Here we demonstrate safe intravenous and intra-amniotic administration of polymeric nanoparticles to fetal mouse tissues at selected gestational ages with no effect on survival or postnatal growth. In utero introduction of nanoparticles containing peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) and donor DNAs corrects a disease-causing mutation in the β-globin gene in a mouse model of human β-thalassemia, yielding sustained postnatal elevation of blood hemoglobin levels into the normal range, reduced reticulocyte counts, reversal of splenomegaly, and improved survival, with no detected off-target mutations in partially homologous loci.
[...] Unlike gene editing technologies that rely on the activity of exogenously delivered nucleases18,19—such as zinc finger nucleases, TAL effector nucleases, and CRISPR/Cas9—PNA/DNA NPs can be readily administered in vivo and have been shown to have extremely low to undetectable off-target effects in the genome because the PNA editing molecules lack inherent nuclease activity5,6,7.
[...] Unlike other gene editing technologies that rely on activity of exogenous nucleases (CRISPR/Cas, TAL effector nucleases and zinc finger nucleases) that can create extraneous double-stranded breaks, PNA-mediated gene editing makes use of endogenous, high fidelity repair pathways, which reduces the risk of error-prone end-joining causing additional mutations. With continuing concern regarding off-target effects of CRISPR/Cas951 and the finding that Cas9 proteins can illicit an adaptive immune response52, the safety profile of PNA/DNA editing may be particularly attractive, as avoiding off-target mutations is of exceptional importance during fetal development.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04894-2
(Score: 2) by physicsmajor on Tuesday June 26 2018, @08:06PM (6 children)
More accurately, our biological evolution is being far outpaced by changes in environment, technology, and longevity.
However, it is concerning that we have functionally removed natural selection.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @08:24PM (5 children)
Don't worry. Gattaca hyperselection coming soon. The capitalist elites will have babies that are even more efficient at raping the working class.
We could have a subspecies soon where the capitalist masters become super-men with perfect sociopathy, perfect teeth, and the ability to grow over 7 feet tall without health problems.
My tallest! My tallest!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @08:28PM (2 children)
This assumes they will actually produce something that works vs go the easier route of using hype, pr, and marketing to convince people to give them money.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 26 2018, @09:00PM (1 child)
Somebody will figure out each piece of the puzzle eventually, and it will spread around.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @09:22PM
The OP is not a new idea [wikipedia.org]:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5814803/ [nih.gov]
I'd guess its more that old ideas (primarily from the pre-1940 era) will be picked back up and the "NHST era" will be left to history.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday June 26 2018, @11:21PM (1 child)
Actually, we haven't yet functionally removed evolution. Recent studies of the matter indicate that we've been evolving rather rapidly. They don't, however, have sufficient resolution to determine in what way.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 26 2018, @11:32PM
GP says we will have designer babies, which could be considered evolution. It's natural selection that is being removed, or at least massively changed on a very short time scale compared to the history of Homo sapiens. We will likely have many designer babies in less than a century, which is just a completely novel state of affairs compared to 1,000 years ago or 100,000 years ago.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]