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September 23 - October 14, 2018
CRISPR—referred to a region of bacterial DNA and that the acronym stood for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.”
Gene expression is the process by which the simple letters of DNA are translated into functional proteins, according to the central dogma of molecular biology.
de-extinction, which is nothing less than the resurrection of extinct species through cloning or genetic engineering.
scientists have created gene-edited cows, pigs, sheep, and goats that are stronger and more muscular than average, with striking bodybuilder-like physiques, a trait commonly referred to as double muscling.
In 2004, a team of physicians from Berlin published a remarkable study describing a boy who was extraordinarily muscular at birth, with bulging thigh and upper-arm muscles. The child continued to develop abnormally pronounced muscles through age four and could perform incredible feats of strength, like extending his
After some molecular detective work, they found that both copies of his myostatin gene contained knockout mutations and that his mother, a former professional athlete, was a heterozygote with just one mutated gene.
Chinese scientists working with goats targeted the myostatin gene as well as a growth factor gene known to control hair length. In humans, naturally occurring mutations in the growth factor gene cause a condition characterized by excessively long eyelashes, and the mutations have been linked to hair length in cats, dogs, and even donkeys. The scientists performed gene editing in a breed of goats known as Shannbei, cultivated for both its desirable meat and its hair fibers, which are used to produce
fine cashmere. The scientists injected 862 embryos and transferred 416 into recipient mothers; 93 kids were born, 10 of which contained mutations in both genes. The enhanced goats can now serve as the starting point for new breeds that provide higher yields of both food and cashmere for their farmers.
some lucky people are naturally resistant to HIV. These individuals lack thirty-two letters of DNA in the gene for a protein called CCR5, which is located on the surface of white blood cells—those cells that form the bedrock of the body’s immune system. CCR5 proteins are one of the parts of the cell’s surface that the HIV virus latches onto in the initial stage of its invasion. This specific, thirty-two-letter deletion causes the CCR5 protein to be truncated and prevents it from making its
way to the cell surface. Without CCR5 proteins to attach to, HIV molecules can’t infect the cells. In people of African and Asian descent, the thirty-two-letter CCR5 deletion is virtually nonexistent, but it’s fairly prevalent among Caucasian people; 10 to 20 percent of Caucasians possess one copy of the mutated gene, and homozygous individuals—those who possess two copies—are completely resistant to HIV. Roughly 1 to 2 percent of Caucasians worldwide (most of them in northeastern Europe) are fortunate enough to have this trait. These CCR5-lacking
Today, the use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis for gender selection is illegal in many
countries (including India and China) or permitted only to avoid X-linked diseases (as in Great Britain). But it’s legal in the United States, where
one of the forum’s participants, who told us that a scientific manuscript describing experiments in which human embryos were edited with
