i need help in finding equipment for genetically modifying humans. does anybody got a clue?

You mean like a spiderman type thingie?

- Splicer

not really. more like Bioshock

Ah ... Maybe gene therapy is the place to start looking.

There are often torrents with books on most subjects.

- Splicer

hmmm... never thought about that. well, do u know of any tools used in this field?

I don't think there's any major genetic modification of humans going on...

Also note, there are no evil mad scientists releasing genetically enhanced mutants, which is why you don't hear much about mutant frenzies...

Genetically modifying humans? It really depends on how you want to modify to what end.

Isn't the gene gun something closest to what you're thinking about?

You might have some diffuculty modifying humans. GM embryos are illegal and highly unreliable to raise to a human and gene therapy on fully formed humans isn't something you're going to be able to do from you house.

Plasmids on sperm could work?

Then just inject.

But I think if someone brought a GFP-kid to preschool that would be frowned upon.

-Splicer

I'm not sure how well plasmids would be used by a human host. I'm not aware of any work that involves attempting to get animal cells to express plasmid DNA. Usually we take the DNA -from- animal cells and put it in bacteria or plants.

Animal GE usually involves splicing DNA into the chromosomes, I believe. And if ia plasmid did work, you'd be better off putting it in the ovum than the sperm, where there's a risk of losing it upon fertilisation. You could just inject it into the ovum. You'd also have to account for the uncontrollability of plasmid reproduction -- human cells aren't designed to express plasmid DNA, and overexpression of the genes due to uncontrolled reproduction would be... bad.

Plasmids are mostly used with bacteria and other micro organisms and if you try to put for example E.coli plasmid (or other microbial plasmid) to human cells it for sure will not work. Though there are ways in which plasmids can be used also in other organisms like human cells. These plasmids are called shuttle vectors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle_vector) and can be maintained in E.coli and then put in for example yeast or human cells (depending on the vector). The biggest difference between microbial and mammalian vectors is in the promoter and other gene regions that control the gene expression, not so much in the protein coding parts of the genes.

If you put a normal plasmid into a mammalian cell (for example human cell in this case) it will not replicate and it will be lost from the cells in couple of cell divisions. But there are some engineered plasmids that can replicate in human cells (eg. pEBNA) and they have special sequences and genes in them that allow them to replicate. Now if you want to genetically engineer an animal you need to get the gene to integrate into the genome, it's the only way to get a stable mutant. This integration can happen via either homologous recombination (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homologous_recombination) or random integration.

Yes... none... *looks shifty*



Which can be summed up as "chuck a whole lot of copies at the gamete and hope some of them integrate right-way-up".

Feels horribly inefficient, but I guess it's pretty easy to sustain once you've *created* the breeding population, so y'know, not all bad. People like to work on goats, for some reason, especially for milk products. Why not cows, though? The spider silk, the low-lactose guys, those guys who are trying to product pharmaceutical drugs in milk while desperately avoiding bankruptcy... always goats. Do goats just produce a lot of milk or something?

More like "microinject a whole lot of copies to zygotes" but the same idea anyhow.

Also, I think goats are just cheaper tom maintain than cows...

Oh, I almost forgot... You could also use transposable elements to facilitate the integration of the genetic contructs. That way you could also controll to some degree the site of integration.

If you put a normal plasmid into a mammalian cell (for example human cell in this case) it will not replicate and it will be lost from the cells in couple of cell divisions. But there are some engineered plasmids that can replicate in human cells (eg. pEBNA) and they have special sequences and genes in them that allow them to replicate. Now if you want to genetically engineer an animal you need to get the gene to integrate into the genome, it's the only way to get a stable mutant. This integration can happen via either homologous recombination (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homologous_recombination) or random integration.[/quote]

homologous recombination... hmmm... sounds like a good option. although it is sad and pathetic to think tht one of the only things keeping humans to autoevolve is ignorant ethical groups tht revolve around religious doctrines. u know tht they r the ones most likely keeping politicians from making human GE legal.

That and, you know, the ridiculous expense in testing, high risk inherent in any important change and general public dislike of the concept. It's not like we can jump into human trials for this stuff. At this stage you're better off just keeping interference at the evel of screening IVF embryos for genetic disorders instead of introducing anything new.