> “CRISPR has been around for 15 years and what have we really even done with it?” Zayner says. “We’re just sitting on this technology. The only things holding us back are funding, the market traditions and the lack of enough crazy people in bio-tech.”
EXACTLY. We've been able to CRISPR primate embryos for at least 5 years, and we're STILL not able to do any gengineering on humans, anywhere in the world.
And there's a ton of low-hanging fruit, even with just SNP's! A single-letter DNA change could give you any of the following:
1. "Free" bodybuilder style muscles with low body fat (MSTN knockout, as seen in bully whippets and Belgian Blue bulls, and at least 2 living humans)
2. 1-3 less hours of sleep a night - a proline-to-arginine alteration at amino acid position 385 of DEC2. Noncarriers average 8.06 hours, and carriers average 6.25 hours and perform better under sleep deprivation. Over a 100 year lifespan, that's like 7.5 years more of life!
3. PCSK5 and PCSK9 - 88% lower chance of coronary heart disease
4. ABCC11, low odor production - prevalent in Asian populations, people with this variant have low body odor even when sweaty.
I actually wrote a whole post about this with a bunch more. I want to be able to put these in my kids! Why are the scientists in seemingly every country in the world asleep at the wheel on this?
Does anyone remember Kac's Alba? https://www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html which was controversial decades ago. (I went to an artist's talk at U.C.B. that drew irate animal activists, but attitudes have evolved). There is a link to some of the outrage on the bottom of the main page.
> “CRISPR has been around for 15 years and what have we really even done with it?” Zayner says. “We’re just sitting on this technology. The only things holding us back are funding, the market traditions and the lack of enough crazy people in bio-tech.”
EXACTLY. We've been able to CRISPR primate embryos for at least 5 years, and we're STILL not able to do any gengineering on humans, anywhere in the world.
And there's a ton of low-hanging fruit, even with just SNP's! A single-letter DNA change could give you any of the following:
1. "Free" bodybuilder style muscles with low body fat (MSTN knockout, as seen in bully whippets and Belgian Blue bulls, and at least 2 living humans)
2. 1-3 less hours of sleep a night - a proline-to-arginine alteration at amino acid position 385 of DEC2. Noncarriers average 8.06 hours, and carriers average 6.25 hours and perform better under sleep deprivation. Over a 100 year lifespan, that's like 7.5 years more of life!
3. PCSK5 and PCSK9 - 88% lower chance of coronary heart disease
4. ABCC11, low odor production - prevalent in Asian populations, people with this variant have low body odor even when sweaty.
I actually wrote a whole post about this with a bunch more. I want to be able to put these in my kids! Why are the scientists in seemingly every country in the world asleep at the wheel on this?
Awesome work, per usual, Ashlee.
Does anyone remember Kac's Alba? https://www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html which was controversial decades ago. (I went to an artist's talk at U.C.B. that drew irate animal activists, but attitudes have evolved). There is a link to some of the outrage on the bottom of the main page.
https://www.ruminato.com/p/gorzon-the-magnificent
I have to think you thought of me when you put bunnies in a headline 😀🐰