Synthetic Life

[Praziquantel86]

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I'm surprised no one has brought this up yet...

Geneticists announced the creation of the first "synthetic" cell (here's a nice article on it). Basically, they recreated the genome of one Mycoplasma strain, inserted it into a different strain, and the foreign DNA took over and started working. The cells eventually became phenotypically identical to the original strain.

While the cell itself wasn't created from scratch (the DNA hijacked cellular machinery that was already present), this shows that entirely manmade cells are a distinct possibility. This obviously raises all sorts of concerns; scientific, military, religious, and probably most importantly, ethical.

I'd be interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this...I personally think that it's one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs ever made, and certainly the largest in my lifetime. It also makes me think of nuclear energy: some fantastic things may be done with it, but at what cost?

Anyways, take it away.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/328/5981/958.pdf

 

[tungsten87]

i'm all for this as the possibilities are endless with this type of genetic engineering. probably the biggest goal of venter's project is to create an organism that can fix CO2 into hydrocarbons that can be used for fuel, solving both "global warming" and the oil crisis. with this in mind i think there has to be very strict regulation for this along with nanotechnology as the consequences could be devastating if this type of technology made it into the wrong hands.

 

[OChemProf]

I knew this would happen eventually......as a graduate student, they started putting pieces of DNA segments into E. coli to get E. coli to produce / overexpress particular proteins which could then be purified and used for a variety of different things.

This ballooned into getting bacterial strains to eat through contaminants in soil such as radioactive waste in Superfund sites......

The next step will be to mix together lipids that will self-assemble (this has been done) and add the DNA to determine if a cell can be created from scratch. A golgi apparatus has already been created from scratch and is functional......article can be found here

(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090729103732.htm)

The next 25 years in biochemistry and cell biology / genetics are going to be quite interesting. I am a strong believer that we will know the molecular reason(s) for a large majority of known diseases.....we may not have a solution that will prevent the disease state, but we will at least know the reason(s) behind the disease.....

(I actually think the discovery of PCR has been one of the most significant discoveries in science in the past 20 years)

 

[tungsten87]

yes, bedside PCR is key in genotyping patients in the future + identifying viruses/bacterial infections.

i'm not sure i'd call this project creating life "from scratch" even though they did synthesize the entire genome/chromosome. i think reprogramming would be a better term to describe this.

 

[Sparda29]

Could possibly use this to make some ****ing awesome biological weapons.

 

[pharm B]

Someone on the BBC's Global News broadcast made a good point: This gentleman could merit a Nobel prize if this science is applied correctly. Or, there might not be any prizes to give out (military use).

I think this is extremely interesting. The ideas Venter has for the applications of this technology are incredible. I'm just waiting for some on the right to introduce legislation stopping it, as it's "playing God."

 

[rxlea]

I don't understand the "playing God" stance. First of all, if there was a God that didn't want us to "play God", the God wouldn't allow us to make such discoveries or create the people who make the discoveries. Then of course you have those that say, "Well, people have free will blahblah". I suppose you could then argue that surgeons are "playing God" when they do transplants or other life saving surgeries.

These types of discoveries (including stem cell research) have the potential to cure millions of people. I just don't see how a God would view that as a bad thing. Couldn't that sort of healing/saving lives be viewed by Christians as "God's Will"?

 

[Ava999]

I don't understand the "playing God" stance. First of all, if there was a God that didn't want us to "play God", the God wouldn't allow us to make such discoveries or create the people who make the discoveries. Then of course you have those that say, "Well, people have free will blahblah". I suppose you could then argue that surgeons are "playing God" when they do transplants or other life saving surgeries.

These types of discoveries (including stem cell research) have the potential to cure millions of people. I just don't see how a God would view that as a bad thing. Couldn't that sort of healing/saving lives be viewed by Christians as "God's Will"?

I'm a Christian, and I see no problems with it. 👍

 

[Praziquantel86]

I don't understand the "playing God" stance. First of all, if there was a God that didn't want us to "play God", the God wouldn't allow us to make such discoveries or create the people who make the discoveries. Then of course you have those that say, "Well, people have free will blahblah". I suppose you could then argue that surgeons are "playing God" when they do transplants or other life saving surgeries.

These types of discoveries (including stem cell research) have the potential to cure millions of people. I just don't see how a God would view that as a bad thing. Couldn't that sort of healing/saving lives be viewed by Christians as "God's Will"?

Actually, the Vatican just released a statement in support of this research. They said that it wasn't creating life, just "replacing a gear" in the work of life. There will obviously be the hardcore nutjobs (as with anything, there always are), but the Church is officially in favor.

