anything that could possibly break loose the confines of such a mundane, unrewarding existence
Posted by: Lucky_shinobi

Re: Build your own species - 06/30/07 10:15 PM

Quote:

I just want anything epic to happen. I desire anything that could possibly break loose the confines of such a mundane, unrewarding existence




and yes i reside in the U.S. home of the brave and the loss of purpose
Posted by: MattJ

Re: Build your own species - 06/30/07 10:49 PM

Quote:

So by the sounds of things they are effectively splicing DNA?
I wonder what this will hold for the human race?




The implications of this experiment are both incredibly exciting and downright terrifying. This level of control over such a fundamental step of biology has the possibility to do amazing things. I truly can't even imagine the areas this could impact - weapons, medicines, organ replacement, new species, old species revived, etc......

Incredible. This was science fiction when I was younger. Man is on the verge of becoming something else.
Posted by: Taison

Re: Build your own species - 06/30/07 10:50 PM

I hope they get that thing working ASAP.

Immortality is something I've been craving for a LONG time. Plus a few enhancements here and there isn't too bad.

-Taison out
Posted by: crablord

Re: Build your own species - 06/30/07 11:45 PM

haha, immortality would suck.

thats some amazing stuff, like the other guy that posted I can only hope it happens in my lifetime.

Quote:


"Scientists at a Rockville biotechnology institute say they have completely replaced the DNA of one bacterium with that of another




possibly dangerous? what if a new strand of virus outbreaks or something
Posted by: ButterflyPalm

Re: Build your own species - 07/01/07 04:21 AM

Quote:

...that man would be a god within a century.




That's an interesting thought; maybe god was actually once a man?

My view is that anything that imperfect humans make can only turn out imperfect and in trying to tamper with natural processes which took eons to complete (a luxury which no man has) and man himself being a product of that very processes, how can any one (no matter how scientifically brilliant) predict or prevent bio-ecological disasters?

Just look at GM foods and the yet-to-happen ecological problems when the genes of GM crops start mixing in with non-cultivated plants.

Perhaps we are all wrong that the human race ends in a nuclear holocaust; it probably ends in a genetic self-annihilation.


Taison,

Quote:

Plus a few enhancements here and there isn't too bad.




Jeans that 'enhance' your height already exist! Just get a pair of Levys and wear the belt line right up to the armpits
Posted by: Taison

Re: Build your own species - 07/01/07 09:11 AM

Quote:


Jeans that 'enhance' your height already exist! Just get a pair of Levys and wear the belt line right up to the armpits



My god!

You still remember how much I hate being short! !

You stickied it somewhere in front of the monitor or something? Like "Taison hates his height".

Like Crab mentioned, this somehow makes the Zombie thread have a new purpose. What if a new strand of virus gets developed?

But then again, we could create extinct species. Like dinosaurs. A quote from Jurassic Park;
Quote:

"God creates dinosaurs. God kills dinosaurs. God creates man. Man kills god. Man creates dinosaurs." - Malcolm




-Taison out
Posted by: crablord

Re: Build your own species - 07/01/07 09:39 AM

id personally risk mutating into a zombie if a possibility of dinosaurs being given new life came into perspective.
I mean, Jurassic park was an awesome movie! lol

with the whole " universe in a room" thing, I'd also take that risk.
id say that would be well worth the possibility of the universe collapsing on itself or whatever.
Lifes too boring not to [censored] around with the universe i say.
Posted by: Taison

Re: Build your own species - 07/01/07 11:02 AM

Crab,

You see, humans are actually quite short-lived. We therefore don't have the luxury of doing things "cautiously". Sure, our use of science in this last 100 years have been reckless, but look at how fast we have developed over these last 100 years. Seriously, I don't think grandpa even knew what tele-communication is, look now, people are barely able to live without cell-phones, internet, TV, etc etc.

Humans are a young race, I fear that our reckless use of the sciences will bring more harm than good. Basically, we possess the ability to set things ablaze easily, but to actually being able to control the fire with precision, that's a thing humans will never be able to do unless our life-spans increases to say 300 years.

-Taison out
Posted by: MattJ

Re: Build your own species - 07/01/07 11:30 AM

Quote:

possibly dangerous? what if a new strand of virus outbreaks or something




Yes, that is a very real possibility. Remember the Africanized honeybee debacle. This should be a very carefully controlled process. Hopefully they have learned from some of the earlier mistakes.
Posted by: ButterflyPalm

Re: Build your own species - 07/01/07 11:55 PM

Quote:

...a very carefully controlled process




There is no such thing.

Perhaps the "Big Bang" was once a small bang in someone's laboratory that went uncontrollably big.

It is my belief that anything, including the Universe itself, can be reversed engineered if enough time and resources are devoted to it.

Quote:

Hopefully they have learned from some of the earlier mistakes.




Even less likely to happen.

Who knows, maybe those were not mistakes, but that man was intentionally put into the evolutionary process to undertake the very task of Universal renewable ad infinitum. At the moment man seems the only specie (in our corner of the Universe) capable of doing so.
Posted by: Taison

Re: Build your own species - 07/02/07 01:49 AM

Since when did man learn from his own mistake?

-Taison out
Posted by: ButterflyPalm

Re: Build your own species - 07/02/07 05:45 AM

When it's too late?
Posted by: Taison

Re: Build your own species - 07/02/07 06:19 AM

And then a few generations later, does the same mistake again?

Ok, mods, feel free to edit what I'm about to say, but I just want to highlight a thing man hasn't learnt.


This isn't about what is right, what is wrong. It's just that people just can't remember the mistakes they've done in the past and repeatedly do so again and again.

An individual is smart. People are probably the dumbest animal on the planet.

-Taison out
Posted by: oldman

Re: Build your own species - 07/02/07 10:49 AM

Quote:

That's an interesting thought; maybe god was actually once a man?