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Title: 'Gene drive': Scientists sound alarm over supercharged GM organisms which could spread in the wild
Source:
The Independent via Drudge
URL Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s ... mental-disasters-10434010.html
Published: Aug 2, 2015
Author: Steve Connor
Post Date: 2015-08-02 21:48:31 by Tooconservative
Keywords: None
Views: 1987
Comments: 12
A powerful new technique for generating “supercharged” genetically modified organisms that can spread rapidly in the wild has caused alarm among scientists who fear that it may be misused, accidentally or deliberately, and cause a health emergency or environmental disaster. The development of so-called “gene drive” technology promises to revolutionise medicine and agriculture because it can in theory stop the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses, such as malaria and yellow fever, as well as eliminate crop pests and invasive species such as rats and cane toads. However, scientists at the forefront of the development believe that in the wrong hands gene-drive technology poses a serious threat to the environment and human health if accidentally or deliberately released from a laboratory without adequate safeguards. Some believe it could even be used as a terrorist bio-weapon directed against people or livestock because gene drives – which enable GM genes to spread rapidly like a viral infection within a population – will eventually be easy and cheap to generate. “Just as gene drives can make mosquitoes unfit for hosting and spreading the malaria parasite, they could conceivably be designed with gene drives carrying cargo for delivering lethal bacterial toxins to humans,” said David Gurwitz, a geneticist at Tel Aviv University in Israel. A group of senior geneticists have called for international safeguards to apply to researchers who want to develop gene drives, with strict security measures placed on laboratories to prevent the accidental escape of “supercharged” GM organisms that are able to spread rapidly in the wild. Last week the US National Academy of Sciences initiated a wide-ranging review of gene-drive technology in “non-human organisms” and in this week’s journal Science a group of 27 leading geneticists call on the scientific community to be open and transparent about both the risks and benefits of gene drives. “They have tremendous potential to address global problems in health, agriculture and conservation but their capacity to alter wild populations outside the laboratory demands caution,” the scientists say. The researchers have drawn up a minimum set of safety rules to protect against laboratory escapes and have called for a public debate on the potential benefits as well as risks of a technology that allows geneticists to rapidly accelerate the inheritance of GM traits throughout an animal population within just a few generations. Researchers have likened gene-drive technology to a nuclear chain reaction because it allows GM genes to be amplified within a breeding population of insects or other animals without any further intervention once the trait has been initially introduced. This is the case even if the trait is non-beneficial to the organism. Laboratory experiments on fruit flies have shown that a modified gene introduced into one individual fly can take just a few generations to “infect” practically every other fly in the breeding population, in defiance of the normal rules of genetics which dictate a far slower spread. Kevin Esfeldt, a gene-drive expert at the Wyss Institute at Harvard Medical School in Boston, said the technology was developed theoretically about 10 years ago but it has only been made possible in the lab in the past two years with the discovery of the sophisticated gene-editing tool Crispr/Cas9. Dr Esfeldt explained that gene drives relied on a “cassette” of genetic elements that allowed a genetically modified gene to jump from one chromosome to another within the same individual so that eventually all of the sperm or eggs of the animal carried the GM trait, rather than half. This means that virtually none of the offspring is eventually free of an introduced GM trait. Gene drives could benefit human health by altering insect populations that spread human diseases, such as mosquitoes that transmit malaria, dengue, chikungunya and Lyme disease, so that they were no longer a threat, he said. They could also be used to reverse the mutations that make crop pests resistant to agricultural pesticides, or they might be used to spread genetic traits within a populations of an invasive species to help kill it off, such as making the skin of cane toads introduced into Australia non-toxic to indigenous predators. “If we’re right about this, it’s a powerful advance that could make the world a much better place, but only if we use it wisely,” Dr Esfeldt said. However, some scientists fear that the ease with which gene drives can be generated will make them a target for any malign individual or organisation with access to modern laboratory equipment. Dr Gurwitz said the precise instructions for making gene drives should be classified, just like the technology for making nuclear weapons. However, Dr Esfeldt and the other 26 scientists who have written to Science disagreed, arguing that complete openness and transparency was the best defence against the use of gene drives as a bio-weapon because classifying the information would be technically ineffective and politically counterproductive.
