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According to the controversial Harvard geneticist, Professor George Church, advances in DNA technology will soon change the way we live.
The scientist is currently working on creating pigs that grow human-compatible organs for transplants, as well as mini-brains that grow in a Petri dish.
In a new interview He stated that his work – along with other gene editing projects – could help prolong human life and even reverse the aging process
s [19659005] Speaking to medium, he claimed that several biological pathways are being explored to reverse the effects.
This includes attempts to expand the survival of our telomeres – fragments of DNA that protect the ends of chromosomes and degrade with age.
But despite a number of promising advances, Professor Church warned It is unlikely that the possible cure comes in the form of a simple pill.
"It would be naïve to think that there will be a magic bullet, a simple food or drug or an absence of food that will do it by"
"It has been shown that many [techniques] operated at the mouse
"I like the approach of gene therapy."
Part of Professor Church's work involves modifying pork DNA to allow mammals to develop organs compatible with humans that can be used in rescue transplants.
The Harvard team led by the 63-year-old team used Crispr gene editing technology to generate more than a dozen pigs raised without some viruses. "Professor Church believes that trials of organ transplants from pig to human could take place by 2021 – a breakthrough that promises to shorten considerably transplantation lists.
Speaking of research, the Medium healer: "We started non-human primate testing of organs from engineering pigs.
"Some people say," Oh, you should not do [genetic] improvement, "but the fact is that we are doing all the time an improvement – to a certain extent, strengthening. Vaccines are improved.
Professor Church is also involved in a research project to grow bouquets of brain tissue in the laboratory known as "organoids"
. a cerebral organoid that has developed its own blood vessels – a vital step towards fully functioning transplants.
The scientist said, "The largest structures we have made are in the order of half a billion cells, which is larger than a mouse brain.
"This is not really a macho-sized thing at the moment; "
Professor Church said that organoids could one day be used to develop treatments for Alzheimer 's disease as well as other new drugs and therapies.
It could also be used to treat Parkinson's disease. by replacing clumps of lost cells with degenerative disease.
The scientist asserted that the use of this technique to strengthen brain material and improve a person's IQ would be "quite safe"
. Professor Church was one of the first to modify animal cells with the help of the controversial Crispr-Cas9 gene editing tool, and he is the principal investigator of the project. Woolly Mammoth Revival, "which aims to
The scientist claims that he can insert mammoth genes into an Asian elephant embryo to create a mammoth-elephant hybrid from here. 2020. [19659002] Researchers called the effort a "massive ethical problem" and asked how the new animal would fit into modern ecosystems.
Professor Church has already said that studying Neanderthals cloned from ancient bone DNA could help scientists better understand the functioning of the human mind.
Such experiences would pose a host of ethical problems – including whether they would be treated as mere subjects of study or as beings with their own rights.
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