Since Mendel's experiments on heredity and the identification of the DNA as

the genetic material, we started to know how and why we are like we are we,
started to understand more about how our bodies work. The DNA contains
genes, passed to us in roughly equal proportions from our parents, that are like
the instructions of a computer program running within us, inside our every cell.
The whole program, the complete DNA, makes up the genome, which contains
not only all genes but even large empty areas that are basically junk. Genes by
and large encode proteins, which are the building blocks of our bodies.
Differences in genes determine, for instance, eye color and susceptibility to
certain diseases. To a large degree we are what our genes code us to be.

The DNA is a molecular chain physically located in chromosomes, structures

present in the nucleus of cells. Genes are encoded by the DNA and specify how
and when to build proteins which then act as molecular machines. These
molecular machines interact in complex networks to perform most vital
functions in cells. The communities of cells, through complex interactions, then
give rise to animals, including human beings. Picture
from genomics.energy.gov.

In simple terms, genetic engineering (GE) is the ability to manipulate the genes
of an organism to produce a given protein or obtain organisms that have a given
trait. The first big success of GE was the production of insulin by genetically
modified bacteria. It showed the medical, economical, and industrial
possibilities of this technology. Like a pyramid buried in the sands of the
desert, the possibilities and uses of GE were being uncovered. Thanks to
refined techniques in molecular genetics and recombinant DNA techniques, its
uses soon started to be employed in a vast array of areas:

• Pharmaceuticals: producing monoclonal antibodies, antibiotics, vaccines,

interferon, and many other proteins with pharmaceutical value.
• Agriculture: modifying plants to become more resistant to pathogens and
to harsh environments, or producing insecticides.
• The food industry: breeding animals has been done for thousands of
years, but GE allows the creation of livestock with unprecedented
precision in a shorter time. For instance, cattle can be engineered to be
bigger, with higher reproduction rates, of better quality, etc. Stemming
 from agriculture, it is possible to modify certain foods, such as fruits and
livestock, in terms of sweetness, color, and even nutritional value -- e.g.,
developing animals whose meat has less fat.
• Industry: using microorganisms to produce all sorts of molecules and
optimizing molecules by mutagenesis and computational models that can
then be produced by genetically-modified microorganisms like bacteria.
• Environmental applications: bioremediation by creating and optimizing
bacteria capable of degrading xenobiotics.

The greatest applications of genetics are in medicine. By knowing which gene,

which piece of the genetic code is responsible for a given disease, physicians
can diagnose diseases. It also allows scientists the opportunity to understand
how diseases occur and eventually develop treatments. A large part of modern
biomedical research is conducted based on genetics and GE. For instance, in
my field of aging research, we can alter the pace of aging in animal models by
modifying a single gene which allows us to study why we age and how can we
treat the diseases of old-age. At least until nanotechnology arrives, GE is the
ultimate biotool

Evolving Beyond Humans

Perfection is something that doesn't exist in Nature. You and me are no
different. We suffer from painful and horrible diseases, we can die for the most
trivial causes, we will inevitably die of aging, etc. Yet we can, at least in
theory, change all that. We can change the tyranny of the genes and become
better than we are now.

The possibilities for applying GE to change the human genome are immense:
there are genes that offer protection against diseases such as cancer and AIDS,
genes that code enhanced senses and intelligence, anything we can imagine.
For example, many animals have skills we do not possess -- e.g., limb
regeneration. We can identify those genes and, in theory, it may be possible in
the future to incorporate those functions into humans. In addition, as computers
evolve, we may be able to design proteins in computers to suit one's individual
needs. For instance, it may be possible in a near future to go to the doctor and
have a gene inserted that gives rise to a stronger immune system.

At present, technology to upgrade our genes is still in its infancy. It is difficult

to change a gene in an adult human. Progress has been made the areas of stem
cells and tissue engineering by extracting cells from the patient, genetically
engineer them and then insert them into the patient with the gene of interest
active. Another technology is gene therapy, which usually works by injecting
special viruses into patients that then deliver the gene of interest into the
patient's cells. For example, Nadia Rosenthal and colleagues have developed a
gene therapy method that improves age-related muscle degeneration by using a
virus to augment the expression -- i.e., the production -- of a gene called IGF1.

