Hacking longevity – Telangana Today

With software at the heart of every industry today, an interesting question arises: Can the human body be controlled by code?

The onset of the new renaissance means, most new age businesses can now be controlled by coders huddled in a lab.

The surge prices on uber are controlled by coders and so are the number of cars available in a location. When Tesla realises theres an error with the charger plug that comes with the car, it simply delivers an Over the air update in real time, instead of having to recall the cars. Hackers today are known to be sitting in an aeroplane, plugging into the aircraft LAN and can potentially take control. With software at the heart of every industry today, an interesting question arises: Can the human body be controlled by code ?

Turns out: Of course!

Gene editing techniques have been around for thousands of years. In the ancient past this was achieved by selective breeding. Thats how you end up with exotic dog breeds like the Dalmatian. Over the last few decades, more aggressive techniques like creating artificial mutations by subjecting organisms to radiation, and clogging the organism with new genetic material with the hope that some of it will stick have been invented. Most produce that one sees in the supermarket today is a product of such experimentation, More popularly known as GMOs. These techniques are cumbersome, error prone and its often difficult to predict results accurately.

Things have changed dramatically in the last few years with the discovery of a new gene editing technique called CRISPR CAS 9. CRISPR CAS 9 techniques allow a regular biologist in the lab to have access to sophisticated gene editing equipment and materials for less than 2000 dollars.

So what is gene editing really? Each human cell consists of 23 pairs of chromosomes, inherited in equal numbers both from the mother and father. Each chromosome is made up of billions of molecules of DNA. DNA can be categorized into thousands of units called genes. Each gene has enough information to express one protein. Sometimes errors can creep into the genetic code. Instead of having the letter T, the gene can have G at a crucial location. DNA is pretty much the operating manual for how a cell should go about its business, and you have a copy of it with each and every cell. Therefore any such error can create an effect across the body.

Where CRISPR comes in here, is that using these tools clinical biologists are able to remove an incorrect gene and replace that with a gene that will be more beneficial.

For example, if you have an individual suffering from sickle-cell anemia, there is a possibility in a few years that the patient is injected with a virus carrying CRISPR CAS 9 protein can traverse the body and replace all faulty genetic material with new material that fixes the problem. There is also the possibility that patients suffering from cancer can have CRISPR edited antibodies that fight all the bad cancer causing cells and kill them. CRISPR offers this wonderful opportunity to develop highly personalized proteins to deal with patients suffering from severe genetic challenge and increase their longevity.

CRISPR is an approach that bacteria have been using for millions of years to protect themselves from regular invasions by harmful viruses. With the same approach humans today are trying to use in a variety of applications ranging from creating super foods to eliminating genetic illnesses, improving human longevity, personalizing medicine and bringing down the quality of healthcare.

Having said that, last year U.S. director of national intelligence, James Clapper, ominously declared that genome editing was a potential weapon of mass destruction. With the democratization of access to CRISPR technology, now every qualified individual can potentially do experiments editing the gene pool. For example, Verily, an Alphabet company, is looking to create genetically altered male mosquitos that on mating with the female anopheles mosquito can create a generation of sterile mosquitoes. This will make sure that in a few years, these types of mosquitos will not exist anymore. While this is great news for people, it may not be equally beneficial for the ecosystem. There are many animals and birds that might be part of the mosquito ecosystem, and depend on it for their survival. Thus secondary, tertiary and changes beyond that can create a world that we no longer might recognize.

While its a great opportunity for countries like India to do research in a highly competitive space like this, we also need to be cognizant of the potential harm, and therefore there is a strong case for legislation globally.

The author is CEO of [x]cubeLABS

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Hacking longevity - Telangana Today