Category Archives: Transhuman News

COBIS 2015 Science Film (Genetic Engineering)
COBIS 2015 Science Film (Genetic Engineering) Vivek Narendra Kevin Abraham.

By: Vivekanand Narendra

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COBIS 2015 Science Film (Genetic Engineering) - Video

Genetic Engineering Enlightenment
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Genetic Engineering Enlightenment - Video

Supercomputers and genetic engineering could help boost crops ability to convert sunlight into energy and tackle looming food shortages, according to a team of researchers.

Photosynthesis is far from its theoretical maximum efficiency, say the authors of a paper in Cell, published on 26 March. They say that supercomputing advances could allow scientists to model every stage in the process and identify bottlenecks in improving plant growth.

But the authors add that far more science spending is needed to increase yields through these sophisticated genetic manipulations, which include refining the photosynthesis process.

Anything we discover in the lab now wont be in a farmers field for 20 to 30 years, says lead author Stephen Long, a plant biologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in the United States. If we discover we have a crisis then, its already too late.

The paper says that, by 2050, the world is predicted to require 85 per cent more staple food crops than were produced in 2013. It warns that yield gains from last centurys Green Revolution are stagnating as traditional approaches to genetic improvement reach biological limits.

Instead, the group says crops such as rice and wheat, which evolved the more common C3 method of photosynthesis, could be upgraded to the more efficient C4 process found in crops such as maize, sorghum and sugar cane.

This could be done by transplanting genes from C4 plants to widen the spectrum of light the receiving plants can process and improve their growth, the scientists say.

Longs lab has demonstrated in a soon-to-be-published paper that inserting genes from cyanobacteria, a type of photosynthetic bacteria, into crop plants can make photosynthesis 30 per cent more efficient. A project backed by the philanthropic Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is now attempting to convert rice from C3 to C4

The paper identifies two steps necessary to achieve these gains. First, techniques that allow researchers to insert genes into targeted parts of the genome must be translated from microbe biotechnology into plant biotechnology. Second, existing partial computer models of crop plants must be combined into a complete simulation.

Genetic improvements will also have to work alongside improved farming practices, the authors say. Long says that only half of the yield gains from the Green Revolution were the result of improving crops genetic potential. Another large chunk was getting the agronomy right for those genetic improvements, he says.

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How can we improve plant growth?

Genetic engineering of blood cells could help cure widespread and crippling diseases such as sickle cell anaemia. Above, blood samples collected during a conference on sickle cell anaemia in Senegal. Photograph: Pierre Holtz/EPA

The last time thoughtful and well-informed scientists demanded a moratorium on the use of genetic engineering techniques was in 1975, when it had just become obvious that DNA from one species could be spliced into entirely different organisms and still function there. This is now so commonplace that we take it for granted but at the time it seemed to open up terrible risks. So a conference, convened at Asilomar in California by the man who had come furthest in the world at the technique, drew up very clear safeguards and made them public.

The next stage could be to apply the technique to make modifications in the human genome that can be passed on

The transplantation of genes from one organism to another is now widespread in science and often extremely beneficial. No one doubts that it could be used in wicked and dangerous ways, but with the right safeguards it has an immense power for good. This does not mean that the fears expressed, and acted on, at Asilomar were ridiculous.

Now there are calls for a fresh moratorium on some techniques of genetic engineering. They are worth taking seriously. The demand has been prompted by the spread and incipient commercialisation of a new technique for editing single genes, called Crispr-Cas. This may not be more effective than some of its predecessors, but it is very much simpler to use, which means that far more labs can use it, and for many more purposes. They will be operating in very different political, ethical and regulatory frameworks. We can no longer assume that the exploitation of scientific discoveries will be controlled and directed from the US and Europe. But that does not relieve us of the responsibility of keeping our own housesinorder.

The democratic control of science was an idea much more alive in the 1970s than it is today, when we are numbed by the assumption that all knowledge will be appropriated by the people who paid for its discovery. Shameless attempts to privatise knowledge essential to a technological civilisation, from software patents to the human genome, have flourished in ways thatwere almost unimaginable at the time ofthe Asilomar conference.

