Category Archives: Genetic Engineering

Are Genetically Modified Foods Safe to Eat? (Science of Genetic Engineering) Presented by Anastasia Bodnar PhD. In a recent Pew poll, 88% of AAAS scientists said that genetically engineered crops were safe to eat. In contrast, only 37% of non-scientists surveyed said... By: NCASVideo … Continue reading →

1 hour ago by Robert Sanders The bacterial enzyme Cas9 is the engine of RNA-programmed genome engineering in human cells. Credit: Jennifer Doudna/UC Berkeley A group of 18 scientists and ethicists today warned that a revolutionary new tool to cut and splice DNA should be used cautiously when attempting to fix human genetic disease, and strongly discouraged any attempts at making changes to the human genome that could be passed on to offspring. Among the authors of this warning is Jennifer Doudna, the co-inventor of the technology, called CRISPR-Cas9, which is driving a new interest in gene therapy, or "genome engineering." She and colleagues co-authored a perspective piece that appears in the March 20 issue of Science, based on discussions at a meeting that took place in Napa on Jan. 24. The same issue of Science features a collection of recent research papers, commentary and news articles on CRISPR and its implications. "Given the speed with which the genome engineering field is evolving, our group concluded that there is an urgent need for open discussion of the merits and risks of human genome modification by a broad cohort of scientists, clinicians, social scientists, the general public and relevant public entities … Continue reading →

A group of biologists have called for a worldwide ban on the use of a gene editing technique that could alter human DNA across generations. They fear the technique may lead to unsafe or unethical uses. The researchers said ina letter published in the journal Science on Thursdaythat the technique could be used to cure genetic diseases and defects, but could also be applied to enhance human genetic traits, which raised serious ethical concerns.You could exert control over human heredity with this technique, and that is why we are raising the issue, David Baltimore, a former president of the California Institute of Technology and one of the authors of the letter,toldthe New York Times. Baltimore and 17 other scientists published the letter to the scientific community urging caution in using the technique.Given the speed with which the genome engineering field is evolving, our group concluded that there is an urgent need for open discussion of the merits and risks of human genome modification by a broad cohort of scientists, clinicians, social scientists, the general public and relevant public entities and interest groups, theywrote, calling for a ban on attempts to create genetically altered humans before the technique is fully understood. … Continue reading →

Planet Bizzaro Ep Seventeen Genetic Gas Zoomer and his pals find out Zargon has plagued their food supply with genetically engineered bugs, so Zoomer uses his own genetic engineering to create a super fruit that ends up creating... By: Evil Zargon … Continue reading →

International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology ICGEB: A brief overview and introduction by Mauro Giacca, Director-General, and Researchers in Trieste, Italy. By: ICGEB … Continue reading →

Nobel Prize winners raise alarm over genetic engineering of humans. A group of senior American scientists and ethics experts is calling for debate on the gene-engineering of humans, warning that technology able to change the DNA of future generations is now imminent. In policy recommendations published today in the journal Science, eighteen researchers, including two Nobel Prize winners, say scientists should accept a self-imposed moratorium on any attempt to create genetically altered children until the safety and medical reasons for such a step can be better understood. The concern is over a rapidly advancing gene-editing technology, called CRISPR-Cas9, which is giving scientists the ability to easily alter the genome of living cells and animals (see Genome Surgery). The same technology could let scientists correct DNA letters in a human embryo or egg cell, for instance to create children free of certain disease-causing genes, or perhaps with improved genetics. What we are trying to do is to alert people to the fact that this is now easy, says David Baltimore, a Nobel Prize winner and former president of Caltech, and an author of the letter. We cant use the cover we did previously, which is that it was so difficult that … Continue reading →

BERKELEY A group of 18 scientists and ethicists today warned that a revolutionary new tool to cut and splice DNA should be used cautiously when attempting to fix human genetic disease, and strongly discouraged any attempts at making changes to the human genome that could be passed on to offspring. Among the authors of this warning is Jennifer Doudna, the co-inventor of the technology, called CRISPR-Cas9, which is driving a new interest in gene therapy, or genome engineering. She and colleagues co-authored a perspective piece that appears in the March 20 issue of Science, based on discussions at a meeting that took place in Napa on Jan. 24. The same issue ofSciencefeatures a collection of recent research papers, commentary and news articles on CRISPR and its implications. Given the speed with which the genome engineering field is evolving, our group concluded that there is an urgent need for open discussion of the merits and risks of human genome modification by a broad cohort of scientists, clinicians, social scientists, the general public and relevant public entities and interest groups, the authors wrote. Doudna, director of UC Berkeleys Innovative Genomics Initiative, was joined by five current and two former UC Berkeley scientists, … Continue reading →

While it holds promise for eradicating genetic diseases, the technology also has big implications for the human genome: A person whose DNA is edited would pass the altered genes on to his or her future children. There's also a fear the technology could be used in unethical ways, such as "engineering" a baby to look a certain way, or to be athletic or intelligent. "One of the concerns is that some people may want to use the technology to make trivial or cosmetic changes, rather than using it to prevent devastating diseases," said Carroll, distinguished professor of biochemistry at the University of Utah School of Medicine. The paper Carroll co-signed is expected to amplify discussion in the scientific community, which last week heard from another group of researchers who recommend that the new technology never be used on human embryos. Changing the genome could have unpredictable effects on future humans, and that's unacceptable, the group says. Instead, that group, led by Edward Lanphier, chief executive of the biotechnology company Sangamo Biosciences, suggests research focus on somatic, or non-reproductive cells. CRISPR-Cas9, was developed in the lab of Jennifer Doudna, the University of California-Berkeley scientist who organized the Napa meeting. Hundreds of … Continue reading →

If wine tends to give you a hangover, science may have a solution, and it starts with a "genome knife." The phrase refers to an enzyme called RNA-guided Cas9 nuclease that's able to knock down a longstanding hurdle to genetic engineering in fermented foods, a researcher at the University of Illinois explains in a press release. It's a little complicated, but the strains of yeast that ferment wine (along with beer and bread) are "polyploid" strains. Those strains "contain multiple copies of genes in the genome," says Yong-Su Jin, whose study was published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. The difficulty comes into play when you try to alter a gene in one copy of the genome. Essentially, you can't: "An unaltered copy would correct the one that had been changed." The enzyme fixes that problem. It allows the genetic engineering of polyploid strains, specifically Saccharomyces cerevisiaewhich you're more likely to know as baker's yeast, Jove notes. Researchers are calling the engineered result a "jailbreaking" yeast. Engineered yeast could make wine healthier by boosting the amount of a nutrient called resveratrol "by 10 times or more," Jin notes. As for post-booze headaches, the "genome knife" could act on what's known as … Continue reading →

Using a technique that cuts out unwanted copies of a genome to improve the beneficial properties of a compound, researchers working at the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Services (ACES) claim to have produced a yeast that could vastly increase the quality of wine while also reducing its hangover-inducing properties. "Fermented foods such as beer, wine, and bread are made with polyploid strains of yeast, which means they contain multiple copies of genes in the genome," said Associate Professor of microbial genomics at the University of Illinois, Yong-Su Jin. "Until now, its been very difficult to do genetic engineering in polyploid strains because if you altered a gene in one copy of the genome, an unaltered copy would correct the one that had been changed," So the researchers developed what they call a "genome knife," which allowed them to slice across multiple copies of a target gene until all the copies were cut, thereby making it impossible for any remaining genomes to correct any altered ones. After being completely cut, the enzyme RNA-guided Cas9 nuclease was then employed to carry out precise metabolic engineering on strains of polyploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a species of common yeast instrumental … Continue reading →