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Bio-Engineered Rice Uses Human Genes
gliph writes "Yahoo news has a piece about a small biogenetics firm that is using genetically engineered rice containing human genes to help fight diarrhea. From the article: 'Ventria's rice produces two human proteins found in mother's milk, saliva and tears, which help people hydrate and lessen the severity and duration of diarrhea attacks, a top killer of children in developing countries.'"
Reading the headline, I was sure this is fake news. Come on, Condoleeza and human?
Now I don't need to worry about dirrhea when I eat rice!
Scientists need to learn that just because you can do something doesn't mean that you SHOULD do it. However much it might help the PR of the administration, reengineering Condoleeza Rice to give her human genes is going way too far. This madness has to stop.
Eat uncooked flour dissolved in a little water.
Eating cooked rice also helps stopping diarrhea. Normal rice, non genetic modifications whatsoever.
These simple old tricks come all the way from my grandmother, and i've used them often enough to know that they work (either that or it's the placebo effect in action).
So why exactly do we need frankein-rice for?
Soylent Green.
And when you do an insulin shot, is that
also injecting yourself with a part of a
human? Many drugs are made in e.g. e.coli
where a human or modified human gene is
expressed to make a protein, then purified
and sold. This new approach is just
packaging the relevant drug/protein in a
capsule which happens to be a rice grain.
No ethics problems here.
U.S company avoids human trial testing in states, instead using children in Peru.
FTA
>"Earlier this month, a Peruvian scientist sponsored by Ventria presented data at the Pediatric Academics Societies meeting in San Francisco. It showed children hospitalized in Peru with serious diarrhea attacks recovered quicker -- 3.67 days versus 5.21 days -- if the dehydration solution they were fed contained the powder."
--- I've completed diagnosis of your problem and can classify it as a YOYO...You're On Your Own
Ethics - Schmetics! ;)
You obviously never had a little child with severe diarrhea. Which is sometimes accompanied by a lot of vomiting. So everything you feed to your child goes out. If not in first few minutes upwards than in next few minutes downwards.
Eating human? Please. There are many genes that are common to many speices. So, 'eating genes' that are present in pig/cow/horse/chicken... and human... Well, you cannibal!
The Sig, the sig
So far I've only seen posts in the line of "what for?" "it's not needed" and complaints about the ethical aspect. It's very easy to complain about the ethical side of things when you have your business well settled, but in developing countries, mere survival may be more important than that.
When clean water is not always at hand, diseases such as dysentery are easy to catch. Although this rice is no cure, it can help prevent the loss of fluids associated with this disease and help save lives.
So, what are these ethical issues you were referring to again?
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
You know what helps people hydrate? Water. Clean water and food can prevent diarrhea. All that money going into genetically engineered crops. Why not fix the socio-political problems of these regions so the infrastructures -> people can become healthy?
Oh yeah... no profit in that. Hell's gonna be standing room only.
That's the questions. Not whether that rice has super-human powers. Is it fertile? Can the farmer put away some of his harvest for next year to plant a new crop or is the outcome of the rice sterile?
If it does, is he allowed to? May he actually plant that rice without a new license for next year? No kidding, some (very popular) sorts cannot be used anymore because the company holding the rights (yes, there is rights and patents on food. Go figure) doesn't allow using it anymore.
This malpractice is getting more and more common to make farmers dependent on industrial seeds.
So that's the questions I'd prefer to have answered. Not what the wonder-rice could be. I'd be interested in the question what it IS.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I know that plenty of the people here locally in the University of Nebraska work on developing crops that grow in developing nations and help these people to cultivate the land and become more self-sustaining. I imagine that the intent here isn't to try and sell rice to Africa, but rather find a type of rice to grow in Africa. And dehydration may not seem like much to you, but in Africa believe it or not infant mortality from dehydration is very serious. They use cheap formula watered down with bad water to begin with, and then they get sick on top of that, which causes worse dehydration. If this saves lives of babies, then I'm for it.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Yeah, why produce GM food to produce proteins that we need, when instead they can go and insert these genetic modifications into humans and then we won't need to turn to certain foods to get the benefits. The benefits can be directly enjoyed without doing anything.
The necessity to eat certain foods could be overcome if this technology could be inserted directly into the human body, in addition to genetic modifications to help those with nut allergies etc. to overcome their problem. (Or at least in the next generation of children that they have...).
