#ethical genetics

[science-lover33]

Genetic engineering: CRISPR and beyond

In genetic engineering, we find ourselves amidst a scientific revolution with the advent of revolutionary technologies like CRISPR-Cas9. However, our journey into the intricate landscape of genetic manipulation is far from complete. This post delves into the nuanced world of genetic engineering, exploring cutting-edge technologies and their remarkable potential in shaping the future of medicine and biotechnology.

CRISPR-Cas9: Precision at the Molecular Level

CRISPR-Cas9, a revolutionary genome editing tool, stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats and CRISPR-associated protein 9. It utilizes a guide RNA (gRNA) to target specific DNA sequences, and the Cas9 protein acts as molecular scissors to cut the DNA at precisely defined locations. This break in the DNA prompts the cell's natural repair machinery to make changes, either through non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) or homology-directed repair (HDR). CRISPR-Cas9's precision allows for gene knockout, modification, or insertion with remarkable accuracy.

Beyond CRISPR: Emerging Technologies

While CRISPR-Cas9 has dominated the field of genetic engineering, numerous promising technologies have emerged on the horizon. These include CRISPR-Cas variants like CRISPR-Cas12 and CRISPR-Cas13, which offer unique advantages such as smaller size, increased specificity, and targeting of RNA. Additionally, base editing techniques, such as adenine base editors (ABEs) and cytosine base editors (CBEs), enable the direct conversion of one DNA base into another without causing double-strand breaks, expanding the range of genetic modifications possible.

Applications in Medicine

The implications of these advancements are profound, particularly in medicine. Genetic engineering can potentially treat various genetic disorders, from cystic fibrosis to sickle cell anemia, by correcting disease-causing mutations at their source. Precision medicine, tailored to an individual's genetic makeup, is becoming increasingly feasible, allowing for personalized therapies with minimal side effects.

Ethical Considerations and Regulation

As we venture further into the genetic frontier, we must acknowledge the ethical considerations surrounding genetic engineering. The ability to modify the human germline, with implications for future generations, raises ethical dilemmas that necessitate rigorous oversight and regulation. The international community is developing guidelines to ensure responsible use of these powerful tools.

Future Directions and Challenges

While genetic engineering offers immense promise, it is not without its challenges. Off-target effects, unintended consequences, and the potential for creating designer babies are among the issues that demand careful consideration. Researchers and ethicists must work in tandem to navigate this uncharted territory.

References

Doudna, J. A., & Charpentier, E. (2014). The new frontier of genome engineering with CRISPR-Cas9. Science, 346(6213), 1258096.

Anzalone, A. V., Randolph, P. B., Davis, J. R., Sousa, A. A., Koblan, L. W., Levy, J. M., … & Liu, D. R. (2019). Search-and-replace genome editing without double-strand breaks or donor DNA. Nature, 576(7785), 149-157.

Kime, E. (2021). CRISPR and the ethics of gene editing. Nature Reviews Genetics, 22(1), 3-4.

This post only scratches the surface of the profound transformations occurring in genetic engineering. The relentless pursuit of knowledge and ethical exploration will shape the future of this field as we continue to unlock the intricate secrets of our genetic code.

[egophiliac]

have you been keeping up with gavv? because holy hell, i think the beginning arc has been one of the strongest beginnings we've had. so many goddamn emotional moments and crazy good fights

oh Gavv has been excellent so far, I've been enjoying it a lot! :> Shoma's an absolutely delightful protagonist, and the balance between "cute silly candy shenanigans" and "urban fantasy crime noir" is...working surprisingly well, actually?

although it does lead to the show basically having two modes:

[savagechickens]

Method Madness.

And more genetics.

[crimeronan]

On the Luz, Vee and Hunter homeless in Gravesfield era... I'm just imagining there being like... reports of a wolf in the woods (Vee being responsible and nabbing food for them in a way that won't get them caught for stealing) alongside the reports of a trio of kids living out there alongside maybe a parent... But Camila is more interested about what the heck a wolf is doing out in woods where there haven't been any in centuries (and hasn't realized one of those kids is luz yet) so it taking a poke around to see that's going on (being slightly life ambivalent about it but shh) and then stumbles into where the trio are staying, finding them all snuggled up with Vee in wolf form keeping them warm and acting distinctly non-wolflike and talking. Camila overhearing them talking about totally magical shit and then just having a slightly massive panic when Hunter or Vee calls Luz by her name.

