Human Global Genetic Updates: Is it Really That Hard?
So I'm sitting on the couch the other night watching a documentary on Gigantism...a condition in humans where uncontrolled growth occurs due to a genetic defect...when the narrator says that "unfortunately it is beyond the scope of our current abilities to correct this condition at the genetic level...". Suddenly I have an epiphany, that indeed it should be within the scope of our ability to correct this or any other genetic defect, as long as that defect occurs in a part of the human genome that we already have mapped! Now bear in mind, if I, a non genetic scientist can come up with a solution in a matter of literally seconds, why is it that the entire world BOK (body of knowledge) couldn't have already come up with it? Allow me to elucidate the process I propose....
The first breakthrough came to me when I altered the context I give to the human body. Rather than think of it as a pulsing mass of jellies and chemicals, I rather visualized it as a database. In the IT world, a database is a collection of individual records, each with a common structure, yet each also having its own unique value. This entire collection of records IS a database. The human body is a collection of individual cells (records), each with a common structure (human DNA), yet also having its own unique value (liver cell as opposed to a skin cell, etc.). This entire collection of cells (records) is the living body (database). Okay, so here's where the first major bridge takes place.
Let's say for example's sake that my database stores birthdays. I have one million individual records, each one stores a name, social security number, and a birthday. Well, somehow my database was "off" from the beginning, and every one of the birthdays I have stored is one day ahead of what it should be. How this happened is irrelevant; what IS important is that I need to correct it...globally. In the database world, when we need to make the SAME change to every record in the database, we refer to this as a "global update". We create a routine that will go throughout the entire database, one record at a time, and for each one it will make the correction we need. Now then, let's take this same approach and apply it to the human database.
Using Gigantism as our example, every cell in the human body has the same identical defect: a section of a gene is slightly malformed. The solution would be to go throughout the entire body and, for each cell, correct that defective gene. The idea of doing this is already a reality and is called gene therapy. WHY it isn't in a more advanced state, though, I'm a bit befuddled. The crux of my proposed "global update" rests upon a little fella that we all live with and who is quite intimate with us all at a cellular level: Mr. Virus.
For eons we, as husbandmen, have been doing selective breeding. We've practiced it with dogs, cats, cattle, horses, and even on each other at different periods in time. The results of selective breeding are known before the process even takes place: we're trying to take an existing life form and, by leveraging nature's own process, guide the transformation of that species into something more advantageous for ourselves. Sheep with more wool, cows with more meat, cats with no hair...whatever it may be. Let's introduce our subject at this point, and illustrate the remainder of my idea. His name is Dieter, and he was born with Gigantism.
Dieter is 17 years old now, and stands 7 feet tall. His particular form of Gigantism has resulted in extremely exaggerated facial features and super elastic joints that cause his muscles to work extra hard trying to hold him physically together. Dieter needs a global update to correct the genetic malformation he's carrying. So let's send a sample of Dieter's DNA to the "Circle O" virus ranch to begin the process.
Circle O receives Dieter's DNA and immediately isolates and marks the defective section of the gene. They then construct a replacement section that corrects the defect, and begin the process of creating a virus that is specific to Dieter himself...one that is unable to reproduce or thrive in any host except Dieter. Since the lifecycle of a virus already includes the injection of its own DNA into its human host cell, this makes it the absolute perfect means of performing Dieter's global update. The trick now is to selectively breed this generic virus (itself selectively bred from the common influenza virus) until we have a batch whose DNA includes the genetic "patch" needed for Dieter. Oh, and in order to alleviate any unforseen propogation of our customized virus, we also breed in a 'self-destruct' mechanism that makes it non-viable after X number of replications...embed a "counter", if you will, within the DNA of the initial virus batch that will render it incapable of reproducing at a pre-set generation of itself. Additionally, since we have selectively bred this virus to Dieter specifically, Dieter's immune system will take longer to actually recognize it as an invader, thus giving the virus time to perform its duties.
After three months of selective breeding, Dieter's custom virus is ready to be introduced to its host. Dieter will experience mild flue-like symptoms throughout the process, but because of the rate at which viruses replicate and execute their lifecycle, within the course of two weeks the global update will be complete. It won't be necessary to reach 100% of the cells in Dieter's body; having affected 90 to 95% will be sufficient due to the body's own natural design of replacing itself. After two weeks, the virus fails to reproduce further due to its own built-in self-destruct mechanism, macrophages clean up what's left, and Dieter's gene therapy is complete.
The effects of the defective gene won't be taken away...Dieter won't shrink back to a normal size, nor will his joints become less elastic. He WILL, however, cease to grow at an uncontrolled rate and will resume a normal metabolism. Interceding at an earlier age, before puberty, would ensure that the adverse effects of Dieter's condition would have been minimal, at most. Heck, for that matter, the condition could have been detected during Dieter's first trimester, the virus created, and his gene therapy performed before his due date.
Now tell me...WHAT was so hard about that? Hmm? WHY after twenty years (or however long it's been) of sending money to Jerry's kids do we STILL have Jerry's kids???? I don't know, perhaps..PERHAPS...I'm over-simplifying things just a bit. But generally speaking, is there a flaw in my approach to performing human global genetic updates?