..IS PEOPLE!!!
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
If we're worried about robbing the thunder of the heavens of what makes humans special, then I don't think we've infringed on that. Perhaps we are walking in that direction, but I'm not sure this actually infringes there.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
1:133 people in the US have Celliac Disease - inability of the gut to absorb nutrient. #1 symptom = Diarhea. Diarhea wipes out the villi in the intestines, which is your body's system for up-taking nutrients from foods as they pass through the gut. No villi - no nutrients:: You Die.
I've seen no study to verify mammary colostrum and human tears have any propolactic effect on villi, but paired with rice its a good starter. Celliac Disease causes the body's immune system to adversely react to a protein found in wheat products - gluten. Celliac's are able eat rice without the toxic effects of other grains.
There is no cure, no treatment, no therapy for Celliac Disease. The only thing that can be done is remove gluten from the diet. The damage to the villi can be reversed in most cases and health maintained with a disciplined gluten-free diet for Life.
The GM rice/human DNA engineered grain could only reverse the death rate in developing countries if the GM DNA provide an immunity. The villi are delicate structures which regenerate all the time in health people. They are wiped out when anyone gets diarhea. That's what diarhea is, loss of villi, medically.
If the GM rice passes immunity to the villi, they have a treatment for every 1:133 American's living with the disease. Not bad market.
And if you repeatedly harvest grains with human genes in them, does that make you a cereal killer?
Seriously.
Shut. The. Fuck. Up.
It's easy for you to bitch and moan and fear-monger about the ethics of human DNA in some rice, from your computer chair in your air-conditioned first-world home or office. Meanwhile there are people - real, live people - people with thoughts, and feelings, and whose well-being you'd place at first-priority, whose well-being would be your tantamount concern, whose well-being would trump these silly goddamn over-analytical beardo quack ideas and "what ifs" -- that is, if you weren't such a fucking unthinking monster -- and these people are shitting themselves to death. And even though you and I both laughed as kids when we played Oregon Trail and learned what "dysentary" meant, one of us has managed to grow up, and figures it'd be best if we could put a stop to this horrible pain and suffering in the real world. Meanwhile, the other one is playing Armchair Philosopher, talking about lines being crossed and the ethics of eliminating suffering , without knowing the first thing about what he's talking about. Jesus Christ.
Have you heard about a little invention from the very late 1700s called "vaccinations"? Is this "ethical" in your eyes? Was it "ethical" for Louis Pasteur to inject human beings with (residual amounts of) COW DNA? Or should we have put a stop to this and let smallpox continue to ravage the globe? What about blood transfusions? That's OMG human DNA as well. Or, wait, are you one of those fucking quacker-flappers, like that lady who made an entire campaign out of "HIV does not cause AIDS", then gave AIDS to her daughter (by not taking any preventative measures during pregnancy)?
Look. I'm trying not to be too much of a -1 Flamebait -1 Troll -1 Confrontational Asshole, but what is your deal? If someone you loved (assuming you are actually capable of feeling empathy, or anything beyond Moral Sense [c.f. Twain, "The Mysterious Stranger"]) was locked in a room, in a hotel you did not own, which was currently on fire, would you worry about the ethics of breaking the door down? Would you tap the fireman on the back as he was about to take an axe to the door, and oh-so-wisely, intellectually bleat^H^H^H^H^H state that it was a violation of ethics to be destroying property that wasn't yours? Would you then put on your Humble Pious Face, with your head solemnly cast down, and proclaim your grief for the impending loss of your wife / child / mother / father? Or does this garbage only spew forth from your mouth when it's other people's children whose lives are at risk?
So much idiotic diarrhea dribbling out of your mouth - I'm sure this isn't the only completely moronic thing you've managed to come up with in your blessedly short existance. Maybe you could use a DNA injection. I know I'd gladly sodomize you. I mean "innoculate" you - I get those two words confused =)!
MODS: -1, Whatever me all you want. I prefer not to intellectualize idiocy (such as the Parent post), so if you're going to mod me down for calling bullshit when I see it, mod me down, for calling bullshit, when, I, see... it. </Shatner>
"What about the ethical aspect of putting human genes in rice? Wouldn't people who eat that rice be eating a part of a human? That's kind of freaky to think about."
I dunno, ask Paris. Opps, sorry, she doesn't swallow.
/. bug #926803 - Why I can post.