YES YES YES I'M OBSESSED WITH THIS. i love the idea of camila wanting to get to the bottom of the wolf thing from an animal welfare perspective. like, it's pretty common for people to mistake large coyotes for wolves, but not this Many people, and the blurry night trail pics on nextdoor don't look like a coyote at all. did someone just release a 1st gen wolfdog in the woods and call it a day??

(i don't know what connecticut's laws are like re: wolfdogs and crossbred exotics bc every state is different & it's not my area of expertise. camila would Definitely know though.)

camila's heart leaping into her Throat when she sees the "wolf" around kids, and then her hearing it speak and being like "oh, it's a..... costume.....?" a la yesterday's lie, and then she's like. hey. actually what the fuck.

Compels Meeee....

[apostate-in-an-alcove]

Dog people who are obsessed with pedigree and bloodlines in their dogs give off real 'white supremacist with a passion for eugenics' vibes.

[rachaelmayo]

What do you get when you cross a cockatoo and an octopus? ...A call from the ethics board and revocation of your grant, most likely... 😜

This is The Nefarious Octoparrot, another personal favorite, from 2008.

Mom fostered an umbrella cockatoo for a year or so. That bird was, in fact, a cat with feathers. A smart one. She got into everything, and was naturally a cat-3 hurricane wherever she went. Great bird. I imagined how much fun she would be if she had octopus arms to help her get into stuff... And here's where I landed. This obviously isn't an umbrella cockatoo; it's a fantasy birb with parrot and cockatoo overtones. The octopus details are also entirely fantastic rather than modeled on any extant species. (Though there might have been nudibranch inspiration for the colors and patterns.)

Prismacolor pencil over watercolor.

[namorian]

Star Trek: the future is kinda sorta utopian. Like it’s now Mostly Not Bad and people are Usually Good

Me, gleefully making ocs: so this is a whole multi-planetary faction of primarily clone cyborgs who are just warhammer 40k for cowards (read: the cover of a metal album but a whole society) and this is a planet of human colonists that got shunted back in time and way across space who’ve devolved into mad max shit and these two are mistreated orphans who become best friends and basically run a criminal organization just out of reach of the primary political powers and this—

[yellowocaballero]

Would you write anything with/about Spider-man 2099? 👀

This ask made me scroll back in my blog and go, "Wait did I actually write the entire manifesto on why Miguel is a communist icon because I thought I had refrained from that."

I'm 95% sure that I did, in fact, refrain from explaining why there are only two good superhero media (The Incredible Hulk 1977 and Spider-man 2099) because they are the only two truly socialist superhero media. I must have mentioned that I fucking loved Spider-man 2099 somewhere. Because I fucking do. Miguel is THE character of all time. I love Spider-Man, I love characters who are COMPLETE DICKS, I love guys who just kinda wanna go home and sleep.

I absolutely would write something for him, I fucking love that guy. I haven't had a really solid idea yet, one that would make a story that would get off the ground, but if the stars align then hell yeah. Miguel is the perfect superhero because he never once tries to stop anybody from robbing a bank, committing a crime, disturbing the peace, etc. He will only ever do anything helpful if it fucks over Cyberpunk Dystopia Evil Corp, because he hates them, or if his brother nags him to do something about systematic oppression. Over the course of all of Spider-Man 2099 he stops ONE mugging. Because a cop was mugging a woman. So he could beat up the cop. Character of ALL TIME.

....this isn't a story idea but I was absolutely joking about hypothetically:

imagining one of those tepid-ass mcu spider-man fanfic where there's a class field trip to stark industies or something and peter's outed as Tony Stark's Baby Son Boy, of which there are literally 500 and every one is exactly the same I don't read mcu peter fanfic anyway

tropey fic where peter's doing that tropey hijinky runs away from crowd of friends to hide in a broom closet and preserve his secret identity

except he just opens the door to an abandoned wet lab to see miguel electrocuting a rat or something

peter is fucking convinced dr ohara is a mad scientist stealing starktech genetic secrets. tony doesn't listen because he thinks peters feelings are just hurt after miguel called him the saltine cracker of nepotism. miguel is, of course, stealing starktech time travel technology. meanwhile a guy in a black spider suit is firebombing the NYPD

miguel assumes that the richer and more important you are, the more evil you are. faced with involuntary time travel, he is operating under his standard MO of finding the most evil corporation in the tristate area and looking them up on glassdoor. working under this assumption, miguel assumes itll be too much work to go ahead and kill tony stark in the name of the proletariat but he does slowly sabotage their entire genetics division.