Crispr has already been shown capable of some astonishing feats when used on animals. It will undoubtedly lead to more precise genetic engineering in plants. There are clear therapeutic prospects for humans. Aspects of this future are exhilarating. To be able to re-engineer blood cells and cure the widespread and crippling diseases such as thalassaemia and sickle cell anaemia, is an exciting prospect. But pause, and consider the long-term implications. The next stage could be to apply the technique to make modifications in the human genome that can be passed on. It could wipe out some inherited disease. It could also be used to create a world in which the rich were different from you and me not because they have more money but because theyd spent some of it on better genes. It poses grave ethical questions that risk a public backlash against a technique that, properly directed, offers great potential. It is time for another Asilomar, and a global conversation about theproper limits ofscience.

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The Guardian view on the latest genetic engineering techniques: we need to talk about this, Professor

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The Science

The conventional strategy for producing ethanol from plant biomass requires costly pretreatment and enzyme-driven reactions. Refining another strategy known as consolidated bioprocessing (CPB) could reduce costs. In second-generation CPB, a microorganism splits of water and ferments the products to ethanol, reducing the cost. Now, scientists engineered a strain of a CBP bacterium called Caldicellulosiruptor bescii that efficiently breaks down biomass without pretreatment. The microbe produces ethanol, demonstrating the successful conversion of switchgrass cellulosic biomass.

The Impact

Direct conversion of biomass to ethanol without pretreatment represents a new paradigm for CPB, offering the potential for carbon-neutral, cost-effective, and sustainable biofuel production.

Summary

Producing ethanol from plant biomass typically requires three major steps: physicochemical pretreatment, enzymatic breakdown of biomass into its constituent sugars, and fermentation. Pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis are costly steps in the process. CBP could reduce costs. In CBP, unpretreated cellulosic biomass is converted to a biofuel in a single process by a microbe that breaks down the biomass and ferments the resulting sugars. Caldicellulosiruptor bescii had been shown to ferment untreated switchgrass, but it lacked the genes to make ethanol. Because C. bescii is a thermophile (heat loving) and CBP is carried out at elevated temperatures, a gene for a heat-stable enzyme enabling ethanol synthesis was needed. Researchers identified a candidate gene in Clostridium thermocellum and cloned it into C. bescii. The engineered strain of C. bescii was then able to produce ethanol from cellobiose, Avicel, and switchgrass. To optimize ethanol fermentation, two genes were deleted that would otherwise divert fermentation products. In this new C. bescii strain, roughly 30% of biomass was fermented, and 1.7 moles of ethanol were produced for each mole of glucose, an amount close to the theoretical 2.0 moles of ethanol per mole of glucose. Although efficiencies can be further improved, this study is an important step in realizing the potential of CBP and provides a platform for engineering the production of advanced biofuels and other bioproducts directly from cellulosic biomass without harsh and expensive pretreatment.

Funding

This research was conducted by the BioEnergy Science Center, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Research Center supported by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research within DOE's Office of Science.

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Microbe Produces Ethanol From Switchgrass Without Pretreatment

I have loved a lot of Craigslist ads in my time, but I truly love this one the most. It sounds like a plot ripped from The Avengers or Fantastic Four, crossed with VC-funded biotech startup madness.

Heres what the ad says:

I am a billionaire who needs help creating a mouth wash.solution.gum with CRISPR-Cas9 containing viruses that will change specific genetic loci in my cheek epithelial cells to prevent a positive match against DNA found at the scene of a crime (my DNA was planted by a Doctor who is Doomed).

Skills Required

*CRISPR-Cas9 engineering of mammalian epithelial cells

*Experience in DNA forensics

*Experience with Robotics

*Between 59 and 60 in height and medium build in case I need you to wear a custom built suit

*Must code in Python, Haha, joking, we will write everything in C and Assembly

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This Craigslist Ad for a Genetic Engineer Is Pure Wonderful Madness