Category Archives: Transhuman News

IMAGE:This is Charles Gersbach, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University. view more

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke researchers have developed a new method to precisely control when genes are turned on and active.

The new technology allows researchers to turn on specific gene promoters and enhancers -- pieces of the genome that control gene activity -- by chemically manipulating proteins that package DNA. This web of biomolecules that supports and controls gene activity is known as the epigenome.

The researchers say having the ability to steer the epigenome will help them explore the roles that particular promoters and enhancers play in cell fate or the risk for genetic disease and it could provide a new avenue for gene therapies and guiding stem cell differentiation.

The study appears online April 6 in Nature Biotechnology.

"The epigenome is everything associated with the genome other than the actual genetic sequence, and is just as important as our DNA in determining cell function in healthy and diseased conditions," said Charles Gersbach, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Duke. "That becomes immediately obvious when you consider that we have over 200 cell types, and yet the DNA in each is virtually the same. The epigenome determines which genes each cell activates and to what degree."

This genetic puppetmaster consists of DNA packaging proteins called histones and a host of chemical modifications -- either to these histones or the DNA itself -- that help determine whether a gene is on or off.

But Gersbach's team didn't have to modify the genes themselves to gain some control.

"Next to every gene is a DNA sequence called a promoter that controls its activity," explained Gersbach. "But there's also many other pieces of the genome called enhancers that aren't next to any genes at all, and yet they play a critical role in influencing gene activity too."

Timothy Reddy, assistant professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at Duke, has spent the better part of a decade mapping millions of these enhancers across the human genome. There has not, however, been a good way to find out exactly what each one does. An enhancer might affect a gene next door or several genes across the genome -- or maybe none at all.

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Pulling the strings of our genetic puppetmasters

Bayers Marijn Dekkers (Christof Koepsel/Getty Images)

TOP STORIES

Endure if you must The Washington Posts takeout on tech gurus and venture capitalists with too much time on their hands trying to extend life (though most of the possible stuff they talk about are simply medical treatments not invented). Accompanying the story is a somewhat interesting game The Post created in which you drag stem cells into your brain and so on to extend your life.

I know its a week away but you should probably start watching the HIMSS 2015 hashtag now.

LIFE SCIENCE

A long but worthwhile read on a moratorium and proper path toward human genetic engineering.

In the long run, I believe the permissibility of using germline genomic modification to make babies will be, and should be, a political issue. Right now, I suspect I would opt for regulating it on a safety/benefit basis, allowing it only when the potential benefits outweighed the risks. But I might change my mind, either because of newly discovered facts or well-made arguments. Importantly, though I do not think that my view should govern. The people, through their governments, should govern.

Medtronic has invested $2 million in DreaMed Diabetes and will be using its artificial pancreas technology in is insulin pumps.

I hope you didnt miss The Wall Street Journals look at Bayer and its continued focus on its health and agriculture businesses. Bayer is dumping its $10 billion specialty plastics business.

Still, some analysts are skeptical that Bayers drug pipeline is strong enough to deliver many new products with selling power like the current wave. But Bayer expects at least three new drugs in midstage clinical testing, including two for chronic heart failure, to advance this year. Strong data is expected for those trials, said Ali Al-Bazergan, an analyst at Datamonitor Healthcare in London.

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Going deep on life extension investments and human genetic engineering (Morning Read)