Slashdot Mirror
Researchers Identify Gene Involved in Regeneration
v1x writes "Researchers at the University of Utah School of Medicine have discovered that when a gene called smedwi-2 is silenced in the adult stem cells of planarians, the quarter-inch long worm is unable to carry out a biological process that has mystified scientists for centuries, regeneration."
I for one welcome our regenerating overlords!
Better is the enemy of good enough. - Russian proverb.
Automatically regenerating veal.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
Those same scientists later found that they could prompt regeneration simply by holding the lone gene up to a mirror in the executive washroom. Baffled by this, they returned to their labs for further investigation.
In humans we call this cancer.
I will bet john bobbit will be happy when this is finally perfected on humans ;-)
You're missing the point... Cut and paste the first paragraph, then wait. After a few hours, you'll have the whole article here where we can read it.
When I cut off my head, I'll have a clone!
It's okay, I guess. Quad-damage is better.
So that's one of the crucial Time Lord genes....
Wait, if you cut a worm in two, it grows into two seperate beings? I'm doubtful (although what I've read on the net does suggest it's accurate), but assuming it's true (I can't be bothered looking it up in a book), I wonder how that would work in a smarter animal, such a mouse or a dog. Would anything the creature had learned, remain? COULD such a gene ever be placed into a more complex animal? The possibilities (and ramifications) could be astounding.
Could the similar gene found in humans be active during a pregnancy? In which case, could you possibly observe regeneration in a fetus if you were to sever a small part off the child?
... when a gene called smedwi-2 is silenced in the adult stem cells of planarians ...
That doesn't mean the gene has anything to do with it's regeneration.
If you silenced a gene in me that allowed me to produce red blood cells would you then say you had found the gene responsible for me being able to respirate (live)?
I'm wondering if this may have anything that could be useful in recovery following wounding. Obviously there is already some way for cells to regenerate to some degree after damage. Maybe you could do something like applying a spray of smedwi-2 to either speed up the process, or allow the body to recover from more serious damage.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
Isn't this playing Jahve, a.k.a. not something you are allowed to do if you are christian/mormon/whatever? Just a question from an ateist...
looks like the next generation of the bilderberg group/illuminati/freemasons/real underground rulers of earth - will be immortal, thus not needing to pass down the lineage of the family line. maybe the great dark lord will end up like krang from the turtles
smedwi-2 (not quite a catchy name is it?) is in the line of the next aging inhibition, youth sustenance attempts that humanity is so fond of. I wonder what happend to the Telomerase craze of the past. So when genetic modification drugs (probably virii) are going to make a huge entry into the pharma market, we'll be seeing the likes of this one the list. On the positive side, perhaps degenerative diseases like Parkinsons' and like geriatric disorders do have stronger solutions coming up.
No Greater Friend, No Greater Enemy! (Lucius Cornelius Sulla)
Mildly detached from the worms here, but if such a genetic modification for the human genome could be placed in a virus- or bacteria-like carrier would it not form a pretty lethal biological weapon?
I know I'm quite attached to things like wounds healing themselves, how about you?
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
I usually don't post on these...
:)
and of course, the technology and the means are probably decades away....
but yah, this might be a cool superpower to have
RB
----------
ah honey, we're all resplendent - Bill Mallonee
How do you explain that the original article is still intact?
...they would find the gene for quad damage too.
Hey! That's my sig you're smoking there!
This article comes close to saying that we'll have this in humans soon, probably to keep you interested. Let me set this straight, you won't be able to get a cool regeneration ability.
a. we don't know how this would work with the rest of the human genome
b. we have rules against testing a
c. the technology isn't complete for changing a humans dna
d. we have rules blocking a lot of research into c
e. It would be cool, so it's not going to be publicly available.
On the other hand, this is interesting research, and could help a lot in several fields of medicine, though i believe it would be mainly transplant medicine, and anything usable is still 10-20 years into the future. So get your hopes up for your kids, but realize this, you will die the same way as your grandparents.
Blah blah sig blah blah blah irony blah blah
till they find the penis enlargement gen...
***Game Over***Insert Coin***
I'm visually handicapped, not enough so that I can't see a large computer monitors, and I know others who are visually and physically handicapped in some way.
I can tell you that they would all welcome a new technology that would allow people who have lost limbs to grow them back or regenerate eyes so they could see. You underestimate the the lobbying powers of Disabled Americans. We have a great deal of influence, almost as much as the AARP and the NRA, and they both have immense clout.
Congress can ignore some of us some of the time but they can't ignore all of us all the of the time. If its proven that limbs and organs can be regenerated by activating such a gene in the human genome then mark my words we'll make them make it legal.
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
thezorch@gmail.com
http://thezorch.googlepages.com/home
Thing is, even if you can regenerate entire limbs I wonder whether they'll match the rest of the body. My guess is it won't for quite some time (after they figure out basic regeneration)
;) ).
Because if the regeneration ends up like lizards and amphibians (or even crustaceans), then it won't. They typically end up with a slightly smaller appendage, or sometimes even _two_. e.g. if a lizard's tail gets notched instead of totally chopped off, sometimes it ends up with two tails.
Having a nonmatching limb or extra limbs might be just as undesirable as having a missing limb.
