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Discussion Forum : News and Current Events : Scientists build DNA from scratch to alter life's blueprint

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followthelamb
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 Scientists build DNA from scratch to alter life's blueprint

"At Jef Boeke's lab, you can whiff an odor that seems out of place, as if they were baking bread here.

But he and his colleagues are cooking up something else altogether: yeast that works with chunks of man-made DNA.

Scientists have long been able to make specific changes in the DNA code. Now, they're taking the more radical step of starting over, and building redesigned life forms from scratch. Boeke, a researcher at New York University, directs an international team of 11 labs on four continents working to "rewrite" the yeast genome, following a detailed plan they published in March.

Their work is part of a bold and controversial pursuit aimed at creating custom-made DNA codes to be inserted into living cells to change how they function, or even provide a treatment for diseases. It could also someday help give scientists the profound and unsettling ability to create entirely new organisms.

The genome is the entire genetic code of a living thing. Learning how to make one from scratch, Boeke said, means "you really can construct something that's completely new."

The research may reveal basic, hidden rules that govern the structure and functioning of genomes. But it also opens the door to life with new and useful characteristics, like microbes or mammal cells that are better than current ones at pumping out medications in pharmaceutical factories, or new vaccines. The right modifications might make yeast efficiently produce new biofuels, Boeke says.

Some scientists look further into the future and see things like trees that purify water supplies and plants that detect explosives at airports and shopping malls.

Also on the horizon is redesigning human DNA. That's not to make genetically altered people, scientists stress. Instead, the synthetic DNA would be put into cells, to make them better at pumping out pharmaceutical proteins, for example, or perhaps to engineer stem cells as a safer source of lab-grown tissue and organs for transplanting into patients.

Some have found the idea of remaking human DNA disconcerting, and scientists plan to get guidance from ethicists and the public before they try it.

Still, redesigning DNA is alarming to some. Laurie Zoloth of Northwestern University, a bioethicist who's been following the effort, is concerned about making organisms with "properties we cannot fully know." And the work would disturb people who believe creating life from scratch would give humans unwarranted power, she said.


"It is not only a science project," Zoloth said in an email. "It is an ethical and moral and theological proposal of significant proportions...."


Read more:
https://m.phys.org/news/2017-07-scientists-dna-life-blueprint.html


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SI Moderator - Brandy Gordon

 2017/8/2 20:38Profile
ginnyrose
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Joined: 2004/7/7
Posts: 7534
Mississippi

 Re: Scientists build DNA from scratch to alter life's blueprint

Is it too simplistic to suggest man thinks he can improve on God's design?

Wonder what would happen if man were to study God's instructions as given in the OT law as pertaining to practical living and implement them instead. Bet they might be surprised at the knowledge found therein.

My opinion for whatever it is worth.

Sandra


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Sandra Miller

 2017/8/4 12:11Profile
TMK
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Joined: 2012/2/8
Posts: 6650
NC, USA

 Re:

What if they can edit a gene to prevent/cure Alzheimer's, for example?

What is the difference in doing "surgery" on a gene, vs doing surgery on a heart, or brain? One is just a lot smaller than the other.

If I was told that gene therapy could heal a loved one of a dreaded disease, I might have to consider it.


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Todd

 2017/8/4 12:35Profile









 editing DNA

editing the genes/DNA, controlling and playing like God, than letting the nature do its job :)

 2017/8/4 15:22
TMK
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Joined: 2012/2/8
Posts: 6650
NC, USA

 Re: editing DNA

Jesus didn't just let nature do its job. He "healed them all."

Why?


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Todd

 2017/8/4 15:31Profile









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 2017/8/4 16:00









 Re:

•••
Jesus didn't just let nature do its job. He "healed them all."

Why?•••

Because Jesus is God. Man playing with DNA is man playing god.

Bro Blaine

 2017/8/4 16:01
drifter
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Joined: 2005/6/6
Posts: 1025
Campbell River, B.C.

 Re:

"And the LORD said,... this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do."
Genesis 11:6


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Nigel Holland

 2017/8/4 17:52Profile
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Joined: 2012/2/8
Posts: 6650
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 Re:

No one has answered my question as to how brain surgery for example is different from doing surgery on a very small part of the body.

I am not even saying I will disagree with your rationale- I just want to hear the rationale instead of comments marked by hysteria.

Let's say they isolate a gene that is causing a liver tumor, or diabetes. What is wrong with repairing that gene, as opposed to pumping the body with chemotherapy and other drugs?

Once again, I just want to hear the logical or spiritual distinction if there is one. I may agree.

This is another area the Bible does not address explicitly.

And Bear- did Jesus heal people because he was God?


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Todd

 2017/8/4 18:42Profile
Renee_is_His
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Joined: 2016/3/9
Posts: 74
Garland, TX

 Re:

Brother Todd, I think there is a distinct difference between repairing a wheel (surgery) versus recreating one (DNA manipulation). No matter what "good" they say they are trying to do, their reasoning for doing this will always be wicked, because they are in darkness, separated from God, trying to be like God.


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Renee

 2017/8/5 10:11Profile





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