(2 images)'Gene drive': Scientists sound alarm over supercharged GM organisms which could spread in the wild and cause environmental disasters
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#1. To: TooConservative (#0)
Descolada, hère we come.
It's a sobering bit of science. This makes dramatic and comprehensive genetic engineering possible. Designer species in designer ecosystems. Designer humans too. Of course, they will start small. OTOH, some of the more radical promises made for genetic engineering over the decades may be realized as a result. So it could be a really terrific advance unless it turns out to be a worst scientific disaster in history.
Of course they will start clandestinely, with the super rich. Think back to how Magic Johnson defeated AIDS. It wasn't a miracle. It's never come out. If you think about it, though, you know how. Which means that that COULD be done for everybody - but at such a cost. So therefore it's a "miracle". And the super-rich will use gene technology to seal what they perceive is an advantage. That will be the thought. But the descolada we unleash by accident will win before they do. God's finger.
You mean Intelligent Design? This could spell the end for Ender. потому что Бог хочет это тот путь
It could, but Ender always wins. That's the thing about him. If the paradigm isn't working for him, he breaks the paradigm and does something else.
Not since he gave up his earpiece. потому что Бог хочет это тот путь
Anyway, I think he's dead. He lives on as an aiua (or whatever) in Valentine and Peter. Card's universe went Mormon, essentially.
Didn't he become the mote in God's eye? потому что Бог хочет это тот путь
Which God? The God of Path? She's Gloriously Bright.
As seen from New Caledonia. потому что Бог хочет это тот путь
Threw me!
SciFi book The Mote In God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. A pretty good read but the sequel 18 years later not. The basic premise of the story: The Moties are sequential hermaphrodites, changing sex over and over again during the course of their lives. However, if a Motie remains female for too long without becoming pregnant, the hormone imbalance will kill her. Attempts at population control through chemicals or infanticide have always failed for the Moties, because those who breed uncontrollably eventually swamp those Moties who comply. Once the population pressure rises high enough, massive wars inevitably result Each war typically ends in the complete destruction of the current civilization on Mote Prime. A faster rise to civilization leads to a longer period between collapses. The museums exist to accelerate this process after a collapse. The cycles of civilization, war, and collapse have apparently been repeating for hundreds of thousands of years. In some cases, Mote Prime was completely sterilized and then repopulated by those living in hollowed-out asteroids within the system. The current asymmetrical form is probably a mutation resulting from nuclear weaponry prior to a collapse. The Moties have become fatalistically resigned to the never-ending cycles. The Moties are a very inventive species, in many respect more techonologically advanced than humans, but have yet to solve the problem of interstellar travel. Enter the humans into the Moties self-contained boundary. Of course the humans come to fear that the Moties would readily immitate human space travel technology and utilize it to break out of their solar system and eventually populate the entire Gallaxy, if not Universe. The story ends here. потому что Бог хочет это тот путь
#2. To: Vicomte13 (#1)
#3. To: TooConservative (#2)
Of course, they will start small.
#4. To: TooConservative, Vicomte13 (#2)
This makes dramatic and comprehensive genetic engineering possible. Designer species in designer ecosystems. Designer humans too.
#5. To: SOSO (#4)
This could spell the end for Ender.
#6. To: Vicomte13 (#5)
If the paradigm isn't working for him, he breaks the paradigm and does something else.
#7. To: SOSO (#6)
#8. To: Vicomte13 (#7)
Anyway, I think he's dead.
#9. To: SOSO (#8)
#10. To: Vicomte13 (#9)
Which God?
#11. To: SOSO (#10)
#12. To: Vicomte13 (#11)
Threw me!
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