One more ambitious and polemic technique is GE on germinal tissues, which

consists of the ability to change one's genes in a way that his/her offspring will
be affected. This can and must -- with current knowledge -- be done in the early
stages of development. This technique is already used in many model
organisms, including primates such as rhesus monkeys, but its use on humans is
forbidden by most countries' laws.

The prohibition is mostly based on the health risks involved. For example,
germinal GE on mice is not particularly effective and many things can go
wrong. It also makes sense, however, to continue research and attempt to
develop a safe GE for human applications. There are cases of patients with
severe genetic diseases or that are hosts for genetic diseases and whose children
would also have a high risk of having such diseases. GE can provide a solution
to these cases by correcting the gene(s) associated with the disease.

In 2001, the first genetically altered babies were born. A bit of background is
necessary, though. The large majority of genes are in the nucleus of cells,
called the nuclear genome, which is inherited from both the mother and father
in approximately equal quantities. A tiny fraction of the genome is in
mitochondria, small cellular organelles with their own genome. This genome,
called the mitochondrial DNA, is inherited only from the mother. In the 2001
case, because the mother's mitochondrial DNA had errors, researchers used the
mitochondrial DNA from a donor woman and thus the babies had half of their
nuclear genome from their father, half from their mother, and the mitochondrial
DNA of another woman. This was the first case of a human germline genetic
modification. The babies were healthy.

There are thousands of genetic diseases that are encoded by the nuclear
genome1, such as the Down's syndrome and horrible life-threatening diseases
like Tay-Sachs syndrome, cystic fibrosis, and Gaucher's disease. For now,
prevention is the only choice. Pregnant women can employ genetic counseling
techniques such as amniocentesis, which involves testing fetal cells for genetic
diseases. A more complicated option is pre-implantation genetic diagnosis
(PGD). In this technique, used to create what is often called a "designer baby,"
an embryo is created by in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and tested for genetic
diseases and genomic imbalances that can cause problems to the child. This
technique allows for the selection of healthy babies, but also to create a baby to
treat a sick sibling. Similarly, it is possible to select for certain traits, such as
eye color or the sex of babies, though this is forbidden in many countries.

These techniques raise several ethical questions and have been a heated topic of
debate in bioethics. The main reason why "designer babies" are polemic and
opposed by many is that embryos are destroyed when they are unsuitable.
Although such embryos typically have less than 10 cells, pro-life people who
believe that life begins at conception hence oppose this research because they
believe it is killing people.

As a transhumanist, I defend my right to change and upgrade my body as I

please. I also defend that if I wish to have children with upgraded brains or
certain beneficial features, I should be allowed to, assuming the method is
proven safe of course -- otherwise I wouldn't be interested in it anyway. The
issue of whether embryos are humans beings is beyond the focus of this essay.
Nonetheless, I do not think that an embryo without a circulatory system,
without a nervous system, without any evidence of a mind or of consciousness,
can be considered a person.

The next step in "designer babies" is to use GE to correct genetic diseases in the
embryo. If we spend millions in trying to cure diseases like asthma, baldness,
cancer, why shouldn't we cure these diseases before we are even born?
Admittedly, the technology is not safe yet, but it will likely be one day not far
into the future. Assuming the procedure is safe, I see no reason to stop someone
from not only eliminating genetic errors but improving his/her children from an
aesthetic point a view.

Some people argue that germinal GE will reduce the human species to only a
few types of individuals, which I doubt. How many beautiful person do you
know? There are millions of beautiful persons each of them with their own
individuality. The combinations are endless. Germinal tissue GE would only
eliminate the ugly extremes but it would not decrease human diversity. Of
course it would be necessary to protect celebrities from having their genes
cloned, for individuals should have their personal rights protected. It also has
been argued that GE can aggravate social differences, which is possible. But
just because there are people in the world who can't afford to have heart surgery
that doesn't mean we should eradicate it and stop saving lives.

Importantly, germinal GE would allow for the evolution of the human species. I
should emphasize that this is not related to eugenics but with individual
evolution only. As mentioned above, I defend only the right to upgrade myself
and my children, never impose my will on others. We can evolve beyond our
natural limitations using genetics. As I mention elsewhere, Nature made us to
suffer and die; it's our duty to fight and overpower Nature and become masters
of our destiny. Nonetheless, it should always be an individual decision.

Upgrading our genome is the future. Of course we need to be cautious as there

are still many technical problems to solve. But new techniques are being
developed and we can expect major progress in the near future. In our constant
and ever lasting search for perfection we must change the environment that
surrounds us but we must also change ourselves.

The 47th Chromosome

Each chromosome contains part of the genetic code. Above are my lovely 46
chromosomes.

The 47th chromosome, also called techno-chromosome, is a theoretical concept

that proposes adding a new chromosome, or more likely a pair of
chromosomes, to our current set of 46 chromosomes. This would allow us to
include all the changes we desire without the danger of creating genetic
imbalances by changing our current chromosomes. Chromos Molecular
Systems engineering an artificial chromosome that can be passed into the
progeny of mice, and there are attempts to expand this research into humans as
cell-mediated gene therapy and stem cell therapy, so this is not science fiction.

Forecasting the future isn't easy. Nevertheless, below is a brief vision of the
future composed by some of the most ambitious ideas for using GE I've come
across:
 o Many types of improvements may be made to our metabolism. Besides
the obvious life-extension procedures, we might be able to turn ourselves
more physically resistant in all sorts of manners. Making our skin and
bones harder, making us stronger, improving our stamina, giving us
super-intelligence, minimizing pain and overall optimizing our
biochemistry.
o Many times, we have a disease but don't know about it until it's too late.
If we can make the body have some sort of reaction when,
hypothetically, a few cancer cells are present, that would be a major
breakthrough in medicine. The idea is to include certain enzymes that
can be activated when genes associated with cancer are activated in
cancer cells. They could produce a certain chemical compound that
would turn the cells pink or the urine green. This, of course, can be
applied to many other diseases.
o An Israeli scientist, Ehud Shapiro, proposed the inclusion of tiny
biological computers in cells to work as microscopic doctors. Advances
in DNA computer technology have been amazing and perhaps DNA
processing machinery can use DNA as a basic Turing machine that
works as a computer. The computer can then be programmed to perform
certain functions, namely, detecting, signaling, and treating pathologies.
o To incorporate in the genome genes that can offer protection during
cryopreservation for long space trips.
o To include viruses, called bacteriophages, that attack bacteria and can
then be produced by the immune system to attack pathogenic bacteria
whenever necessary. Each bacteriophage would be specific for each
bacterial strain or family and could be present in the blood at small
concentrations when no infection was present.
o One ingenious idea is to encrypt the genome. Encrypting the genome is
changing the DNA sequence that codes for a certain amino acid, the
blocks from which proteins are built based on the information in the
genes. The result would be a complete resistance to viruses because
viruses use the body's DNA machinery; the viral DNA would code for
the wrong amino acids and therefore would be inert. There is actually
work being done in synthetic biology by my colleague Farren Isaacs of
the Church lab, attempting to do this in bacteria.

Sources and Links

1
— Some researchers, like Paul Berg, actually claim that all diseases are
genetic.
Brock, Thomas D.; "Biology of Microorganisms" (1997).

Glick, Bernard R. & Jack J. Pasternak; "Molecular Biotechnology: Principles

and Applications of Recombinant DNA" (1998).

Griffiths, Anthony J. F. et al; "An Introduction to Genetic Analysis" (1996).

Lemoine, N. (editor); "Understanding Gene Therapy" (1999).

Lewin, Benjamin; "Genes VI" (1997).

Lyon, Jeff, Peter Gorner (Contributor); "Altered Fates: Gene Therapy and the
Retooling of Human Life" (1996).

Nossal, G. J. V.; "Reshaping Life - Key Issues in Genetic Engineering" (1985

& 1989 versions).

Russo, Enzo, David Cove; "Genetic Engineering: Dreams and Nightmares"

(1995).

Stock, Gregory; "Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future" (2002).

Vogel, F. & Motulsky, A. G.; "Human Genetics: Problems and Approaches"

(1997).

GeneWatch; website on the ethics and risks of genetic engineering.

Human Germline Engineering - Implications for Science and Society