Gene c Futures PHIL BIOL 2510 Spring 2009 What is your gene c future The future is now 2 Future Poli cs of hESC 2001 Aug 9 Pres Bush limits Fed to current stem cell lines but no new stem cell lines Cf 1995 2000 policies 2004 Nov 2 California Prop 71 establishes the California Ins tute for Regenera ve Medicine with 3 billion general state funds 350 million annual limit Other states have similar but smaller agendas e g NJ 2009 March 9 Pres Obama reverses 2001 order le ng NIH devise regula on policy Draa regula ons posted April 2009 funding for lines from IVF discards only What does the near future hold for hESC research New policy will expand federal involvement in hESC research US takes lead on hESC research but California Ins tute future uncertain now Pres Obama and Democra c congress indicates support for therapeu c cloning as source of hESC S ll wai ng successful trials scien c and economic bene ts uncertain 3 iPS cells 4 iPS cells Unfer lized egg Virus Transcrip on factors Skin cell iPS cells Unfer lized egg Virus Transcrip on factors Skin cell iPS cells Unfer lized egg Virus Transcrip on factors Skin cell iPS cells Recombinant proteins Unfer lized egg Transcrip on factors Skin cell New Problems iPS To potency not clear Are these embryonic cells or new embryos Opens up easier routes to reproduc ve cloning Opens up possibili es for male derived eggs or female derived sperm 9 New Pandemics 10 New pandemics Three things to consider for every new report Person to person transmission lethality Geographic spread 11 New pandemics 12 Bird flu SARS Swine flu Person to person no yes yes lethality yes yes Geographic spread no no yes Baby Mammoth Discovery of baby mammoth Lyuba promises to reveal secrets of pleistocene animal Specula ons abound that with ssues samples enough DNA may be extracted to clone a baby mammoth using Asian Elephants as surrogates Similar specula ons about cloning Neandertals and even some dinosaurs remember Jurrasic Park A 2 hour television special on Na onal Geographic Channel April 26 2009 hlp channel na onalgeographic com epis ode waking the baby mammoth 3630 Overview 13 Endangered species 14 Endangered species New sequencing technologies are proposed to sequence the genomes of endangered and ex nct species 15 Endangered species New sequencing technologies are proposed to sequence the genomes of endangered and ex nct species SCNT cloning together with improved DNA synthesis could allow us to revive ex nct species Like we did with 1918 u virus NO Dinosaurs 16 Engineering species 17 Engineering species Proposal to introduce malaria resistant genes into the mosquitoes of malaria endemic regions 18 Engineering species Technology has been designed that allows these transgenes to spread widely in the popula on replacing all normal mosquitoes with transgenics Allows new transgenes to be introduced that replace the previous one in the species allows soaware updates to be released 19 Human vs Chimps Chimps and humans share 99 genomes 15 million bases di Iden fy regions of human genome that have changed the most since chimps and humans diverged Found 200 regions HAR 1 HAR 2 FoxP2 ASPM AMY1 LCT retroviruses etc Insights into human chimp di erences but also human disease and maladapta on Kathrine S Pollard May 2009 What makes us Human Scien c American 44 49 20 From PGP 10 to PGP 100 March 2009 announcement NOW SEEKING TO EXPAND THE PGP BY ONE ORDER OF MAGNITUDE AND ENROLL 100 ADDITIONAL VOLUNTEERS FOLLOWED BY 1000 VOLUNTEERS AND SO ON UNTIL WE REACH 100 000 ENROLLEES 21 DNA Forensic Phenotyping Researchers are iden fying genes that give rise to a person s physical traits such as facial structure skin color or ven whether they are right or lea handed That could allow police to build a picture of what a criminal looks like not just from some mes fuzzy eyewitness accounts but by analyzing DNA found at a crime scene Early days and poten al risks Ethnic stereotyping targe ng DNA goose chases Neo eugenics Storage and use of informa on UK and Netherlands allow but Germany and several US states don t allow inference to ethnicity or physical traits Gautam Naik March 27 2009 To sketch a thief Genes draw likeness of suspects Wall Street Journal A9 22 Designing Babies A fer lity clinic s promise to deliver the ul mate in designer babies le ng parents choose eye hair and even skin color is sparking a worldwide uproar Dr Je Steinberg has already let thousands decide their kids gender Now he says that within the next six months the Manhalan and L A o ces of his Fer lity Ins tutes will let would be moms and dads pick whether junior has blue or brown eyes or black or blond hair In the process of doing gender selec on we ve also uncovered the technology to characterize things like eye and hair color said Steinberg 54 The idea of a Build A Bear style baby was slammed Monday by bioethicists and right to life groups and Pope Benedict has warned against it for years Later that same week in response to the public response Dr Steinberg and the Fer lity Ins tutes retracted the o er But sex selec on is s ll an available op on Gina Salamone March 4 2009 Custom made Babies Delievered New York Daily News And Editorial May 2009 Designing rules for designer babies Scien c American 29 23 Closing Remarks 24