From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Fri May 30 2003 - 16:34:20 MDT
On Fri, 30 May 2003 Spudboy100@aol.com wrote:
> Yes, now what is the potential for control, and how may it impact?
Oh, books could probably be written about this. But
as Mez could comment (he is more up-to-date on this than
I) we have already seen lifespan extensions based on
the careful engineering (in Drosophila and mice at least)
for modified gene complexes based on creative combinations
of the "regulon", the "directithon" and the "actithon".
The regulon saying "when to act", the "directithon"
(in biological terms the "signal sequence") saying
"where to act" and the "actithon" (the actual protein)
saying "what to do".
Fundamental aspects of aging could be altered by knowing
"when to act" (e.g. one doesn't want ones best defenses
to cancer or aging to be activated after one has cancer
or becomes aged -- one wants them activated before one
develops cancer or becomes aged).
> Well, this is true if we can use yeast for pharmacological production,
> food production.
Well the last time I checked yeast were being used for the production
of some chemicals and/or pharmaceuticals. And I think we have been
using them for a very long time to produce bread and beer.
> and maybe fuel production.
A better base for this is bacteria, not yeast -- they replicate much
faster (down to 20 min per replication cycle) and some have photosynthetic
capabilities -- so they can use solar energy.
> Can we also learn to use regulons for human tissue engineering?
That was perhaps part of my point that I didn't make clear enough --
the timing of the cell cycle is very carefully regulated, in part
by some of the "regulons". Fully understanding the regulons allows
us to "tweek" them to make the cell cycle go faster -- or make the
cellular reproduction process be more reliable. Net results are
the ability to grow organs faster and a decreased proability that
normal cells turn into cancerous cells.
We really need to get the mammalian regulon -- but its perhaps
only 3-5 times more complex than yeast. Doable in 3-5 years,
perhaps less.
Robert
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri May 30 2003 - 16:45:08 MDT