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Scientists Talk Privately About Creating a Synthetic Human Genome

32 points by arcanus 10y ago

nxzero 10y ago
Putting aside DNA, is it even possible to emulate the whole birth process sythenticly. For example, currently would a surrogate birth mother be required and is this likely to change?
- arcanus 10y ago
  Not yet. The earliest a child has been prematurely born, and survived, is 21 weeks after conception. We have had embryos survive without a womb in a lab for 14 days (this is currently limited by federal law). Thus, we really 'only' have a 19 week gap to bridge. Not saying this is not a major challenge, but I believe this is worth of direct research.
- peter303 10y ago
  Scientists recently got excited when the lengthened the petri dish lifetime of human embroyosvuntil,at least 14 days from a previous record of 7 days. The shorter time was sufficient of IVF. But too short understand embroyo development. http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/05/04/476539552/advance-in-human-embryo-research-rekindles-ethical-debate http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/05/04/47653955... Currently there is a moratorium of embryos longer than 14 days. That is when tissues start differentiating and embroyos has become implanted in the womb.
- coolnow 10y ago
  There are too many, rarely understood processes involved in fertilisation and subsequent embryogenesis. I don't think we can fully create a human (or even other complex life forms) fully synthetically. Rather, i think scientists would just exploit tried and tested natural mechanisms such as embedding half of the synthetic genome into the spermatazoon with the other half residing in the oocyte and letting "nature" take its course. There's just too much knowledge we're missing right now (even the calcium signalling cascade initiated by the sperm fusing with the egg isn't fully understood). Of course, who knows where we'd be in 10, 20, 50 or 100 years?
gus_massa 10y ago
Current discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11692360 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11692360 (46 points, 18 hours ago, 43 comments)
astazangasta 10y ago
Yeah. Also, the other day me and some scientist friends smoked a few blunts and privately discussed creating a warp drive.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
andrewclunn 10y ago
Reading through the comments on the article's page... Ignorance and fear run deep with genetics.
andrewclunn 10y ago
Wasn't aware of the legal restrictions. One more way in which those idiot Christians hold back science.
- cyphar 10y ago
  It's not as simple as "idiot Christians". You have to also consider the ethics of the situation. Would it be ethical to grow an embryo such that it is a fully grown human child for experimentation? I would say the answer to that is a clear no. Is it okay to do experiments on a few week old embryo? I would say yes. Thus, there's a point in between the two extremes where something ethical becomes unethical, and we should hold researchers accountable for it.
- dang 10y ago
  Religious flamewars aren't welcome on Hacker News, and neither is name-calling. Please don't post like this again. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11695967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11695967 and marked it off-topic.
  - andrewclunn 10y ago
    Noted, so how would you suggest I characterize the "stop playing God!" mentality? Would it be okay, so long as I didn't name a particular religion?
    - dang 10y ago
      Discussion of religion is fine in a historical or sociological context, but not bickering about the truth or falsehood of religion. The latter territory is just scorched earth for this kind of internet forum: all people do is blast each other's beliefs and nothing good can come of it.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
clishem 10y ago
Related: Scientists Talk Privately About Creating an AI (1956) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_Conferences https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_Conferences
gaius 10y ago
Of all the problems facing the 8 billion people on the planet, making more of us isn't one of them.
- Vvector 10y ago
  It't not about making "more", it's about making "better", not leaving everything up to chance. See the movie Gattaca, for an example.
  - golemotron 10y ago
    I hope I die before we get to that phase of reality.

32 points by arcanus 10y ago

Putting aside DNA, is it even possible to emulate the whole birth process sythenticly. For example, currently would a surrogate birth mother be required and is this likely to change?

arcanus 10y ago
Not yet. The earliest a child has been prematurely born, and survived, is 21 weeks after conception. We have had embryos survive without a womb in a lab for 14 days (this is currently limited by federal law). Thus, we really 'only' have a 19 week gap to bridge. Not saying this is not a major challenge, but I believe this is worth of direct research.
peter303 10y ago
Scientists recently got excited when the lengthened the petri dish lifetime of human embroyosvuntil,at least 14 days from a previous record of 7 days. The shorter time was sufficient of IVF. But too short understand embroyo development. http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/05/04/476539552/advance-in-human-embryo-research-rekindles-ethical-debate http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/05/04/47653955... Currently there is a moratorium of embryos longer than 14 days. That is when tissues start differentiating and embroyos has become implanted in the womb.
coolnow 10y ago
There are too many, rarely understood processes involved in fertilisation and subsequent embryogenesis. I don't think we can fully create a human (or even other complex life forms) fully synthetically. Rather, i think scientists would just exploit tried and tested natural mechanisms such as embedding half of the synthetic genome into the spermatazoon with the other half residing in the oocyte and letting "nature" take its course. There's just too much knowledge we're missing right now (even the calcium signalling cascade initiated by the sperm fusing with the egg isn't fully understood). Of course, who knows where we'd be in 10, 20, 50 or 100 years?

gus_massa 10y ago

Current discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11692360 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11692360 (46 points, 18 hours ago, 43 comments)

astazangasta 10y ago

Yeah. Also, the other day me and some scientist friends smoked a few blunts and privately discussed creating a warp drive.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

andrewclunn 10y ago

Reading through the comments on the article's page... Ignorance and fear run deep with genetics.

andrewclunn 10y ago

Wasn't aware of the legal restrictions. One more way in which those idiot Christians hold back science.

cyphar 10y ago
It's not as simple as "idiot Christians". You have to also consider the ethics of the situation. Would it be ethical to grow an embryo such that it is a fully grown human child for experimentation? I would say the answer to that is a clear no. Is it okay to do experiments on a few week old embryo? I would say yes. Thus, there's a point in between the two extremes where something ethical becomes unethical, and we should hold researchers accountable for it.
dang 10y ago
Religious flamewars aren't welcome on Hacker News, and neither is name-calling. Please don't post like this again. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11695967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11695967 and marked it off-topic.
- andrewclunn 10y ago
  Noted, so how would you suggest I characterize the "stop playing God!" mentality? Would it be okay, so long as I didn't name a particular religion?
  - dang 10y ago
    Discussion of religion is fine in a historical or sociological context, but not bickering about the truth or falsehood of religion. The latter territory is just scorched earth for this kind of internet forum: all people do is blast each other's beliefs and nothing good can come of it.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

clishem 10y ago

Related: Scientists Talk Privately About Creating an AI (1956) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_Conferences https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_Conferences

gaius 10y ago

Of all the problems facing the 8 billion people on the planet, making more of us isn't one of them.

Vvector 10y ago
It't not about making "more", it's about making "better", not leaving everything up to chance. See the movie Gattaca, for an example.
- golemotron 10y ago
  I hope I die before we get to that phase of reality.