A LEADING science group has launched the first large-scale project to develop cells that are resistant to viruses.,radiation,freezing, aging, and cancer.
The four leaders of the Genome Project.,who are among America's leading geneticists. insist the endeavour is entirely plausible within a decade.
They say it is the first step in the journey to producing “ultra-sate cells" on demand. “Ultra-safe cells could have a major impact on human health",said one of the directors, CRISPR pioneer professor George Church of Harvard Medical School.
The project will spring board off a process that the GP team recently discovered called DNA recoding. Church and colleagues at Harvard showed they could recode the bacteria E. Coil.
After making 321 changes to the bacterial genome, they could achieve viral resistance. However, recoding the genome of a plant or mammal would be signiflcantly more ambitious.
“Recoding every protein in the human genome, for example would require 400,000 changes.”says Church. Specific redundant codons would have to removed from all 20,000 genes.
However the team Insist it is doable within 10 years