Safe and Fun Gene Therapy

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Wed Nov 03, 2010 6:35 pm

I don't really think that I'm going to get any of the sweet, sweet gene therapy that I crave (I'd like to burn fat cells faster, grow muscle easier, and have a manlier jaw), but is there any chance that my children and grandchildren will get the sweet stuff?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Wed Nov 03, 2010 7:21 pm

Lago PARANOIA wrote:I don't really think that I'm going to get any of the sweet, sweet gene therapy that I crave (I'd like to burn fat cells faster, grow muscle easier, and have a manlier jaw), but is there any chance that my children and grandchildren will get the sweet stuff?

Right now, gene therapy involves you dying a lot. There just isn't a really selective way to insert genes into a terribly specific part of the genome in a living host.

Now, we can do IVF right now. And we can insert genes into a single celled implanted egg. And if it doesn't work out, we can have another million where that came from.

So your grandkids could be born as GATACA style super-babies. But I don't see mid-life genetic modification being used in the next century for anything short of lethal genetic shortcomings.

-Username17

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 5:22 am

I'm guessing that applies to sex changing gene therapy too? Damn.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 5:31 am

Prak_Anima wrote:I'm guessing that applies to sex changing gene therapy too? Damn.

Especially to sex change gene therapy. Adding or removing X chromosomes is way beyond inserting or deleting genes (you don't really "delete" genes, you add a stop codon to the beginning of a gene to turn it off). That will probably never happen.

You could graft in additional glands that produced estrogen or something, but the Y chromosome stays.

-Username17

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 5:48 am

Well.... I want it to stay. I'm not mtf, I'm bigender, really I just want a few after market additions, not a trade in.

I don't suppose that's any easier....

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 5:59 am

I'd be happy with "no pain receptors", some kind of effective replacement for teeth (they only cause grief in the end, maybe some kind of giant sucker and the whole acid thing begins in the mouth - with the added benefit of being able to spit acid!) and venom glands.

I mean, everything else in the country is venomous, why not me?

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 6:04 am

...future girlfriends may not appreciate your acid dripping lamprey mouth, Koumei.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 6:07 am

Prak_Anima wrote:...future girlfriends may not appreciate your acid dripping lamprey mouth, Koumei.

Given my track record so far, I neglected to take that into consideration. Clearly there needs to be some better option.

Frank, what animal has the best system for eating things (including "the teeth (if any) aren't a fucking pain")?

Though if I could just find a way to subside on nothing but tea...

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 6:11 am

Koumei wrote:
Prak_Anima wrote:...future girlfriends may not appreciate your acid dripping lamprey mouth, Koumei.
Given my track record so far, I neglected to take that into consideration. Clearly there needs to be some better option.

Frank, what animal has the best system for eating things (including "the teeth (if any) aren't a fucking pain")?

I don't think you're getting out of teeth, Koumei. Hell, even lampreys have them after a fashion....

of course, there's always what some idiot rapper Kanye West did...

Though if I could just find a way to subside on nothing but tea...

Caffeine based Chemo-synthesis. I once considered that...middle school, I think....

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 12:14 pm

Well, you could get shark teeth that just fall out super easy and are rapidly replaced.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 4:57 pm

Rather than acid spitting, everting your stomach onto your food and then sucking it back up is an option used by a number of animals.

And as far as gene therapy, it's a gamble. Either it works or it doesn't work, and you either get leukemia or don't get leukemia. It's a toss up.

And you better believe that when my wife and I have kids, she's going to engineer them to be little super-humans. There are some advantages to being married to a genetic engineer.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 5:19 pm

Koumei, Gene therapy isn't how you get a mechanical mouth. You just get super cosmetic dentistry, and have them replace all your teeth.

Draconis · Post by **Draconis** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 11:02 pm

We're working on it.
Well I would be if I weren't posting here at the moment.

Hi Frank. }: P

Blasted · Post by **Blasted** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 12:49 am

Koumei wrote: Frank, what animal has the best system for eating things (including "the teeth (if any) aren't a fucking pain")?

I fully support the anemone here. No teeth, but will happily attempt to dissolve pretty much anything. Of course, having symbiotic zooxanthellae means you never really needed to eat anyway.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 2:21 am

Kaelik wrote:Koumei, Gene therapy isn't how you get a mechanical mouth. You just get super cosmetic dentistry, and have them replace all your teeth.

Good point. And going the mecha-route I can just fucking get knee-mounted miniguns or whatever.

K · Post by K » Fri Nov 05, 2010 5:59 am

I suspect designer organs will be online way before any kind of decent gene therapy. I read a great article where they made a human liver in a lab by seeding the collagen of a stripped out ferret liver, so popping in something really exotic seems just around the bend.

I mean, we make glowing fish and cotton that makes scorpion venom.... super-organs don't seem too difficult.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 6:54 am

K wrote:I suspect designer organs will be online

Really, now?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 3:27 pm

Certain limitations will probably not be overcome when it comes to genetic modification. The thing where inserted genes currently sometimes get inserted into the middle of genes you need to live, causing you to get cancer or simply cease surviving in a general sort of way is overcomable. More specific genetic insertion is possible.

However, the thing where inserting a new gene causes your cells to start expressing proteins that they did not previously have when their immune system was gelling, and thus they sometimes develop auto-immune reactions that can be extremely fatal... that is probably insoluble.

-Username17

The Gaming Den

Safe and Fun Gene Therapy

Safe and Fun Gene Therapy

Re: Safe and Fun Gene Therapy