That being said, I think some of the arguments held by the "playing God" folks may have some validity (even if they don't realize why). There is an incredible amount that isn't known about genetic machinery at this point, and new discoveries happen by accident all the time (look at how silencing RNA was discovered). Without a more complete understanding of these mechanisms and the other question marks in genetics, how can a genome be created in any sort of logical manner?

 

[Passion4Sci]

At the same time, the Vatican strongly advised caution that this technology could easily lead into "playing God": This is just the changing of life, right now... but if we actually created life from nothing, then the Vatican would get pissed. But thankfully no one would care and the research would continue!

 

[rxlea]

At the same time, the Vatican strongly advised caution that this technology could easily lead into "playing God": This is just the changing of life, right now... but if we actually created life from nothing, then the Vatican would get pissed. But thankfully no one would care and the research would continue!

ABSOLUTELY! I hope it does continue, right along with stem cell research.

In regards to the "playing God" stuff, I just thought of the Jem'Hadar and the Vorta of DS9 and how they were genetically engineered (created) by The Dominion. I am also reminded of the Bejorans and their theocracy, and how they continued to believe in The Prophets even upon the discovery that "The Prophets" were simply an alien race that operated outside the time-space continuum. Interesting commentary on religion and creation.

 

[Praziquantel86]

In regards to the "playing God" stuff, I just thought of the Jem'Hadar and the Vorta of DS9 and how they were genetically engineered (created) by The Dominion. I am also reminded of the Bejorans and their theocracy, and how they continued to believe in The Prophets even upon the discovery that "The Prophets" were simply an alien race that operated outside the time-space continuum. Interesting commentary on religion and creation.

What?

 

[rxlea]

What?

Star Trek. P4Sci knows what I am talking about and my response was to him anyway 🤣

 

[Its Z]

ABSOLUTELY! I hope it does continue, right along with stem cell research.

In regards to the "playing God" stuff, I just thought of the Jem'Hadar and the Vorta of DS9 and how they were genetically engineered (created) by The Dominion. I am also reminded of the Bejorans and their theocracy, and how they continued to believe in The Prophets even upon the discovery that "The Prophets" were simply an alien race that operated outside the time-space continuum. Interesting commentary on religion and creation.

Did Worf pilot Defiant and blow up the worm hole?

 

[joetrisman]

A golgi apparatus has already been created from scratch and is functional......article can be found here

(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090729103732.htm)

If you look past the puff article in science daily and go onto the real article at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja903038d you'll see that they merely describe it as a prototype that mimics the actions of the golgi. My BS meter went haywire for the golgi being recreated from scratch as we do not currently even know the correct maturation model for the golgi.

Thanks for the article though. Give me something to read with my morning coffee 🙂

 

[Dezixn]

I only briefly read through a crappy version of the article a few days ago... but it didn't really sound to me like that would be called "creating synthetic life". They made the genome themselves it sounds like (though it sounds like try almost completely copied it from another organism) but the rest of the components were already in place. I think we could call it "creating life" and a completely synthetic organism when we create everything from scratch.

But then again people would say that Frankenstein was created synthetically and brought to life, even though it's just parts of existing organisms like in this case.

Kinda hard to say when life is created. Fun to think about though...

 

[OChemProf]

If you look past the puff article in science daily and go onto the real article at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja903038d you'll see that they merely describe it as a prototype that mimics the actions of the golgi. My BS meter went haywire for the golgi being recreated from scratch as we do not currently even know the correct maturation model for the golgi.

Thanks for the article though. Give me something to read with my morning coffee 🙂

Thanks for the correction....I will have to admit I never read the acs article.... still pretty impressive though.....all of the organelles are so complex it will be pretty hard to create from scratch....at least not for a while.

 

[b1234]

Someone on the BBC's Global News broadcast made a good point: This gentleman could merit a Nobel prize if this science is applied correctly. Or, there might not be any prizes to give out (military use).

I think this is extremely interesting. The ideas Venter has for the applications of this technology are incredible. I'm just waiting for some on the right to introduce legislation stopping it, as it's "playing God."

Obviously there are politics even when it comes to awarding Nobel's and this may not earn one, but it definitely deserves one.

 

[gazingtool]

Since the nature of breakthrough research is traditionally, and perhaps fundamentally, so 'accidental', maybe it is time for mainstream science to accept our fate as blundering along merrily in this universe.

To me (and I'm philosophically driven) this breakthrough can represent a turning point, or a step up, in this process of coming to terms with our place in the universe - meaning it's time to put our egos in their places. Let's get our heads out of our asses and look to the stars.

 

[Saganite]

merely an advance in technique ! Credit for not breaking something !