World’s first Pig-Human heart transplant patient died from a Porcine virus
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Xenotransplantation relies on organs from other species that can be transplanted into humans to be genetically engineered to be virus free, this one wasn’t and it’s set the field back years. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses...
The world’s smallest synthetic lifeform can now move by itself
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Synthetic bacteria aren’t natural, and now scientists are starting to give them new abilities. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Japanese scientists have “engineered the...
Viruses become CRISPR Trojan Horses to genetically re-engineer bacteria
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Bacteria can be hard to reach, and even harder to genetically modify – until now. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. CRISPR, arguably the world’s...
From kale to cherries scientists are using CRISPR to create new kinds of foods
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Oddly if a plant could have evolved “that way naturally” even if you genetically re-engineer it then it’s not a GMO. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends, connect, watch a keynote,...
Genetically engineered barcoded spores could help improve food safety
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF When things go wrong in the global supply chain it can be hard to find and fix the fault and recall the products, this improves the situation. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my...
This genetic kill switch prevents genetically modified organisms from escaping
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Genetically modifying organisms is easier than ever before, but controlling how those organisms behave or spread is a major problem still. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Genetically modified organisms, as well...
New tests prove Covid-19 virus wasn’t made by humans in a lab
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As our mastery of synthetic biology improves so too does our ability to create new types of artificial bio-weaponry, and it’s freaking governments out. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. A decade or so ago the mere thought...
German scientists just created the world’s first self-replicating synthetic cells
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As our ability to make fully synthetic DNA and genomes accelerates inevitably scientists will want to cross the next step – making living, alien organisms that replicate. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. The creation of life is...
Genetically engineered male moths programmed to kill off females released into the wild
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Genetic engineering is the ultimate Pandora’s Box, and the lid’s coming off as companies discover new ways to control and kill pests in the wild. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Let’s play a game… what’s the most...
Colorful bio-engineered bacteria could end fashions obsession with toxic dyes
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The dye in your jeans, and most of your clothes, comes from countries whose dead rivers run red and blue, but now there’s a way to put an end to it, for good. Throughout the fall of 2012, Marie-Sarah Adenis and Thomas Landrain toiled...
Scientists hunt for “Kryptonite to stop CRISPR,” the world’s most powerful gene editing tool
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In time the cost and ease of modifying any living organisms genome and genetic makeup, for better and worse, will fall to almost zero, and as gene editing tools become democratised and sought after by Bio-Terrorists, researchers are trying to find the technology’s Kryptonite –...
Scientists gene hacked lizards to make them albino
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As gene editing tools become more powerful scientists are starting to push the boundaries by modifying the genes of more complex animals. For the first time reptiles, which are comparatively complex organisms, have been gene-edited with CRISPR technology after scientists at University of Georgia...
Experts believe Chinese scientist who Gene-Hacked twins “likely boosted their brainpower”
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Genetic enhancement has a variety of unknown impacts on human biology and cognition, and we are no where near to understanding them. When now infamous Chinese scientists He Jiankui edited the genes of human twin babies last year, he was reportedly trying to make them immune...
Genetic engineering breakthrough turns chickens into egg laying medicine factories
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to produce drugs and medicines cheaply is important, and this breakthrough breaks grounds on all kinds of fronts. Ordinarily, when scientists want to produce proteins to use in medicine they have to use techniques that are costly and complex. Recently, however, in...
Scientists fix a genetic flaw to boost crop yields by 40 percent
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF By 2050 we will need to feed 10 billion people, but increasingly we have the technology to ensure noone goes hungry. Scientists keep playing about with the process of photosynthesis, such as removing it’s natural sunblock, to boost crop yields by up to 30...
US military genetics program to turn marine life into giant living sensor networks
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we learn more about the genetic code and how to modify it organisations around the world are starting to look into new ways of turning nature to their advantage. A few months ago I wrote about how DARPA, the bleeding edge research arm...
Birth of genetically engineered twins resistant to HIV causes global outrage
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Imagine growing old and never experiencing what it’s like to be ill because you were genetically engineered in the womb to be resistant to all known pathogens and viruses, technology is starting to make that a reality. A little while ago I wrote about...
Solar panels made from cyborg bacteria promise even cheaper energy
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Cyborg bacteria could be used to replace today’s silicon solar panels with higher efficiency, lower cost panels that help accelerate the renewable energy revolution. Although most life on Earth relies upon photosynthesis as its sole source of energy, the process has a weak link...
Scientists are creating next generation vaccines that are contagious
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The way that we vaccinate people today is, arguably, outmoded, but the next generation of vaccines that are being produced could be contagious and that could change health, and healthcare, forever. What if you never got ill again? Ever. I’m not talking about not...
Space adventurers could be the first true ‘Designer humans’
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Space is the harshest environment known to man and the idea of creating the world’s first genetically altered humans who can survive its extremes “naturally” without the need to take their artificial environments with them is gaining traction. At last year’s International Astronautical Congress in...
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