Genetics Messages

Genetics

Message from Online Lobster of Lobster's Cove posted on 4/20/97

Message from Online Lobster of Lobster's Cove

Ok, I'll start this off by mentioning that when I attempted to go to college and was struck down by that yearlong flu my major was molecular genetics. Very ambitious, I know, but I am confident that with a little orginization and some work habits I can do it. I still plan on going back to school, but I'm making real good money right now. I'm going to have to quit one of my jobs to do it, but it won't matter, even with the only job I plan to keep I'll be able to pay my own way through college.

I can remember the article that sparked a real interest in genetics for me, it was about researchers who had isolated a aging gene and were able to triple the lifespan of worms by toggling it. This got me very excited about the prospect of doing the same thing with humans, I'd always thought 80 years as an average lifespan was not nearly enough, and here was a potential technology that could triple the human lifespan! Slow aging down to one third of what it is now giving us a 240 year lifespan!

Ok, ok.. so even if you could do that how could you do it to all 60 trillion of your cells? Impossible, right? Wrong! There is an experimental procedure out there called Genetic Therapy which is being used in cases where people have a terminal genetic condition. What it does is it takes a genetically engineered retro-virus which is designed to infect the person, seeking out any and every cell it can get it's hands on and editing it's genetic structure to fix the specific problem! Taking this technology and using what we know about aging genes we could theoretically make a virus that would keep people young forever! This is obviously an extremely simplified explanation of how it would be done.

Discuss!

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