Of all the potentially apocalyptic technologies scientists have come up with in recent years, the gene drive is easily one of the most terrifying. A gene drive is a tool that allows scientists to use genetic engineering to override natural selection during reproduction. In theory, scientists could use it to alter the genetic makeup of an entire species—or even wipe that species out. It’s not hard to imagine how a slip-up in the lab could lead to things going very, very wrong.
The biotech battle between China and the US has begun as we predicated when we announced the first CRISPR deployment in humans last month. The US has upped the ante and is taking a step further in the race for the biotech crown. All great news for us as the more competition the faster progress will move so let’s hope there is a fierce battle for biotech coming.
In 2015, a little girl called Layla was treated with gene-edited immune cells that eliminated all signs of the leukemia that was killing her. Layla’s treatment was a one-off, but by the end of 2017, the technique could have saved dozens of lives.
It took many years to develop the gene-editing tool that saved Layla, but thanks to a revolutionary method known as CRISPR, this can now be done in just weeks.
In fact, CRISPR works so well that the first human trial involving the method has already begun. In China, it is being used to disable a gene called PD-1 in immune cells taken from individuals with cancer. The edited cells are then injected back into each person’s body.
Scientists are able to use brain tests on three-year-olds to determine which children are more likely to grow up to become criminals. It sounds like Minority Report come to life: An uncomfortable idea presenting myriad ethical concerns. But, though unnerving, the research is nuanced and could potentially be put to good use.
In the study, published in Nature Human Behavior this week, researchers led by neuroscientists at Duke University showed that those with the lowest 20% brain health results aged three went on to commit more than 80% of crimes as adults. The research used data from a New Zealand longitudinal study of more than 1,000 people from birth in the early 1970s until they reached 38 years old. This distribution, of 20% of a population accounting for 80% of an effect, is strong but not unusual. In fact, it follows the “Pareto principle.” The authors write in their paper:
In Pareto’s day, the problem definition was that 20% of families owned 80% of land in Italy. The so-called Pareto principle is alive and useful today: for example, in software engineering, 20% of the code is said to contain 80% of the errors.
Biologist Daisy Robinton talks about engineering aging and the possibilities new technology offers.
Harvard University biologist Daisy Robinton reveals how science is helping us understand how and why we age.
Daisy Robinton is a scientist at Harvard University researching mechanisms of stem cell identity at the intersection of cancer and developmental biology. Daisy’s passion for the effective translation of science has fuelled her years of teaching and speaking, and in 2011 Daisy founded the Science in the News Spring Public Lecture Series at Harvard. Daisy consults to numerous biotech startups in the US and UK and for projects ranging from feature film screenplays on the future of medicine and longevity to the “Future of Making” via bioengineering with IDEO.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
Check out the LEAF interview with Synthetic Biology company CellAge who plan to use their technology to create aging biomarkers for the research community to use for free as well as new approaches to removing senescent cells.
CellAge are using synthetic biology to remove senescent cells that accumulate with age and contribute to disease. We took the time to interview them about their technology, treating age-related diseases and their plans for the future.
You can also check out their campaign on Lifespan.io:
https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/cellage-targeting-senescent-cells-with-synthetic-biology/
What combinations of mutations help cancer cells survive? Which cells in the brain are involved in the onset of Alzheimer’s? How do immune cells conduct their convoluted decision-making processes? Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have now combined two powerful research tools — CRISPR gene editing and single cell genomic profiling — in a method that may finally help us get answers to these questions and many more.
The new technology enables researchers to manipulate gene functions within single cells, and understand the results of each change in extremely high resolution. A single experiment with this method, say the scientists, may be equal to thousands of experiments conducted using previous approaches, and it may advance the field of genetic engineering for medical applications.
The gene-editing technique CRISPR is already transforming biology research around the world, and its clinical use in humans is just around the corner. CRISPR was first discovered in bacteria as a primitive acquired immune system, which cuts and pastes viral DNA into their own genomes to fight viruses. In recent years, this bacterial system has been adopted by researchers to snip out or insert nearly any gene in any organism or cell, quickly and efficiently. “But CRISPR, on its own, is a blunt research tool, since we often have trouble observing or understanding the outcome of this genomic editing,” says Prof. Ido Amit of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Immunology Department, who led the study. “Most studies so far have looked for black-or-white types of effects,” adds Dr. Diego Jaitin, of Amit’s lab group, “but the majority of processes in the body are complex and even chaotic.”
Excellent article by Nick Gillespie, Editor-in Chief of Reason. Genetic editing is so far the 21st Century’s most important science—and it’s already being challenged by many as too radical: http://reason.com/blog/2016/12/15/will-gene-editing-technologies-spark-the #transhumanism #CRISPR #Future
The folks behind CRISPR gene editing were runners-up for Time’s Person of the Year. Their creation may win the future for secular China.