Oh damn..
"The company says the chance of its genetically engineered rice ending up in the food supply is remote.."
"genetically engineered rice containing human genes"
So, it tastes like chicken?
But no qualms about human breast milk? They even feed that to babies.
This is another solution - vaccinate against the organisms that most often cause dysentary.
Not really. Vaccination is much more difficult than you imply, especially because the organisms that cause most of these diseases are bacteria and eukaryotes. Much harder to vaccinate against than viruses, and much less effective when you do design one that "works".
"In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." -- Carl Sagan, Cosmos
I have a big issue with genetically engineered grains. All grains are wind pollinated. Pollen can travel quite far before fertilizing the female of a compatible plant species. Organic corn growers are already having big issues with this. You can't have heritage grains and pure strains when people are mucking around with wind pollenated plants.
I don't know how far they have tested this, but medicine and science has had several disasters with medications given to one generation and the disastrous results showing up in subsequent generations. Why can't we stick with things that humans evolved on and eliminate the crud like high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, genetically modified foods, olean, etc? Our bodies don't know what we're eating anymore.
---- I'm out of your mind!
Meanwhile there are people - real, live people - people with thoughts, and feelings, and whose well-being you'd place at first-priority, whose well-being would be your tantamount concern, whose well-being would trump these silly goddamn over-analytical beardo quack ideas and "what ifs"
These people are not going to be helped with bioengineered rice. The problems in the third world are political chaos, war, lack of family planning, lack of education, religious fundamentalism, and others. Poverty, disease, high mortality, child labor, homelessness, and migration are symptoms of that. You can't fix the problems by treating the symptoms, and even if the first world made it its top priority to help the third world, it couldn't being to alleviate the suffering. The only way this is ever going to get fixed is to address the root problems.
Every dollar you invest in attempts at quick fixes like bioengineered rice is a dollar you aren't spending on fixing the fundamental problems. It's actually worse than that: if you give these people crutches like bioengineered rice, they're even less likely to do what's necessary to modernize their infrastructure, and you make them dependent on high-tech products and imports.
It's well-meaning idiots like you that focus on the short term and keep meddling in those societies (creating corruption and dependency in the process) that are responsible for a large part of the suffering in the third world. Europe and the US developed into modern societies with long life expectancies without such meddling, and these nations can and will as well if we give them access to world markets and let them compete and develop freely.
With human genes in your rice, it's very possible.
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The United Nations? Surely you jest. They are the least likely to get into a region and fix the infrastructure let alone have any effect on the socio-political structures in place. If anything they will exaggerate the problem.
This leaves most of the real work to private organizations, the ones who have been doing the bulk of the charitable work in Africa and similar areas. Since most of them do not get government money they need solutions that work and work in conditions less than ideal. This is where enigneered food stuffs come into play.
Claiming water is the best way to hydrate people is like claiming a drowning man is going to be wet. Its a big "DUH" yet completely misses the point. This paticular rice is a solution where the obvious solution isn't practical or available at the time. Dry goods are many times easier to transport and store. What has to be done until the infrastructure is in place is to prevent as many complications as possible. Rice is a great medium. A little of it goes a long way.
The problem with saving many people of the world today is ignorance. While we like to pretend the leaders of these 3rd world countries are ignorant the bulk of the ignorance is here at home in the western world. The very same people who would harp about religious ignorance are the very same ones who fly off the handle at any foods that are engineered. They have little information, rely on innuendo and partial truths, and then use hyperbole and fear to make their point seem valid. Trouble is their ignorance kills people in the countries that can use the help.
Look, we can think good thoughts all we want. We can forever look for a better solution. Unfortunately most of these people don't have the time to wait and good thoughts don't keep them fed and healthy.
Whats next? Claiming that irradiated food is bad? How about the scare tactics that surrounded homoginizing? (sp?)
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
It's weird to see how 'ethics' is used as a cheap and easy excuse for not doing the right thing; how can it not be right to save the lives of children?
But of course, this is not about save the lives of poor children - it is just yet another way to earn money from the poor. If we really wanted to put an end to unnecessary suffering, it would be far more relevant to try ending poverty; it is after all not as if we in the western world couldn't it if we really wanted to.
However, there is a more sinister side to the debate about genetically modified plants: gene pollution. It works like this: you grow your modified plant, the bees (or wind) comes and takes pollen away, and some of it pollinates wild plants - or the neighbor farmer's unmodified crop.
