George Church with a molecular model (2010)
"George Church (August 28, 1954- ) is an American molecular geneticist. He is currently Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and MIT, and a core faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University." (wikipedia)
BBC Future article published on 29 February 2012 tells about the work in progress by Professor George Church and his colleagues around the world on using DNA code to resurrect extinct animal species. It is simultaneously very interesting and very Frankenstein like scary reading:
Hunting passanger pigeons
A century ago, vast flocks of passenger pigeons covered the North American skies. Hundreds of millions, even billions, stretched across the horizon in every direction. A flyover could last an entire day. “It was this beautiful super-organism, like a dragon going through the skies,” says Harvard Medical School geneticist George Church.
And then European settlers arrived. Mass hunting and habitat loss rapidly reduced their numbers until on 1 September 1914, Martha, the last known passenger pigeon, died in Cincinnati Zoo.
But if Church has his way, this majestic sight could one day return to our skies. Armed with new reproductive biology and genome engineering technologies, he and other scientists are dreaming up ambitious plans to resurrect long-dead animals from pigeons to Tasmanian tigers and woolly mammoths. The same technologies could also prevent endangered species from going the way of the dodo – or the passenger pigeon.
Callaway
And then European settlers arrived. Mass hunting and habitat loss rapidly reduced their numbers until on 1 September 1914, Martha, the last known passenger pigeon, died in Cincinnati Zoo.
But if Church has his way, this majestic sight could one day return to our skies. Armed with new reproductive biology and genome engineering technologies, he and other scientists are dreaming up ambitious plans to resurrect long-dead animals from pigeons to Tasmanian tigers and woolly mammoths. The same technologies could also prevent endangered species from going the way of the dodo – or the passenger pigeon.
Callaway
The article goes on providing plenty of interesting and informative materials like the role of Dolly, the cloned sheep (5 July 1996 – 14 February 2003), and current research including Russian and Japanese attempts to resurrect the Woolly Mammoth.
Mammoth DNA statistics
Woolly Mammoths became extinct after the last Ice Age
This could have increased temperatures by up to 0.2°C
at high latitudes in the northern hemisphere.
This could have increased temperatures by up to 0.2°C
at high latitudes in the northern hemisphere.
These genomes exist in the form of computerised data, but they could serve as a blueprint for altering the DNA of a cell from a closely related species. For instance, the code of a woolly mammoth’s genome differs from an African elephant’s by roughly 240,000 DNA letters out of a total of 4 billion, though most of these changes are not likely to have a biological effect. An elephant iPS cell engineered to contain those mutations would theoretically be capable of producing woolly mammoth sperm.
Better yet, the woolly mammoth stem cells could be implanted besides an elephant embryo early in development, producing a chimera animal with some tissues made from elephant cells and others from mammoths. In some individuals the mammoth cells would contribute to sperm or eggs, and these cells be used to create a genuine mammoth through IVF.
Callaway
Better yet, the woolly mammoth stem cells could be implanted besides an elephant embryo early in development, producing a chimera animal with some tissues made from elephant cells and others from mammoths. In some individuals the mammoth cells would contribute to sperm or eggs, and these cells be used to create a genuine mammoth through IVF.
Callaway
Stem cell research in focus
Christian Church is, of course, taking a look at the work of George Church and other geneticists for this line of research has broad implications to everything living upon Earth.
Unfortunately, the track record of Church and natural sciences is not all that good and just the Pope saying Nope is not enough any more to stop the unstoppable train.
Top politicians, including decision makers at the highest levels of legislature, must take public positions on rapidly advancing stem cell research. And their views count at the polls. President Ronald Reagan new this and so did George Bush, and the matter has not escaped the attention of President Barak Obama, either.
Michael's warning against playing God
Michael Crichton (1942-2008)
The Sci-fi book by Michael Crichton, made by Steven Spielberg into the spectacular movie Jurassic Park, begins to look like more and more a secular prophecy ... and a rather scary one, for that!
In the book the Mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm (acted by Jeff Goldblum) has much of mumbo jumbo about Chaos theory. But his warning message boils down to the simple Law of of Murphy - if something can go wrong it will go wrong.
The realistic special effects in the movie really brought alive extinct species in an unforgettable manner - we have been there although live Tyrannosaurus Rex in New York does look a bit ridiculous.
The message of the futuristic book of Crichton is becoming very realistic, as well, as time goes on.
Let us all hope that later generations will not see in Michael Crichton the Jules Verne of our days and wonder why we did not take heed of his sound warning.
For George Church is playing God.
Without the broader understanding of the ramifications of tinkering with DNA only God of Israel has.
No comments:
Post a Comment