Synthetic biology meets senolytics at Lifespan.io
We are developing tools to help researchers accurately target and remove dysfunctional cells in the body that have entered a state called “senescence”, and thereby assist in restoring it to youthful functionality. Please subscribe, share, and fund our campaign today! ►Campaign Link: https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/cellage-targeting-senescent-cells-with-synthetic-biology/ ►Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/LifespanIO?sub_confirmation=1
Our society has never aged more rapidly – one of the most visible symptoms of the changing demographics is the exponential increase in the incidence of age-related diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases and osteoarthritis. Not only does aging have a negative effect on the quality of life among the elderly but it also causes a significant financial strain on both private and public sectors. As the proportion of older people is increasing so is health care spending. According to a WHO analysis, the annual number of new cancer cases is projected to rise to 17 million by 2020, and reach 27 million by 2030. Similar trends are clearly visible in other age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease. Few effective treatments addressing these challenges are currently available and most of them focus on a single disease rather than adopting a more holistic approach to aging.
Recently a new approach which has the potential of significantly alleviating these problems has been validated by a number of in vivo and in vitro studies. It has been demonstrated that senescent cells (cells which have ceased to replicate due to stress or replicative capacity exhaustion) are linked to many age-related diseases. Furthermore, removing senescent cells from mice has been recently shown to drastically increase mouse healthspan (a period of life free of serious diseases).
Here at CellAge we are working hard to help translate these findings into humans!
CellAge, together with a leading synthetic biology partner, Synpromics, is going to develop synthetic promoters which are specific to senescent cells (SeneSENSE), as promoters that are currently being used to track senescent cells are simply not good enough to be used in therapies. The most prominently used p16 gene promoter has a number of limitations, for example. As our primary mission is to expand the interface between synthetic biology and aging research as well as drive translational research forward, we will offer senescence reporter assay to academics for free. We predict that in the very near future this assay will be also used as a quality control step in the cell therapy manufacturing process to make cell therapies safer!
As our secondary goal, we will focus on validating gene therapies for senescent cell eradication (SeneHEALTH) – initially for patients with progeroid syndromes, then for patients who underwent radiotherapy (during which the number of senescent cells are increased) or developed age-related disease and eventually for healthy individuals.
Dr. Aubrey de Grey from the SENS Research Foundation was kind enough to talk in support of CellAge and their campaign on Lifespan.io
We are developing tools to help researchers accurately target and remove dysfunctional cells in the body that have entered a state called “senescence”, and thereby assist in restoring it to youthful functionality. Please subscribe, share, and fund our campaign today! ►Campaign Link: https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/cellage-targeting-senescent-cells-with-synthetic-biology/ ►Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/LifespanIO?sub_confirmation=1
Our society has never aged more rapidly – one of the most visible symptoms of the changing demographics is the exponential increase in the incidence of age-related diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases and osteoarthritis. Not only does aging have a negative effect on the quality of life among the elderly but it also causes a significant financial strain on both private and public sectors. As the proportion of older people is increasing so is health care spending. According to a WHO analysis, the annual number of new cancer cases is projected to rise to 17 million by 2020, and reach 27 million by 2030. Similar trends are clearly visible in other age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease. Few effective treatments addressing these challenges are currently available and most of them focus on a single disease rather than adopting a more holistic approach to aging.
Recently a new approach which has the potential of significantly alleviating these problems has been validated by a number of in vivo and in vitro studies. It has been demonstrated that senescent cells (cells which have ceased to replicate due to stress or replicative capacity exhaustion) are linked to many age-related diseases. Furthermore, removing senescent cells from mice has been recently shown to drastically increase mouse healthspan (a period of life free of serious diseases).
Here at CellAge we are working hard to help translate these findings into humans!
CellAge, together with a leading synthetic biology partner, Synpromics, is going to develop synthetic promoters which are specific to senescent cells (SeneSENSE), as promoters that are currently being used to track senescent cells are simply not good enough to be used in therapies. The most prominently used p16 gene promoter has a number of limitations, for example. As our primary mission is to expand the interface between synthetic biology and aging research as well as drive translational research forward, we will offer senescence reporter assay to academics for free. We predict that in the very near future this assay will be also used as a quality control step in the cell therapy manufacturing process to make cell therapies safer!
As our secondary goal, we will focus on validating gene therapies for senescent cell eradication (SeneHEALTH) – initially for patients with progeroid syndromes, then for patients who underwent radiotherapy (during which the number of senescent cells are increased) or developed age-related disease and eventually for healthy individuals.
Excellent. Now, the question is “has Microsoft seen this?” as they are working on solving Diabetes too as part of their Synbio program that has already shown us their DNA Data Storage.
People with type 1 diabetes must inject themselves with insulin multiple times per day. This is because their immune system has destroyed cells in the pancreas that secrete insulin to maintain a healthy blood glucose level.
A team of bioengineers now report a possible alternative to such injections. The researchers engineered human kidney cells to act like pancreatic β cells, namely to sense blood glucose levels and produce insulin accordingly (Science 2016, DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf4006). When implanted in mice with type 1 diabetes, the cells prevent high blood glucose levels, also known as hyperglycemia.
Right now, “all we offer diabetic patients to cope with their disease is to have them measure their blood glucose levels and then inject a hormone,” says Martin Fussenegger of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, who led the team that engineered the cells. Although this works, he says, getting the dose right can be tough. “We set out to pioneer a new disease treatment concept.”