In the first case wild plant species now carry the modification, and it may or may not pop up later in circumstances that are very unfortunate. In the second case the farmer's crop is suddenly 'illegal', because it now contains patented genes that he has not paid any ryalties for using.
Now that's the REAL ethical challenge when it comes to genetic modification.
Soon, it really is going to be Uncle Ben's rice!!!
You're wrong.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin#Timeline
"Human insulin is now manufactured for widespread clinical use using genetic engineering techniques, which significantly reduces impurity reaction problems. Eli Lilly marketed the first such insulin, Humulin, in 1982. Humulin was the first medication produced using modern genetic engineering techniques, in which actual human DNA is inserted into a host cell (E. coli in this case). The host cells are then allowed to grow and reproduce normally, and due to the inserted human DNA, they produce actual human insulin.
Genentech developed the technique Lilly used to produce Humulin. Novo Nordisk has also developed a genetically engineered insulin independently. Most insulins used clinically are produced this way, for they avoid most of the allergic reaction problem."
Can we get these genes into beer? It would make my Sunday mornings so much more pleasant.
It's not just clean water, though that is a big piece of the pie. My parents spent 18 months in Mozambique doing missionary work. Diarrhea kills a LOT of children there. The important part is where it starts. In Mozambique, they don't have effective (or any) mosquito control programs. Nor do they have much access to anti-malarial drugs. As cheap as anti-malarials are, they cost too much for most of the population. Then you have to add to the problem that the hospitals don't have adequate equipment to sterilize everything, so it gets soap and water cleaning.
The best example I have is the story my dad told me about the security guard at the church (yes 24x7 security or everything would be stolen). This man's 2 year old daughter got malaria from a mosquito bite. The resulting diarrhea made him desperate enough to take her to the hospital. The IV of fluids she got helped, but she died shortly after from the staph infection she got from the needle.
When my parents went to her funeral, they were SHOCKED at the size of the cemetary. It was for children only. Dad said he'd never seen such a huge cemetary - it was 5 miles across. Every grave marker had a number on it. The marker for the little girl they were there to bury was #278,xxx. That is a LOT of children.
I don't remember the exact statistics my dad quoted me, but something like half of all children in Mozambique die by the age of 5. It would be even easier to provide mosquito control pesticides (which work quite well next door in South Africa, no anti-malarials needed), and the cheap anti-malarial drugs in bulk.
I'm no expert, but I'm a parent. I really feel for the people in these countries. It wouldn't take much to improve their situation dramatically. The other side of that coin is the rampant corruption in most African nations, which is a big stumbling block to getting aid to the people. That's a subject for another day though.
All DNA is fundamentally the same. This just happens to be a base sequence that causes the creation of proteins usually produced by the human body rather than traditional rat, cow, slug, corn, or eveen rice proteins. Can someone explain _why_ this is going to cause the end of the world? Are people aware that it's standard practice to replace, for example, e coli base sequences with human ones so that the bacteria produce human proteins?
I'm appalled at the level of unscientific FUD that is out there. If slashdotters don't think scientifically, what will the general public do? Ban DHMO (http://www.dhmo.org/)?
Indeed. Pigs and humans share 80% of their genes. Apple trees and humans share more than 50% of their genes.
I'm sorry, the number you have dialed is an imaginary number. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and dial again.
The company is manufacturing a drug (which they want classified as a "medical food" for FDA purposes) by tweaking the genes of a rice plant. The rice is ground up to make the "medical food."
The big controversy here (per the article) is growing this stuff out in the open where it could potentially cross-polinate or otherwise impact rice crops intended for food.
The rice itself isn't to be used as food. It's just a big open-air drug factory.
The preferred solution is to not have a problem.
Look at it this way: You're a two year old. I'm the wise old grandmother who babysits you.
That's typical parochial Western bullshit. People in developing nations aren't two year olds and you aren't their wise old grandmother.
Are you saying that nobody should give bio-genetics firms any money, because it's just a waste?
I'm saying that people should concentrate on those things that we know increase life expectancy the most, like building sewers. On the other hand, selling proprietary US crops to these nations makes the primary problem worse: poverty.
Furthermore, we know that nations can develop without "bio-genetics", 20th century medicine, or high tech because almost all nations that are prosperous today have done so.
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