Scientists want to make human DNA from the start – but is it ethical to do? | News Technology

Work has begun to something that is not thought of: creating human DNA from the start.

Artificial DNA has long been an ethical mines, with fear of the generation of ‘baby designer’ with the nature of ‘n’ and super soldiers.

But a group of researchers who have been given £ 10 million by the largest medical charity in the world, Wellcome, see various things differently.

Artificial human DNA, or synthetic DNA (syndna), will be made without biological parents using chemicals.

SynHG (human synthetic) researchers will not create an artificial life but use a test tube and a petri dish to find out how humans can create a code of life.

How will scientists make artificial DNA?

Everything that makes humans stored in our DNA, microscopic strings of molecules in our cells.

Smaller chemicals that make DNA written in a four-letter alphabet A, G, C and T. From these letters are called genes, which are spread in 23 pairs of chromosomes such as worms.

Hunting even one gene has taken a scientist throughout their career, but the human genome project in 2013 decodes the third billion letter which is a distinctive strand of DNA.

The genetic code acts as a job description for cells, so that SynHG scientists want to engineer cells to have specific functions. This is different from gene editing, where DNA is cut and sewn again.

Tom Ellis, a bioengineer involved in Synhg, said Metro The synthetic DNA assembly is not something that can be done overnight.

“We only set wheels for future technology, which will take years to provide,” said Professor of Synthetic Genom Engineering at Imperial College London.

He added: ‘For now, we will do a small part of the genome by showing that we can combine the DNA bitter and DNA bits written by computers, chemically synthesized to the area of ​​human chromosomes and making it function in isolated human cells in the research laboratory.

“This will require us to cloning pieces of DNA in bacteria and yeast cells, and knitting together before the large pieces of DNA are brought into human cells and exchanged into genomes and checking that they function.”

He added that if everything went according to plan, this technique could revolutionize cancer treatment.

One way to treat cancer is T cell therapy, where the patient’s T cells, a type of immune cell, are reprogrammed to help fight disease.

Professor Ellis said: ‘People can imagine that 10 years from now on after using synthetic chromosomes will be a good way to make high efficiency immune cell therapy to treat cancer with a much better security profile than cells that we are currently using for things like our T-S-Sgi cell therapy one of our best weapons for cancer.’

What is the ethics of making synthetic DNA?

But the idea of ​​humanity that intervenes in its own evolution does not disappear without controversy.

Some critics say that if synthetic DNA is used to treat disease, it must be accessed by all, regardless of income.

A similar concern was expressed by researchers from the University of Manchester behind the first ethical analysis of artificial human DNA.

Making DNA without the need for parents means it is not clear who ‘has’ genetic material, they said. Because this technique will make the changes inherited in the genome, it is murky if it can be used with the contents of people who ultimately live with artificial DNA.

They wrote: ‘These possibilities can call back thinking about the way we understand genetic identity and privacy. Should it turn out that a person’s genome has been “printed” using the Sindna technique, whether that person is thus morally – and if so, in what way?

‘Is it, or should, a crime to “reproduce” a person’s genome in this way?’

Professor IAIN Brassington from the University of Manchester, one of the analysis writers, however, isn’t that worried about SynHG.

“Any new technology will raise ethical questions, but nothing is very worrying about this one,” he told Metro.

‘There are great benefits that can be obtained in terms of understanding basic questions about biology and human disease, and, based on that understanding, developing treatments that can deal with diseases with high morbidity and mortality.

“Making a complete human genome from the start will be a giant achievement: there are too many genes there to be practical possibilities.”

Don’t worry about babies ordered ordered designers sold in the near future, said Professor Brassington.

“If the term is considered broad enough to cover the baby where we have warded up a deadly disease, then I think we can bite the bullets,” he said.

‘If it is intended to increase the scourge of parents who choose certain characteristics for their children – maybe by copying and entering the genes carried by certain celebrities, or something like that – we will definitely go to the world of fantasy.’

Professor Brassington said that every new technology comes with a lot of tangles to be approved, something that will be considered by the regulator.

‘But we shouldn’t be afraid of technology; It promises the benefits to be taken, ‘he added.

Professor Ellis stressed that the SynHG team worked with ethical advisors during the project for years.

There are ‘very few direct applications and very little direct ethical risk’ with current research, he said.

Contact our news team by sending an email to us on webnews@metro.co.uk.

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