11indigo11
17-06-2009, 11:35 AM
Can Gene Mutations Generate Immortality? Harvard Research Team Says "Yes"
Dna1
Scientists are working on mutations to generate immortality. This is not a comic book. Early experiments have greatly extended the lifespan of bioengineered worms, enhancing their genetic integrity and giving them resistance to many things that would normally kill them. Again, this is not a comic book. Or a horror movie.
Caenorhabditis Elegans, or C. Elegans for scientists who don't want to waste half their life saying the first word, are the all rounders of the genetic modification world. An extremely simple and easy-to-incubate lifeform, they nevertheless model many vital genetic aspects and have been used in everything from cancer studies to biological computing prototypes.
Harvard medical school staff have engaged in (Elegans) immortality research based on a simple observation: certain cell lines are immortal. You'll be gone by the end of the century, and your current skin'll be gone before the end of the month, but in your very existence the immortality of the first primate lives on. While "somatic" cells (the cells that make everything except babies) wither and die, the "germ" cells (sperm and ova for us) make new organisms, which then replicate and make new germ cells, and are effectively immortal.
There's more to this than Reader's Digest essays on living on through your children - germ cells are far, far better at staying alive than their somatic siblings. Specially designed to convey genetic information to offspring (the entire point of a species), germ cells express enhanced immune abilities and resistance to many genetic stresses which break up regular cells. And the Harvard team have tricked their somatic cousins into acting the same way.
By modifying the DAF-16 transcription factor the team gifted the millimeter-scale worms with extended lifespans, and if you guessed that there are an insane number of extra effects beyond "one single gene tweak" then congratulations on understanding genetics better than Hollywood does.
Don't worry about overcrowding or hiring Soylent chefs just yet, though. While the research is applicable to mammalian cells in many ways, the simple fact is that you are your neurons, not your germ cells, and those neural cells are pretty different from the C Elegans model. It's certainly conceivable that we could adapt neurons the same way (though conceiving isn't something we'll want to do when everyone lives eternally), but unless the Einstein and Feynmann of genetics already exist and are the same person, you're one or two generations too early.
Posted by Casey Kazan.
http://www.harvardscience.harvard.edu/foundations/articles/researchers-learn-how-mutations-extend-life-span
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/nature08106.pdf
Related Galaxy posts:
GATTACA's Facebook: The Risks Of Sharing Genetic Information Online
Artificial DNA: Will Controlling the Code of Life Trigger Unintended Consequences?
"Genetic Personalities": Are We One Synthetic-Skin Invention Away from Getting Rid of the Human Species?
Hotwiring the Human Genome
Posted at 03:30 AM in Genetics | Permalink
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Comments
No surprise. Science Fiction has become reality again.
Posted by: DigitalExtremeMediaGroup | June 15, 2009 at 12:15 PM
Who wants to live forever?
What a pain in the arse.
Posted by: ZaZ | June 15, 2009 at 05:21 PM
I read that last sentence right at a very dramatic moment in Bach's Toccata & Fugue. What a deep moment.
Posted by: AndrewB | June 15, 2009 at 11:32 PM
Who wants to die?
What a pain in the arse.
Posted by: Frank Glover | June 16, 2009 at 12:24 AM
Please let this happen. I can't stand the thought of dying. Immortality has always been my dream. I just pray I live to see it.
Posted by: Tyler | June 17, 2009 at 01:13 AM
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Dna1
Scientists are working on mutations to generate immortality. This is not a comic book. Early experiments have greatly extended the lifespan of bioengineered worms, enhancing their genetic integrity and giving them resistance to many things that would normally kill them. Again, this is not a comic book. Or a horror movie.
Caenorhabditis Elegans, or C. Elegans for scientists who don't want to waste half their life saying the first word, are the all rounders of the genetic modification world. An extremely simple and easy-to-incubate lifeform, they nevertheless model many vital genetic aspects and have been used in everything from cancer studies to biological computing prototypes.
Harvard medical school staff have engaged in (Elegans) immortality research based on a simple observation: certain cell lines are immortal. You'll be gone by the end of the century, and your current skin'll be gone before the end of the month, but in your very existence the immortality of the first primate lives on. While "somatic" cells (the cells that make everything except babies) wither and die, the "germ" cells (sperm and ova for us) make new organisms, which then replicate and make new germ cells, and are effectively immortal.
There's more to this than Reader's Digest essays on living on through your children - germ cells are far, far better at staying alive than their somatic siblings. Specially designed to convey genetic information to offspring (the entire point of a species), germ cells express enhanced immune abilities and resistance to many genetic stresses which break up regular cells. And the Harvard team have tricked their somatic cousins into acting the same way.
By modifying the DAF-16 transcription factor the team gifted the millimeter-scale worms with extended lifespans, and if you guessed that there are an insane number of extra effects beyond "one single gene tweak" then congratulations on understanding genetics better than Hollywood does.
Don't worry about overcrowding or hiring Soylent chefs just yet, though. While the research is applicable to mammalian cells in many ways, the simple fact is that you are your neurons, not your germ cells, and those neural cells are pretty different from the C Elegans model. It's certainly conceivable that we could adapt neurons the same way (though conceiving isn't something we'll want to do when everyone lives eternally), but unless the Einstein and Feynmann of genetics already exist and are the same person, you're one or two generations too early.
Posted by Casey Kazan.
http://www.harvardscience.harvard.edu/foundations/articles/researchers-learn-how-mutations-extend-life-span
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/nature08106.pdf
Related Galaxy posts:
GATTACA's Facebook: The Risks Of Sharing Genetic Information Online
Artificial DNA: Will Controlling the Code of Life Trigger Unintended Consequences?
"Genetic Personalities": Are We One Synthetic-Skin Invention Away from Getting Rid of the Human Species?
Hotwiring the Human Genome
Posted at 03:30 AM in Genetics | Permalink
Email this post
Show your support.
Recommend this article!
Bookmark it with delicious! | Submit to StumbleUpon | Bookmark it with Reddit! | Review it on NewsTrust | Yahoo Buzz | Yahoo Buzz | Propeller
Comments
No surprise. Science Fiction has become reality again.
Posted by: DigitalExtremeMediaGroup | June 15, 2009 at 12:15 PM
Who wants to live forever?
What a pain in the arse.
Posted by: ZaZ | June 15, 2009 at 05:21 PM
I read that last sentence right at a very dramatic moment in Bach's Toccata & Fugue. What a deep moment.
Posted by: AndrewB | June 15, 2009 at 11:32 PM
Who wants to die?
What a pain in the arse.
Posted by: Frank Glover | June 16, 2009 at 12:24 AM
Please let this happen. I can't stand the thought of dying. Immortality has always been my dream. I just pray I live to see it.
Posted by: Tyler | June 17, 2009 at 01:13 AM
Post a comment
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Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Can Gene Mutations Generate Immortality? Harvard Research Team Says "Yes":
« Our Planet's "BioFingerprint" Discovered: Search for Earth's Twin Just Got Easier | Main | The Daily Flash -Eco, Space, Tech (6/16) »
Read Realtime Science News
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http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/06/can-genetic-mutations-generate-immortality-harvard-research-team-says-yes.html
:cool: