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marketrent OP t1_jee2mf2 wrote
Excerpt from the linked content^1 by Stephanie Dutchen, about research published in Nature:^2
> “We believe we have developed the first technology to design an organism that can’t be infected by any known virus,” said the study’s first author, Akos Nyerges, research fellow in genetics in the lab of George Church in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.
>The work also provides the first built-in safety measure that prevents modified genetic material from being incorporated into natural cells, he said.
>“We can’t say it’s fully virus-resistant, but so far, based on extensive laboratory experiments and computational analysis, we haven’t found a virus that can break it,” Nyerges said.
>The authors said their work suggests a general method for making any organism immune to viruses and preventing gene flow into and out of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
>Such biocontainment strategies are of increasing interest as groups explore the safe deployment of GMOs for growing crops, reducing disease spread, generating biofuels, and removing pollutants from open environments.
>
>The work incorporates two separate safeguards.
>The first protects against horizontal gene transfer, a constantly occurring phenomenon in which snippets of genetic code and their accompanying traits, such as antibiotic resistance, get transferred from one organism to another.
>For the second fail-safe, the team designed the bacteria themselves to be unable to live outside a controlled environment.
>Therefore, no humans or other creatures are at risk of getting infected by “superbacteria,” Nyerges emphasized.
^1 Stephanie Dutchen, Harvard Medical School, 15 Mar. 2023, https://hms.harvard.edu/news/designing-more-useful-bacteria
^2 Nyerges, A., Vinke, S., Flynn, R. et al. A swapped genetic code prevents viral infections and gene transfer. Nature 615, 720–727 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05824-z
corcyra t1_jee4k8j wrote
> For the second fail-safe, the team designed the bacteria themselves to be unable to live outside a controlled environment.
Until they mutate? This sounds like a classic WCGW scenario
Scientifical_Comment t1_jegxlsv wrote
A great illustration of how easily bacteria mutate resistance, ironically by Harvard.
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/09/a-cinematic-approach-to-drug-resistance/
HackSlashBurn t1_jegkvt4 wrote
The Ebola virus is already patented. It’s just a matter of time before Stephen King is declared a true prophet.
[deleted] t1_jee5wey wrote
COVID-23 in da house lesss goooo
Notsnowbound t1_jee3y23 wrote
"It's perfectly safe!"