The floor is now open to feedback. Thanks for humoring me.
The first breakthrough came to me when I altered the context I give to the human body. Rather than think of it as a pulsing mass of jellies and chemicals, I rather visualized it as a database. In the IT world, a database is a collection of individual records, each with a common structure, yet each also having its own unique value. This entire collection of records IS a database. The human body is a collection of individual cells (records), each with a common structure (human DNA), yet also having its own unique value (liver cell as opposed to a skin cell, etc.). This entire collection of cells (records) is the living body (database). Okay, so here's where the first major bridge takes place.
Let's say for example's sake that my database stores birthdays. I have one million individual records, each one stores a name, social security number, and a birthday. Well, somehow my database was "off" from the beginning, and every one of the birthdays I have stored is one day ahead of what it should be. How this happened is irrelevant; what IS important is that I need to correct it...globally. In the database world, when we need to make the SAME change to every record in the database, we refer to this as a "global update". We create a routine that will go throughout the entire database, one record at a time, and for each one it will make the correction we need. Now then, let's take this same approach and apply it to the human database.
Using Gigantism as our example, every cell in the human body has the same identical defect: a section of a gene is slightly malformed. The solution would be to go throughout the entire body and, for each cell, correct that defective gene. The idea of doing this is already a reality and is called gene therapy. WHY it isn't in a more advanced state, though, I'm a bit befuddled. The crux of my proposed "global update" rests upon a little fella that we all live with and who is quite intimate with us all at a cellular level: Mr. Virus.
For eons we, as husbandmen, have been doing selective breeding. We've practiced it with dogs, cats, cattle, horses, and even on each other at different periods in time. The results of selective breeding are known before the process even takes place: we're trying to take an existing life form and, by leveraging nature's own process, guide the transformation of that species into something more advantageous for ourselves. Sheep with more wool, cows with more meat, cats with no hair...whatever it may be. Let's introduce our subject at this point, and illustrate the remainder of my idea. His name is Dieter, and he was born with Gigantism.
Dieter is 17 years old now, and stands 7 feet tall. His particular form of Gigantism has resulted in extremely exaggerated facial features and super elastic joints that cause his muscles to work extra hard trying to hold him physically together. Dieter needs a global update to correct the genetic malformation he's carrying. So let's send a sample of Dieter's DNA to the "Circle O" virus ranch to begin the process.
Circle O receives Dieter's DNA and immediately isolates and marks the defective section of the gene. They then construct a replacement section that corrects the defect, and begin the process of creating a virus that is specific to Dieter himself...one that is unable to reproduce or thrive in any host except Dieter. Since the lifecycle of a virus already includes the injection of its own DNA into its human host cell, this makes it the absolute perfect means of performing Dieter's global update. The trick now is to selectively breed this generic virus (itself selectively bred from the common influenza virus) until we have a batch whose DNA includes the genetic "patch" needed for Dieter. Oh, and in order to alleviate any unforseen propogation of our customized virus, we also breed in a 'self-destruct' mechanism that makes it non-viable after X number of replications...embed a "counter", if you will, within the DNA of the initial virus batch that will render it incapable of reproducing at a pre-set generation of itself. Additionally, since we have selectively bred this virus to Dieter specifically, Dieter's immune system will take longer to actually recognize it as an invader, thus giving the virus time to perform its duties.
After three months of selective breeding, Dieter's custom virus is ready to be introduced to its host. Dieter will experience mild flue-like symptoms throughout the process, but because of the rate at which viruses replicate and execute their lifecycle, within the course of two weeks the global update will be complete. It won't be necessary to reach 100% of the cells in Dieter's body; having affected 90 to 95% will be sufficient due to the body's own natural design of replacing itself. After two weeks, the virus fails to reproduce further due to its own built-in self-destruct mechanism, macrophages clean up what's left, and Dieter's gene therapy is complete.
The effects of the defective gene won't be taken away...Dieter won't shrink back to a normal size, nor will his joints become less elastic. He WILL, however, cease to grow at an uncontrolled rate and will resume a normal metabolism. Interceding at an earlier age, before puberty, would ensure that the adverse effects of Dieter's condition would have been minimal, at most. Heck, for that matter, the condition could have been detected during Dieter's first trimester, the virus created, and his gene therapy performed before his due date.
Now tell me...WHAT was so hard about that? Hmm? WHY after twenty years (or however long it's been) of sending money to Jerry's kids do we STILL have Jerry's kids???? I don't know, perhaps..PERHAPS...I'm over-simplifying things just a bit. But generally speaking, is there a flaw in my approach to performing human global genetic updates?
The floor is now open to feedback. Thanks for humoring me.
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Re: Human Global Genetic Updates: Is it Really That Hard?
I would like to see this question posed to those who can best answer it. I would love to hear their response. Maybe we don't challenge our scientific and medical community enough. How can we do that?
Posted by pearlaking on August 28, 2007 at 10:44 PM