Gene-Editing Record Smashed in Pigs

OrbitalDawn

OrbitalDawn

Ulysses Everett McGill
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Researchers modify more than 60 genes to enable organ transplants into humans

For decades, scientists and doctors have dreamed of creating a steady supply of human organs for transplantation by growing them in pigs. But concerns about rejection by the human immune system and infection by viruses embedded in the pig genome have stymied research. Bymodifying more than 60 genes from pig embryos—ten times more than have been edited in any other animal—researchers believe they may have produced a suitable non-human organ donor.

The work was presented on October 5 at a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on human gene editing. Geneticist George Church of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, announced that he and colleagues had used CRISPR gene-editing technology to inactivate 62 porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) in pig embryos. These viruses are embedded in all pigs’ genomes and cannot be treated or neutralized. It is feared that they could cause disease in human transplant recipients.

Church’s group also modified more than 20 genes in a separate set of embryos, including genes encoding proteins that sit on the surface of pig cells and are known to trigger the human immune system or cause blood clotting. He declined to reveal the exact genes, however, as the work is unpublished. Eventually, pigs intended for organ transplants will have both these modifications and the PERV deletions.

“This is something I’ve been wanting to do for almost a decade,” Church says. A biotech company that he co-founded to produce pigs for organ transplantation, eGenesis in Boston, is now trying to make the process as inexpensive as possible.
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CRISPR is an incredible discovery. The next 10 years is going to see massive changes in the medical field due to it.

Cure for cancer, cure for AIDS or just about any virus, cure for any genetic diseases just to name a few.
 
Gnome said:
CRISPR is an incredible discovery. The next 10 years is going to see massive changes in the medical field due to it.

Cure for cancer, cure for AIDS or just about any virus, cure for any genetic diseases just to name a few.
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Just to name a few, you named none.
Also Cancer and AIDS are not genetic diseases,
 
/Waits for Jehovah's Witnesses to complain...
 
I feel sorry for the pigs though :(
All kinds of cruelty will be allowed "because it cures cancer"
 
Ockie said:
Why complain? They basically go to hospital just to refuse treatment and die. :rolleyes:
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Waste of taxpayers money. They should indicate this before getting into the ambulance.
 
bokdrol said:
I feel sorry for the pigs though :(
All kinds of cruelty will be allowed "because it cures cancer"
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Yeah ... I also feel this way ... but at the end of the day, pigs are bred for food and to sustain us. These would be bred also to sustain people whose organs are failing. I just hope this does not give a free pass to alcoholics who's liver is failing. If you are not clean, no innocent piggy liver for YOU!
 
bokdrol said:
I feel sorry for the pigs though :(
All kinds of cruelty will be allowed "because it cures cancer"
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I doubt that there will ever be a true cure for cancer because there is so much money to be made from "treating" it.

Completely curing a patient is like killing the golden goose but chemo, radiation, drugs and transplants provide a recurring income until the cash runs out.
 
Ockie said:
Yeah ... I also feel this way ... but at the end of the day, pigs are bred for food and to sustain us. These would be bred also to sustain people whose organs are failing. I just hope this does not give a free pass to alcoholics who's liver is failing. If you are not clean, no innocent piggy liver for YOU!
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Free pass meh.

Same argument is used by pro lifers. If you allow abortion then its a free pass for woman to have lots of unprotected sex and have as many abortions as they want.

Such a cop out. Its not like an abortion is fun, liver transplant is also pretty hectic.
 
Nerfherder said:
Free pass meh.

Same argument is used by pro lifers. If you allow abortion then its a free pass for woman to have lots of unprotected sex and have as many abortions as they want.

Such a cop out. Its not like an abortion is fun, liver transplant is also pretty hectic.
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I understand that, and I agree .... but that aint going to stop alcoholics from drinking. Not all of them anyway. Even if you are a sex addict and just have to scratch that itch every 3 hours, you can use contraceptives and condoms etc. Alcoholics it is not so easy ... .which is a shame and not fair I know.
 
So if these pigs are not proper pigs, does that mean that they are Halaal and Kosher? :whistle: :p
 
Ockie said:
Interesting. I did not realize. Oh no wait, is that how they reproduce in our cells? Reprogram our DNA to make viruses? I think I learned that somewhere ..... but not sure now if I have it right or not.
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Ya, sort of like a cell parasite
 
Viruses aren't really alive per se, it is essentially some random genetic material floating around that goes into certain types of cells and is integrated into the cell. Imagine a program that is created to create more copies of itself. The program is harmless until someone runs it. The same is true of a virus. It cannot replicate by itself.

But this shows how a virus works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO8MP3wMvqg
That is HIV, btw.

Viruses are pretty much "forever", you carry around a lot of viral DNA, but it is essential for genetic diversity.

CRISPR is a defense mechanism of bacteria. Bacteria is actually alive (eg. they replicate), and the number one enemy of bacteria is viruses. Most bacteria are killed by them (typically called phages). They discovered that bacteria contain special type of defense mechanism that identifies virus DNA within the bacteria DNA and then cuts it from its DNA (effectively 'killing' the virus).

Cancer on the other hand is a mutation of DNA causing a cell to replicate endlessly. All humans WILL get cancer if they get old enough, your cells are constantly mutating, the older you are the more the probability that one of those mutations will be a cell that replicates endlessly. Hence also a target of CRISPR since you can target very specific DNA.

Genetic disorders are obviously also a target since they are damaged DNA.
 
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