Month: September 2022

HUGE STEP. "Holliger and his team engineered enzymes that helped six types of XNA to assemble and replicate genetic messages. The enzymes transcribed DNA into the various XNAs, then back into new DNA strands — with 95% accuracy or more. For the first time, this confirms that replication, heredity and evolution are possible in these alternative backbones." (XDNA = xeno-nucleic acids). https://lnkd.in/d7dNEeN View in LinkedIn

"SYDNEY BRENNER has expanded the genetic alphabet by adding two new nucleobases, Z and P, potentially making a wider array of genes and proteins." A whole new frontier. https://lnkd.in/dYQeS-P View in LinkedIn

HORTA THINKING. "The Star Trek episode in which the Enterprise crew finds Horta, a silicon-based alien life form that can't be detected with tricorders because it wasn't carbon-based." The answer you get depends on the questions you ask. https://lnkd.in/dGbsBxV View in LinkedIn

"THE CLANKING REPLICATOR" was an engineering dream of a self-replicating machine. But programmable synthetic DNA robots can replicate, self-repair and most importantly, because of DNA mutations, evolve. Thus, they resemble viruses, which operate at the border of old definitions for life. This resemblance to viruses has been missed in the literature. It means that synthetic DNA robots are as alive as viruses. This is a milestone of historic proportions but has gone, it seems, unnoticed. View in LinkedIn

SYNTHETIC VIRUS. "In 2002, scientists were able to synthesize the poliovirus." https://lnkd.in/ddTvp9R View in LinkedIn

RADICAL MODIFICATIONS. "Since then, biotechnology has moved on, making it possible to synthesize bacteria, and organisms are genetically modified almost every day...In addition, all the code for synthetic DNA is stored on computers." http://www.pcworld.com/article/252103/computer_viruses_could_cross_frontier_into_biological_realm_researchers_say.html View in LinkedIn

France bans captive breeding of dolphins and killer whales View in LinkedIn

SYNTHETIC GENOME. "The steps to RNA and onward to phenotype have been achieved with the construction and cellular transfer of the first chemically synthesized bacterial genome." https://lnkd.in/eKjEK6c View in LinkedIn

FUTURE SHADOW. "De novo construction of larger, eukaryotic genomes will clearly come about within a few years, as this needs only technical advances in methods that already exist." https://lnkd.in/eKjEK6c View in LinkedIn

ARTIFICIAL EVOLUTION. "Such technologies might become a significant mechanism for creation and manipulation of organisms, allowing directed and ‘artificial’ evolution." https://lnkd.in/eKjEK6c View in LinkedIn