5 ms·

CRISPR-like tools that finally can edit mitochondria DNA

157 points by ck2 1y ago

Miaourt 1y ago
A nice soul have a non-paywalled version to share ?
- byrantech 1y ago
  https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03307-x.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03307-x.pdf this should work?
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - Miaourt 1y ago
    Maybe I'm just stupid, but I'm seeing the typical "fade-out" at the bottom of the article, followed by a subscription-wall, suggesting more of the content is behind this gate. Tho, maybe the "Making the edit" infographic is really the bottom of the article...
    - bil7 1y ago
      the only current archive on archive.is also has that. Watch this space for a complete archive, hopefully: https://archive.is/https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03307-x https://archive.is/https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-02...
varispeed 1y ago
Imagine the future - vibe coding own DNA. "Hey ChatGPT, I need third ear. Make it grow in two months."
- Iolaum 1y ago
  Now we "just" need a CRISPR-MCP server :p
  - mountainriver 1y ago
    On the public internet
- CSMastermind 1y ago
  I've been reading a lot about biochemistry lately and it's actually insane how complicated all of life is. The idea that we can edit genes at all is a miracle and I think most software engineers significantly underestimate how hard it would be to make meaningful changes to our bodies through gene editing.
  - lanfeust6 1y ago
    Recently have been reading the Gene by Mukherjee. I'm amazed at what had been accomplished in the mid 20th Century. A lot of what still seems crazy now was done already albeit in small scale.
  - fragmede 1y ago
    Growing new appendages is clearly much more involved, but a Youtuber was able to give themselves lactose tolerance for a couple of months (they were lactose intolerant before). Assuming it wasn't faked for views, and that we are what we eat, that suggests other modifications to gut bateria aren't inconceivably far off.
    - throwup238 1y ago
      Considering that there aren’t any mammals that can regrow appendages, chances are adding an appendage would be impossible with gene editing because it would require editing both the mother and offspring to support novel embryonic development.
      - clort 1y ago
        I seem to think that human children can regrow the tips of their finger if it is cut off (I think the nail is ok, not the joint) though I don't know where I learned that, perhaps a first aid course. I've never tried it though.
        throwup238 1y ago
        That is correct, as long as the injury doesn’t take out the nail bed. That implies that there is some sort of growth factor involved with the nail bed as a signaling center, but regrown finger tips are a very simple case compared to actual appendages. Finger tips are mostly fatty soft tissue minus the muscle, which is known to regenerate. Stuff like nerves are a completely different issue and children who regrow finger tips usually lose finer sensory input like two point discrimination.
- thwarted 1y ago
  This reminded me of the 1995 The Outer Limits episode "The New Breed".
- tracker1 1y ago
  I don't like to be alarmist, but some of this is a little scary, IMO. Small changes in a society can have massive impacts over generations. If you look at what happened to experiments with feeding house cats an altered diet in just a few generations. People are already eating a lot of things that wouldn't even be considered food a couple centuries ago, and maybe still shouldn't be. We have a lot of increasing hormone production issues in western society already, I'm not sure that fiddling with things further is a real solution here without risking a lot of damage to society as a whole.
