4 ms·

My question here is what are the side effects? It seems like something like this would already happen naturally if there were no significant trade offs

afthonos 9y ago
Two things that come to mind are speed and energy. I can imagine perfect-but-slow, perfect-but-expensive, or perfect-but-exhausting healing being selected against and good-enough-for-reproductive-business-and-fast-and-restful being selected for.
QAPereo 9y ago
The typical complication in related therapies almost always seems to include the potential for uncontrolled proliferation of the cells, either at the site, or as metastatic cancer.
reasonattlm 9y ago
Evolution doesn't optimize for benefits to the individual. If it did, we'd all regenerate like salamanders. That any sort of cell therapy or signaling change works at all to improve health is indicative that the standard issue biochemistry in mammals is suboptimal. The risk from this sort of thing, like all efforts to change cell behavior towards greater tissue maintenance, is cancer. One of the most interesting aspects of the whole field of regenerative medicine is the degree to which cancer hasn't emerged, however. There seems to be considerable leeway for crude methods to improve regeneration to work without large increases in cancer risk.
- Retric 9y ago
  Cancer risks over the next 50 years are hard to test for. However, I suspect survival is a larger issue. A mouse with 3 legs seems unlikely to make it long enough for regeneration to help.
trhway 9y ago
>It seems like something like this would already happen naturally it is naturally happening right now as humans with their tech is just a tool of Nature - following George Carlin logic of "planet [Earth]'s goal was plastic packets, so it produced humans who produced the packets, now humans can go" :)
crusso 9y ago
You could say that about any medical procedure. You could say that about computers... Testris would happen naturally if there were no significant trade offs. Evolution tends to optimize, but it also gets stuck in local maxima because of its slow linear nature. We should eventually be able to provide vastly superior biological constructs and fixes - once we become proficient at reprogramming at a DNA/RNA level.

afthonos 9y ago

Two things that come to mind are speed and energy. I can imagine perfect-but-slow, perfect-but-expensive, or perfect-but-exhausting healing being selected against and good-enough-for-reproductive-business-and-fast-and-restful being selected for.

QAPereo 9y ago

The typical complication in related therapies almost always seems to include the potential for uncontrolled proliferation of the cells, either at the site, or as metastatic cancer.

reasonattlm 9y ago

Evolution doesn't optimize for benefits to the individual. If it did, we'd all regenerate like salamanders. That any sort of cell therapy or signaling change works at all to improve health is indicative that the standard issue biochemistry in mammals is suboptimal. The risk from this sort of thing, like all efforts to change cell behavior towards greater tissue maintenance, is cancer. One of the most interesting aspects of the whole field of regenerative medicine is the degree to which cancer hasn't emerged, however. There seems to be considerable leeway for crude methods to improve regeneration to work without large increases in cancer risk.

Retric 9y ago
Cancer risks over the next 50 years are hard to test for. However, I suspect survival is a larger issue. A mouse with 3 legs seems unlikely to make it long enough for regeneration to help.

trhway 9y ago

>It seems like something like this would already happen naturally it is naturally happening right now as humans with their tech is just a tool of Nature - following George Carlin logic of "planet [Earth]'s goal was plastic packets, so it produced humans who produced the packets, now humans can go" :)

crusso 9y ago

You could say that about any medical procedure. You could say that about computers... Testris would happen naturally if there were no significant trade offs. Evolution tends to optimize, but it also gets stuck in local maxima because of its slow linear nature. We should eventually be able to provide vastly superior biological constructs and fixes - once we become proficient at reprogramming at a DNA/RNA level.