MJ threatens to break up with Peter if he tries to stop the NYPD from being firebombed

[videoworm]

B'Lanna carrying her childhood trauma with her all stuffed down very real. Very good episode

(the tags are full of spoilers lol)

[minecraftorangesheepjpg]

yelled at my roommate for spewing eugenics in my face :)

[crymeariveronceagain]

IF YOU LIKE MY ANALYSIS OF KOTLC, YOU SHOULD READ THIS ARTICLE!!! The author has a BA in Literature and a Master's in Library Sciences!!!! Her article is addressed to adults and takes the tone of legitimate, actual criticism. What she's writing here is the kind of stuff that I do as an English Major at my college. The first things she says are from an adult point of view on the reading of KOTLC. Like, she's coming at it with the same point of view that I went into with my re-reads two years ago. It's very critical and very interesting. The ethical points she raises are things I've noticed Shannon bringing up herself!!!! And the criticism of it not knowing what to do with its huge heavy topics is completely supported by the text!!! STARS ABOVE THIS IS SOME GOOD CLOSE READING!!! I love it so much. I need to hold onto this article forever and ever!!!! COVERT DYSTOPIA ASDLKSAJDLJK LET'S FREAKING GOOO!!!

[troythecatfish]

[farahfriday]

i am so sorry … but … your ghost looks like one of the pesto twins from bob’s burgers 😭

get used to it cus by the time im done brainwashing you all, seeing a picture of professor farnsworth or grandpa simpson is gonna trigger a pavlovian orgasm

[boyheros]

are there any fun facts abt ur clones that ud want the average viewer to know?

SO sorry i got this ask when i was super busy and then. forgot. ANYWAYS here we go. crash-course in oc clone basics:

in the context of the story, the human species has been on a major decline for a whiiiiile. going extinct basically. cloning was meant as a sortof stop-gap to try and bolster the population, BUT, making clones wasn't actually the original goal of the whole endeavor, it was making "human facsimiles." they're very similar conceptually but not the same! human faxes are basically the clones you see often in popular media. an exact copy of someone, mind and memories and personality and all. conversely, clones are just. genetic copies of someone, they're completely unique people otherwise. like an identical twin (that you made in a lab, perhaps...) so yeah technically human faxes are leaning into the "trying to obtain immortality" area bc you're trying to make a new version of yourself that'll outlive you. whatever. no one was ever successful in making a true human fax, so clones became the hot new thing.

originally, clones were made test-tube baby style (again, how you see in media lol) BUT it took just as long as a normal pregnancy and was expensive and blah blah blah. eventually a new method was perfected which utilized techniques from 'base black manufacturing,' which was an innovative (nearly) no-waste method of manufacturing. that also was only performed on non-living things, prior to using it for cloning... so now clones are made on cloning machines !! (or sometimes "human facsimile machines," because when they found the new method they tried making faxes again lol. still didn't work). it's also important to me that you know: they aren't grown anymore. they're made. on the machine. you no longer have to wait a pesky 9 months for birth. and they aren't even born

when you donate your DNA, there's a posited rule that only 3 clones of you will EVER be made (3+1, or "three's a crowd" rule) but this often isn't the case depending on lineage. if your clone goes off and fosters a bigass (biological) family, then LIVON isn't gonna introduce more people with the same DNA into the gene pool. the human population is too low to risk that.....so yes LIVON basically monitors everyone they can in order to track this but. don't worry about it....

ok so those were large exposition paragraphs not "fun facts"... so here's a fact that is more fun (hopefully): almost all clones are made with bellybuttons, despite not ever being attached to an umbilical cord or anything. BUT! some clones do lack that feature. Maverick is one such clone lol.

[some-pers0n]

I hate word limits on essays so goddamn much. Why won't you let me ramble to you. Why won't you let me have the ability to make this good. Why do I have to cut corners and make it sloppier than it needs to be. Because you're lazy and don't want to read too much? Of course. For fucks sake...

[bmpmp3]

the villainess flips the script is a really fun manhwa with gorgeous art and my wonderful son luca who is a little bitch who i love so much BUT i will say. the family tree situation as the story has gone on makes my head hurt