  - lazyfanatic42 1y ago
    The amount of change that has happened just because of The Internet, and the speed of those changes is already too fast for us to cope with. We haven't even properly coped with that single change as a society and things are just accelerating...
  - zafka 1y ago
    > If you look at what happened to experiments with feeding house cats an altered diet in just a few generations. Can you point to a reference?
    - tracker1 1y ago
      https://drsurinderarora.com/articles/f/nutrition-for-dentition---pottengers-cats https://drsurinderarora.com/articles/f/nutrition-for-dentiti...
  - iamthejuan 1y ago
    Identifying unmodified human in the future is necessary.
- guluarte 1y ago
  "Hey you #$#@ remove the ear from my anus"
- peder 1y ago
  And then when it gets it wrong and you ask why it grew a nose instead of an ear: "You're absolutely right! I can fix this!"
  - echelon 1y ago
    You mean cancer. Or a wicked disease state like Huntington's that causes your DNA to slip. Simple failures with catostrophic outcomes are much more likely than rewiring and restarting all of the developmental program across huge cell and tissue populations. It would be more likely to grow transplant tissue exogenously. It's far safer than using the body as a test tube. These gene editing techniques are used to fix simple (typically one cause) genetic diseases. Not reengineer live organisms "in flight".
    - hinkley 1y ago
      Your liver is covered with ears and they’ve started spreading to your lymph nodes.
- rolisz 1y ago
  Take a look at Michael Levin's work: he's been able to get animals to grow eyes on their legs (or something similar), without gene manipulation, but just by messing with bioelectrical fields. Paper: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3587383/?utm https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3587383/?utm YouTube interview: https://youtu.be/Kpx5isuKD1c?si=RU6fztq_RexUvYif https://youtu.be/Kpx5isuKD1c?si=RU6fztq_RexUvYif
- burnte 1y ago
  Two months go by then suddenly three more ears appear on your head. Damn those hallucinations!
- inglor_cz 1y ago
  This is quite close to the ideas of Michael Levin, a somewhat famous biologist from Tufts. The goal of his research is a "biological compiler", where you would just enter how many tails, legs and eyes you want a creature to have and hey presto. He doesn't want to reach this by making edits in DNA, though. He is trying to simply temporarily "activate" the dormant DNA patterns for growing an ear, that were once active in the embryonal phase of the organism, in an adult organism and in a different location. His work indicates that using a correct electrochemical pattern can do this, at least in simpler organisms. He already produced some two-and three-headed worms, tadpoles with five appendages and three eyes etc. IDK how his recent work on mammals is progressing.
koeng 1y ago
We've known TALENs work for years. For example - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4817924/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4817924/ - from 2015 I worked on a project many years ago to do RNA import into yeast mitochondria (and then hopefully reverse transcribe there). Didn't work, and a lot of the info on RNA import into the mitochondria is... suspect. Mitochondria engineering is just actually tough. 30 years and no new protocols for getting DNA in there :(

