Tag Archives: phenotype

I still remember the excitement at the turn of the century with the human genome sequencing. The hope to identify the root cause of many genome based diseases and thereafter a cure by tweaking the genome seemed about to come true. Actually, in these 20 years we overcome many hurdles, …

It looks like a software program (artificial intelligence) can create a probable image of a person based on that person’s DNA. This is nothing short of amazing. The DNA is the code of our genotype, what we look like is the phenotype and this depends on how the various genes …

It has already happened in Jurassic Park, but that was through computer created artefacts. The idea of using a genome retrieved from fossil remains to re-create that beast is, so far at least, in the science fiction domain, far away from science. This does not mean that researchers are not …

From Genome Sequencing to Artificial Human Genome The progress in genome sequencing has been so significant that in 20 years we have moved from a billion $ endeavour to obtain the first genome sequence to a mass market offering of sequencing. There is still quite a bit of confusion on …

CRISPR-CasX The CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) – Cas  (CRISPR Associated Protein) system was discovered, and invented, in the last century, the first reference is found in an article in 1987. The CRISPR was discovered in bacteria: they are short DNA sequences that bacteria have inherited from viruses …

The last Megatrend presented in the FTI’s report focusses on Synthetic Biology and its application in Agriculture. Synthetic Biology is the idea, now a practice, of being able to create/modify life in a bottom up way, composing the strand of life, DNA and in some cases RNA, in ways that …

20. CRISPR and gene therapy to fight diseases CRISPR – Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats- is a series of DNA chunks discovered in bacteria in the last decade of the 1900. Researchers found out (a bit later) that these were remnant from bacteriofagi (nasty bits that eats bacteria from …

We are likely the only species that have the capability of extending our phenotype (at least in such a significant way). We learn, and what we learn change who we are. We learn from books, from experience and from being immersed in a specific culture. More recently we have created …

Augmentation through changes in the genotype is fraught with ethical issues both rooted in the lack of knowledge on the consequences and on general considerations, including the unfair advantage that may be gained by a restricted few (among these extremes there are plenty more!). In the coming decade(s) we can expect …

Human Augmentation There are basically three ways to augment humans: Modifying the genotype Modifying the phenotype Modifying the extended phenotype As individual we inherit the genotype (the set of our genes contained in our chromosomes, each of us has 22 pairs of chromosomes –autosomes- plus the sex chromosomes, either X-X, …