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Scientists Develop Kill Switches In Case Bioengineered Microbes Go Rogue (upi.com)
schwit1 quotes UPI:
Scientists at Harvard have developed a pair of new kill switches that can be used to thwart bioengineered microbes that go rogue. Researchers have been testing the use of bioengineered microbes for a variety of purposes, from the diagnosis of disease in the human body to the neutering of mosquitoes. But there remain concerns about releasing manipulated microbes into nature. Could their augmented genes have unintended consequences? Could they morph and proliferate?
Kill-switches ensure the microbes effectively shutdown, or commit suicide, after they've executed their intended function. While kill switches have proven effective in the lab, researchers suggest kill-switch technologies needed to be improved to ensure safety in real-world environs... The researchers detailed their new kill switches in a new paper published this week in the journal Molecular Cell. "This study shows how our teams are leveraging synthetic biology not only to reprogram microbes to create living cellular devices that can carry out useful functions for medicine and environmental remediation, but to do this in a way that is safe for all," said Donald Ingber, founding director of the Wyss Institute.
Kill-switches ensure the microbes effectively shutdown, or commit suicide, after they've executed their intended function. While kill switches have proven effective in the lab, researchers suggest kill-switch technologies needed to be improved to ensure safety in real-world environs... The researchers detailed their new kill switches in a new paper published this week in the journal Molecular Cell. "This study shows how our teams are leveraging synthetic biology not only to reprogram microbes to create living cellular devices that can carry out useful functions for medicine and environmental remediation, but to do this in a way that is safe for all," said Donald Ingber, founding director of the Wyss Institute.
Good luck with that!
Monsanto tried that too with their enineered crops. They were supposed to be unable to reproduce. And yet they did! Because mutations.
But hey, maybe you can react like they did, when they sued the farmers on whose fields the Monsanto crops had spread for copyright infringement and put them in prison for 10-20 years.
Yes, that actually happened.
Assuming we are talking about bacteria and viruses that multiple by binary cell devision the real threat is viruses. Viruses come in all shapes and sizes and you can not assume one will not recognize your cell and try to coopt it at which point it will absorb some of the DNA of that cell as well as deposit some of it's own DNA.
Often times lateral DNA transfers like this are innocuous but there is always the chance something unusual will happen.. Fortunately as mammels we won't have to worry about mutation and passing stuff onto our children for the most part as those cells are mostly protected in our bodies. The real threat is for cancers and new transferable diseases.