A "freaky" limb could be perceived as "bad genes", whereas having a missing limb might not be (then again it could be a sign of genes for stupidity/carelessness though
Maybe the really rich would be able to go about their lives while getting a regen-lab to keep growing replacement limbs/organs for them under controlled conditions till they get one that matches well enough. But the poor will end up with mismatched stuff or resorting to prosthetics...
Hmm, add some rogue neurons growing in a replacement limb and you might end up with a nice B grade movie...
Pontius Pilate: What was his name?
Brian: smedwi-2, sir.
[the Centurion giggles]
Pontius Pilate: Centuwion, do you have anyone in your gawwison by that name?
Centurion: No, sir.
Pontius Pilate: Well, you seem awfully suwe, have you checked?
Centurion: I think it's a joke, sir. Sort of like... uh... Sillius Sodus, or Biggus Dickus.
Pontius Pilate: What's so funny about "Biggus Dickus? "
Centurion: Its a joke name, sir.
Pontius Pilate: I have a vewy good fwiend in Wome named "Biggus Dickus. "
nt
I recall experiments being done with regenerating animals where cells of certain body parts were implanted in other areas of the body, and ended up with a hand in the middle of the arm and such.
I'm sure you have heard certain extreme cases of malformed humans, like the "elephant man", or some guy in the guiness records who had two mouths. The latter was a case of a siamese twins where one twin's body got absorbed by the other. And we could think of it as "regeneration gone awry".
I'm not really sure if we really want regeneration. Perhaps in VERY CONTROLLED circumstances, like activating regeneration in nerve cells, might help a crippled person walk again. But having someone set its regeneration gene, looks like a very dangerous thing to me.
Can you say "chimera"?
I shouldn't have cut that finger off before I finished reading... :)
Security is but an illusion of the mind
~M45T3R S4D0W8~
Regeneration is a very complex process and its behavior is not governed by a single gene or protein expression, as it involves a variety of very complex mechanics that are not fully understood. While I'm sure this gene is responsible for part of the regenerative process in worms, simply eliminating one gene and breaking something doesn't mean this is going to translate into a human response. Regeneration research has been going on for many years, and it has produced limited results in rats as some of the mechanics responsible have been found. Further, stem cells don't play the only role in regeneration in more complex animals similar to mammals like the newt; the first step of regeneration is muscle cells dedifferentiating and then differentiating into a new replacement cell type. There are multiple proteins (and multiple genes) involved with this step alone, and it's one of many.
My +2 Regeneration tunic can be a reality!
If they'll be selling RoRs soon, how long before I can buy a WoW?
Frog blast the vent core.
So what are the chances we will now have Self Regenerating, Near Immortal, Fearless Rats??? Just strap on some inexpensive lasers, and have Bose equip them for all-terrain duty.... Build an army, or replace the family guard dog... Hrmmm...
Buy stock in Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado! Know what company he plans on starting, know where he works, and buy stock.
Eh, i'd rather they develop fast healing....
The Umbrella corperation denies all reports of human genetics testing.
This is simply an outbreak of the asian bird flu, the quarintine procedures will be enforced.
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
Now all I need is admantium claws.
You know this is exactly how the Lizard came about in Spiderman...
Sweet, now we can genetically engineer Wolverine. All we need now is for someone to discover adamantium.
Time to break out the fire and acid!
In Soviet Russia, backwards is everything.
A little while ago Wired had a story on a similar topic, in which a strain of mice was discovered which was able to regrow organs. From the Wired article (which has some neat pictures of regenerating mouse ears):
...
...
Mice discovered accidentally at the Wistar Institute in Pennsylvania have the seemingly miraculous ability to regenerate like a salamander, and even regrow vital organs.
Researchers systematically amputated digits and damaged various organs of the mice, including the heart, liver and brain, most of which grew back.
The results stunned scientists because if such regeneration is possible in this mammal, it might also be possible in humans.
The researchers also made a remarkable second discovery: When cells from the regenerative mice were injected into normal mice, the normal mice adopted the ability to regenerate. And when the special mice bred with normal mice, their offspring inherited souped-up regeneration capabilities.
Heber-Katz discovered the strain in 1998 accidentally while working with mice specially bred for studying autoimmune diseases.
She had pierced holes in the ears of the genetically altered mice to distinguish them from a control group, but they healed quickly with no scarring.
She and her colleagues wanted to find out what other parts of this strain of mice would grow back, so they snipped off the tip of a tail, severed a spinal cord, injured the optic nerve and damaged various internal organs.
The mice seem to exhibit regenerative capabilities similar to that of human fetuses in the first trimester, said Dr. Stephen Badylak, a surgery research professor and director of the Center for Pre-Clinical Tissue Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh's McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
"It offers us insight into a more fetal-like healing response, where scar tissue is minimal and regeneration is abundant," Badylak said. "It's a great model to examine healing mechanisms and use that information to see if we can stimulate the same thing to happen in people."
Heber-Katz said she will soon publish her results on digit regrowth in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
New product 'SpreadMe2' is rolled out as a better alternative to Viagra
I love humanity, it is people I hate
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
this is really getting similar to reverse engineering computer programs. for example, when you're trying to document a binary format noone's ever documented before (except the creators, who don't own the right to their creation because of copyright stuff), and you have an unknown bit (at least 8 bits in the real world, but let's simplify it a "bit"), the first thing you try is turning it off to see what happens. this is exactly what genetic engineering is doing now.
[SHOW SOME LENIENCY TOWARDS