157 points by ck2 1y ago

Miaourt 1y ago

A nice soul have a non-paywalled version to share ?

byrantech 1y ago
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03307-x.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03307-x.pdf this should work?
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- Miaourt 1y ago
  Maybe I'm just stupid, but I'm seeing the typical "fade-out" at the bottom of the article, followed by a subscription-wall, suggesting more of the content is behind this gate. Tho, maybe the "Making the edit" infographic is really the bottom of the article...
  - bil7 1y ago
    the only current archive on archive.is also has that. Watch this space for a complete archive, hopefully: https://archive.is/https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03307-x https://archive.is/https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-02...

varispeed 1y ago

Imagine the future - vibe coding own DNA. "Hey ChatGPT, I need third ear. Make it grow in two months."

Iolaum 1y ago
Now we "just" need a CRISPR-MCP server :p
- mountainriver 1y ago
  On the public internet
CSMastermind 1y ago
I've been reading a lot about biochemistry lately and it's actually insane how complicated all of life is. The idea that we can edit genes at all is a miracle and I think most software engineers significantly underestimate how hard it would be to make meaningful changes to our bodies through gene editing.
- lanfeust6 1y ago
  Recently have been reading the Gene by Mukherjee. I'm amazed at what had been accomplished in the mid 20th Century. A lot of what still seems crazy now was done already albeit in small scale.
- fragmede 1y ago
  Growing new appendages is clearly much more involved, but a Youtuber was able to give themselves lactose tolerance for a couple of months (they were lactose intolerant before). Assuming it wasn't faked for views, and that we are what we eat, that suggests other modifications to gut bateria aren't inconceivably far off.
  - throwup238 1y ago
    Considering that there aren’t any mammals that can regrow appendages, chances are adding an appendage would be impossible with gene editing because it would require editing both the mother and offspring to support novel embryonic development.
    - clort 1y ago
      I seem to think that human children can regrow the tips of their finger if it is cut off (I think the nail is ok, not the joint) though I don't know where I learned that, perhaps a first aid course. I've never tried it though.
      - throwup238 1y ago
        That is correct, as long as the injury doesn’t take out the nail bed. That implies that there is some sort of growth factor involved with the nail bed as a signaling center, but regrown finger tips are a very simple case compared to actual appendages. Finger tips are mostly fatty soft tissue minus the muscle, which is known to regenerate. Stuff like nerves are a completely different issue and children who regrow finger tips usually lose finer sensory input like two point discrimination.
thwarted 1y ago
This reminded me of the 1995 The Outer Limits episode "The New Breed".
tracker1 1y ago
I don't like to be alarmist, but some of this is a little scary, IMO. Small changes in a society can have massive impacts over generations. If you look at what happened to experiments with feeding house cats an altered diet in just a few generations. People are already eating a lot of things that wouldn't even be considered food a couple centuries ago, and maybe still shouldn't be. We have a lot of increasing hormone production issues in western society already, I'm not sure that fiddling with things further is a real solution here without risking a lot of damage to society as a whole.
- lazyfanatic42 1y ago
  The amount of change that has happened just because of The Internet, and the speed of those changes is already too fast for us to cope with. We haven't even properly coped with that single change as a society and things are just accelerating...
- zafka 1y ago
  > If you look at what happened to experiments with feeding house cats an altered diet in just a few generations. Can you point to a reference?
  - tracker1 1y ago
    https://drsurinderarora.com/articles/f/nutrition-for-dentition---pottengers-cats https://drsurinderarora.com/articles/f/nutrition-for-dentiti...
- iamthejuan 1y ago
  Identifying unmodified human in the future is necessary.
guluarte 1y ago
"Hey you #$#@ remove the ear from my anus"
peder 1y ago
And then when it gets it wrong and you ask why it grew a nose instead of an ear: "You're absolutely right! I can fix this!"
- echelon 1y ago
  You mean cancer. Or a wicked disease state like Huntington's that causes your DNA to slip. Simple failures with catostrophic outcomes are much more likely than rewiring and restarting all of the developmental program across huge cell and tissue populations. It would be more likely to grow transplant tissue exogenously. It's far safer than using the body as a test tube. These gene editing techniques are used to fix simple (typically one cause) genetic diseases. Not reengineer live organisms "in flight".
  - hinkley 1y ago
    Your liver is covered with ears and they’ve started spreading to your lymph nodes.
rolisz 1y ago
Take a look at Michael Levin's work: he's been able to get animals to grow eyes on their legs (or something similar), without gene manipulation, but just by messing with bioelectrical fields. Paper: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3587383/?utm https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3587383/?utm YouTube interview: https://youtu.be/Kpx5isuKD1c?si=RU6fztq_RexUvYif https://youtu.be/Kpx5isuKD1c?si=RU6fztq_RexUvYif
burnte 1y ago
Two months go by then suddenly three more ears appear on your head. Damn those hallucinations!
inglor_cz 1y ago
This is quite close to the ideas of Michael Levin, a somewhat famous biologist from Tufts. The goal of his research is a "biological compiler", where you would just enter how many tails, legs and eyes you want a creature to have and hey presto. He doesn't want to reach this by making edits in DNA, though. He is trying to simply temporarily "activate" the dormant DNA patterns for growing an ear, that were once active in the embryonal phase of the organism, in an adult organism and in a different location. His work indicates that using a correct electrochemical pattern can do this, at least in simpler organisms. He already produced some two-and three-headed worms, tadpoles with five appendages and three eyes etc. IDK how his recent work on mammals is progressing.

koeng 1y ago

We've known TALENs work for years. For example - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4817924/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4817924/ - from 2015 I worked on a project many years ago to do RNA import into yeast mitochondria (and then hopefully reverse transcribe there). Didn't work, and a lot of the info on RNA import into the mitochondria is... suspect. Mitochondria engineering is just actually tough. 30 years and no new protocols for getting DNA in there :(