3 ms·

can you give a specific instance of a sequence that would be dangerous in a cloning strain and not screenable?

• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
• datascienced 3y ago
  You are asking for a counterexample but I think s/he was asking for what assurances the software can provide. Is it proven to be perfect, bug free in both specification and the physical analysis? Remember compared to you assume we are all laymen. It would be interesting for us on the armchairs how such software even works. Is it like (ahem!) antivirus software looking for patterns?
  • koeng 3y ago
    The reasons I ask for a counter example is because the number of “what ifs” are pretty much unlimited and easy to come up with, whereas I have to do a lot more thinking to answer them. It’s asymmetric and gets tiring Answer is: no, not proven to be perfect. Most source is closed for the software. There is no specification. Never been a red team trying to break it. Unknown if it’s ever stopped any threats. There is no requirement to do it, and it’s all voluntary (though pretty much all synthesis providers do it). Mostly they just hash kmers and translations thereof and scan a pathogens/functional database. So implementable in a simple KV store for the most part. The bigger problem is false positives, and most work is done in de-shittifying the upstream pathogens data. Here’s a good paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9988571/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9988571/ Last I checked all the groups charged a lot of money for access, unfortunately, and I’m not really big enough to join a group like the International Gene Synthesis Consortium :(
    • datascienced 3y ago
      I appreciate this reply, thanks!