10 ms·
For anyone interested in learning more about partial reprogramming, I recently wrote a review article on the current state of the art: https://www.adanguyenx.co
by adanguyenx 5y ago
For anyone interested in learning more about partial reprogramming, I recently wrote a review article on the current state of the art: https://www.adanguyenx.com/blog/partial-reprogramming https://www.adanguyenx.com/blog/partial-reprogramming
In short, we're still far away from using it in humans (10+ years). Currently, all companies working on this are in pre-clinical stage, with turn.bio as the closest, expecting to go into clinical trials late this year.
This tech is exciting but there are still a lot of limitations:
- Risk of cancer: this technology is based on the work of Yamanaka in 2006, who discovered 4 factors that can turn any cells into pluripotent stem cells. The work in the OP article basically used the same 4 factors, but only partially, so that the cells became "younger" without losing their identities (i.e. turning into stem cells). This requires understanding the right dosage for every cell type so we don't go overboard and turn them into dedifferentiated cells which could lead to cancer
- Cell specificity, microenvironment, etc.: reprogramming is finicky and the right dosage is dependent on the cell type or the environment around the cells. This is important because you have to figure out the right dosage for each cell type so as to avoid cancer
- Delivery: it's easy to deliver gene therapy to skin cells on a dish, not so much to other cell types or organs in the bodies -- that's why we have not seen very impressive results when this is used on live normal mice
- searchableguy 5y agoThat post is beyond incredible. Thanks for compiling and condensing all the information into a blog post.
- taf2 5y agoPerhaps a side effect of this may be a better understanding of cancer… or new treatments …
- relaunched 5y agoThank you for the context. Do you have any recommendations as to where I can learn more about the state of the art in this space?
- nynx 5y agoOnly 10ish years? This is incredible news.
- antihero 5y agoShit man I might even be alive by then
- daniel-cussen 5y agoHahahahHHAHAHAHAHA I love your username too. Hey I maybe maybe might be alive by then too! Who knows. There's life after death.
- jiveturkey 5y agoSo, before full self driving then!
- grishka 5y agoSelf driving is easy, the hard part is self driving when surrounding vehicles are driven by humans. There are self-driving trains in some subway systems right now, and we don't see those as something special.
- FartyMcFarter 5y agoIt's not just about handling human drivers. There's also pedestrians, construction areas, weather, various other kinds of obstructions, hardware failures...
- doctor_eval 5y agoI think the interesting question is, in a future where death is no longer inevitable, what risk profile we would accept for self driving? Would it accelerate self driving, or get rid of cars altogether?
- sschueller 5y agoLike fusion and self driving cars. It is going to take a lot longer if it ever works safely.
- baron816 5y agoThis is the kind of thing that could possibly be worth trillions of dollars. This is something that tens or hundreds of millions of people would be willing to pay thousands of dollars per year on. Now that we have some sort of evidence that it’s possible, I wouldn’t be surprised if companies threw billions of dollars worth of research to make it happen, and that could mean getting a product to market sooner rather than later.
- fgimenez 5y ago> I wouldn’t be surprised if companies threw billions of dollars worth of research to make it happen Well you are correct. Altos labs (https://altoslabs.com/ https://altoslabs.com/) is basically every "who's who" in science doing this with billions of dollars. Including Wolf Reik who is featured in the article.
- dekhn 5y agoAlthough I don't think the majority of these companies will go on to make billions selling drugs, I think the past ten years of VC and pharma funding of basic life sciences researches is likely to pay off in many unexpected ways. The field of molecular biology didn't exist before World War II; after, a number of funding managers at NIH recognized that there was an incipient science to augment biochemistry and other fields, and funded it through places like Rockefeller Institute (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25862750/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25862750/). The long term impact of these early scientists and funders who recognized the potential of MB has been enormous; it lead to the discovery of recombinant DNA, and many other important things which produced an explosion of research. where I drive to work every day, there was only one biotech (Genentech) campus and now there are probably 20-30 different companies with enormous well-outfitted research labs all stuffed into one little corner of South San Francisco. "Overnight", biotech became a huge industry- overshadowed by the enormous tech industry- but in many ways, the "tech" part is ripe for disruption in ways that look just like the tech industry in 1997. Either way, it will be interesting to see what is the state of the art 30-40 years from now, assuming the research infrastructure continues apace.
- godelski 5y ago
- jay_kyburz 5y agoCan you "de-age" organs and things that will actually keep us alive. I don't care so much about my skin.
- contravariant 5y agoIt might not be the most vitally important but ignoring the single biggest organ we have seems like a mistake to be honest.
- ElephantsMyAnus 5y agoSkin is vital, as you need to deage veins.
- markdown 5y agoWe'd probably be able to grow and transplant bespoke organs for you before then.
- inglor_cz 5y agoAging is a complex process. Do not ignore something as big and heavy as skin. It is entirely possible that secretions from aged skin cells dysregulate other organs etc. Given that we have been judging a person's health by their skin for centuries, it probably reflects the internal state of the organism somehow.
- hanselot 5y ago[dead]
- mvkel 5y ago10+ years is far away? That sounds like right around the corner!