A new future for DNA – The health care blog

By Kim Bellard

As a creature based on DNA myself, I am always fascinated by the remarkable capabilities of DNA. Not just all the ways that life has found it, but our ability to find new ways to enjoy it. I wrote on DNA as a storage medium, as a neural network, as a computer, in a robot, even in DNA mirror. So when I read the synthetic project of the human genome (Synhg), last month, I was delighted.

The project has been announced and is funded by the Wellcome Trust, up to 10 million pounds in five years. Its objective is to “develop fundamental tools, technology and methods to allow researchers to one day synthesize genomes”.

The project website develops:

Thanks to a programmable synthesis of genetic material, we will unlock a deeper understanding of life, leading to deep impacts on biotechnology, potentially accelerating the development of safe, targeted and based on cells and opening new areas of research on human health. The realization of the design and synthesis of the reliable genome – that is to say engineering cells to have specific functions – will be an important step in modern biology.

The objective of the current project is not to build a complete synthetic genome, which, according to them, can take decades, but “to provide proof of concept for the synthesis of the great genome by creating an entirely synthetic human chromosome”.

It is a more important affair than you think.

“Our DNA determines who we are and how our body works,” explains Michael Dunn, Director of Discovery Research at Wellcome. “With recent technological advances, the SYNHG project is at the forefront of one of the most exciting areas of scientific research.”

The project is led by Professor Jason Chin of the Institute of Generative Biology of the Ellison of Technology Institute and the University of Oxford, which says: “The capacity to synthesize large genomes, including genomes for human cells, can transform our understanding of the biology of the genome and deeply modify the horizons of biotechnology and medicine.”

He also said The guardian: “The information obtained by synthesizing human genomes can be directly useful for generating treatments for almost all diseases.”

Professor Patrick Yizhi Cai, President of the synthetic genomic of the University of Manchester boasted: “We take advantage of advanced robotic assembly technologies to revolutionize the chromosomal engineering of synthetic mammal. Our innovative approach aims to develop transformative solutions for the challenges of society of society, our time, our time, the realization of our time, the healthy solution and health. ”.

The project member, Dr. Julian Sale, of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, said BBC News Research was the next giant jump in biology: “The sky is the limit. We examine therapies that will improve people’s lives as they age, which will lead to healthier aging with less illness as they age. We seek to use this approach to generate cells resistant to disease, even the immune system. ”

Consider me impressed.

Professor Matthew Hurles, director of Wellcome Sanger Institute, explained to BBC News The advantage of the synthesis of DNA: “The construction of DNA from zero allows us to test the functioning of DNA and to test new theories, because currently we can really do it by refining DNA in DNA which already exists in living systems.”

It is breathtaking to think of the potential advantages that could come from this work, but the potential risks are also substantial. Babies of creators, improved humans, hybrids with other animals – synthetic DNA could accommodate all these and more. The sky is indeed the limit.

Project managers are aware that there are important ethical considerations in such work, and therefore include a complementary social science program, called Synthesis Care-Full, led by Professor Joy Zhang of the Center for Global Science and Epistemic Justice at the University of Kent. He plans to undertake a “transdisciplinary and transcultural investigation into the socio-ethical, economic and political implications of the synthesis of human genomes”, highlighting “the promotion of inclusiveness within and through the nation states, while initiating public-benefit partnerships and new interest groups”.

“With the summary of care, through empirical studies through Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Americas, we aim to establish a new paradigm for scientific and innovative practices responsible in the world era,” explains Professor Zhang. “The one who explores the full potential for the synthesis of technical possibilities and various socio-ethical perspectives carefully.”

This can be a more difficult task that synthesizing a human chromosome.

Synhg is not the only project to look at synthetic DNA; It is a technology that time happens. Does anyone think that researchers in China do not work on it? Do someone think they are also examining ethical considerations? Or maybe the next breakthrough will be an American start-up, that is to say a big game on the use of synthetic DNA and which would expect a return to the unicorn.

Professor Bill Earnshaw, a genetics specialist at the University of Edinburgh, warned BBC News: “The genius is out of the bottle. We could have a set of restrictions now, but if an organization that has access to appropriate machines decided to start synthesizing anything, I don’t think we can stop them.”

But Dr. Tom Collins de Wellcoma, who has the funding, said BBC News: “We wondered what was the cost of inaction. This technology will be developed one day, so by doing so now, we try at least to do so as responsible as possible and to confront ethical and moral questions as initially as possible.”

Congratulations to Wellcoma for the construction of these considerations in the project. They would be considered too awake in the United States and well done for recognizing the costs of inaction, that many political decision-makers in the United States and elsewhere do not recognize.

We have made remarkable progress on the DNA of my life. When I was born, he had just been discovered. The human genome project was launched in 1990 and the first sequence of the human genome in 2003. The CRISPR revolution – allowing gene editing – began in 2012, and we are now making personalized generation therapy. “Note” is too soft a word.

But there are still so many things that we don’t know. We do not always know when / why the genes light up / deactivate. We always have a very imperfect understanding of diseases that are genetic and what genes provoke them, under what circumstances. And, for the love of heaven, what does everything that “unwanted DNA” does? Is it just left by evolution by making its long kludge towards survival, or does it bring a certain importance that we have not yet learned?

These are the kinds of things that Synhg could help us better understand, and I can’t wait to see what he discovers.

Kim is a former Emarketing leader in a major blues plan, editor -in -chief of The Lated & Lementald Tullit.io, and now a regular THCB contributor