4 ms·
Well this brings up an interesting question: if a given gene/gene expression correlates with multiple effects, some good and some bad, would it be possible with
by joshmarlow 11y ago
Well this brings up an interesting question: if a given gene/gene expression correlates with multiple effects, some good and some bad, would it be possible with sufficient knowledge to engineer the desired effect from scratch in a way that avoids the undesired effect?
I assume that no one currently has the knowledge of how to do this and won't for decades at least... But interesting to consider!
- notahacker 11y agoInteresting to consider, but we're not reprogramming human DNA so much as adding and removing bytes to the compiled output by trial and error. In practice, there's good reason to be concerned that we might achieve the opposite: popularise a modification with a reasonably well understood "positive" characteristic and then discover the negative effects on many thousands of humans that have had the modification some time afterwards. Of course this happens with conventional medicine too, but it's a little easier to trial a remedy when you don't have to create new humans for each trial, and negative effects are less likely to be irreversible when they're caused by something sufferers take rather than something sufferers are.