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Artificial Enzymes from Artificial DNA Challenge Life As We Know It
In the decade or so since the Human Genome Project was completed, synthetic biology has grown rapidly. Impressive advances include the first bacteria to use a chemically-synthesized genome and creation of a synthetic yeast chromosome.
Recently, scientists from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, led by Dr. Philip Hollinger, reported creating the first completely artificial enzymes that are functional. The breakthrough was published in the journal Nature and builds on prior success by the group in creating several artificial nucleotides.
Nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA and RNA, consist of a phosphate group, one of five nitrogenous bases (adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine, or uracil), and a sugar (deoxyribose in DNA and ribose in RNA).
In their previous studies, Dr. Hollinger’s group investigated whether nucleotides that don’t exist in nature (to our knowledge) could function like natural nucleotides. They designed six artificial nucleotides, keeping the phosphate group and one of the five nitrogenous bases, but switching between different sugars or even entirely different molecules.
The group found they could incorporate the artificial nucleotides, called xeno-nucleic acids or XNAs, into DNA and they behaved like “regular” DNA. The XNAs could be copied, could encode information and transfer it, and even undergo Darwinian natural selection—naturally occurring nucleic acids no longer seemed so special.
Moving forward, the scientists were interested in whether XNAs could function as enzymes, the proteins in cells that regulate biochemical reactions. They got this idea because RNA sometimes functions as an enzyme—the 1982 discovery that RNA could encode information, replicate itself and catalyze reactions filled in a big gap in our understanding of life and how it may have started on our planet.
Dr. Hollinger’s group created four new XNAzymes that could cut and paste RNA just like enzymes called polymerases. One of the XNAzymes even works on XNAs, something we think may have happened with RNA in the early days of life on Earth.
Besides the novelty factor in these experiments, the results suggest exciting possibilities. First, even though XNAs have never been found in nature, it doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
It is possible that on other planets—in our own galaxy or others—life isn’t restricted to DNA and RNA as we know them here on Earth. Under the right conditions, intelligent life that uses XNAs or even more exotic molecules could come into existence. That’s quite an eye-opener and something we need to keep in mind as we probe other worlds for life.
Further, Dr. Hollinger and other scientists also believe that XNAzymes could have therapeutic uses.
Because they are not naturally occurring, our bodies haven’t evolved a system to break down XNAzymes. If researchers could design an XNAzyme that can degrade specific RNA, then targeting an overactive cancer gene becomes possible. They can even be designed to target the DNA and RNA that viruses use to infect a cell and force it to make more viruses.
However, before any of these possibilities are realized, there are many questions to answer.
For example, all the work done by Dr. Hollinger’s group has been in test tubes—can they get similar results in live cells? Also, since the XNAzymes are not degraded by the cell, can they design a system to turn the XNAzymes on and off? An unnatural, long-lasting molecule that cannot be degraded risks serious unintended consequences if there is no system to regulate it.
Whatever becomes of XNAs and XNAzymes as therapeutic agents, the results published thus far are quite exciting. Even if we don’t find alien beings with an XNA genome, will our technology allow us to create whole living systems using these and perhaps other novel genetic material we haven’t created yet?
For further reading and discussion, the researchers behind this work (including Dr. Hollinger) recently participated in a Reddit AMA. Or to talk the merits and risks of creating synthetic life check out our discussion post on the subject.
Source: http://singularityhub.com/2014/12/10/artificial-enzymes-from-artificial-dna-challenge-life-as-we-know-it/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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