By Jack Moen

The seminar divided the possible traits by superheroes!

Superheroes and how we could possibly mimic their abilities:

1. Deadpool – Super healing & super cancer powers

Is super healing possible?

Borrowing from animals: African Spiny Mouse

• Mouse never really gets scars, always able to regenerate tissue
  • Controversial because first discovered mammal that can regrow its skin after having been removed
    • Defense mechanism: get skin off of their back from the attacking birds and run away
  • Can continuously regenerate patches (maybe not limbs but tissue)
  • Genes used to activate these pathways could possibly increase chances of getting cancer

Axolotl

• Can regrow a limb (any part of their body), but amphibians, so genetic pathway between amphibians and humans are less consistent
• You can cut off part of the limb (for the mice), it can regrow it
  • Humans have same ability, but just about choosing correct pathways (but can increase likelihood of cancer)

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2. The hulk – super strength

Myostatin mutations

Belgian blue cattle:

• Naturally how the cow develops (huge, all muscle)
  • Myostatin gene stops our body from developing muscle
    • Over years, people developed a mutation that stoped the protein from forming —> allow us to put on massive amounts of muscle

Myostatin is a protein that binds to active type ii receptor triggers a cellular signaling cascade

• End result: increase in protein breakdown (through ubiquitin) and decrease in muscle production

Use myostatin as a break to stop people from getting too muscular

• Mutation all over body (heart, lungs are all muscle)
  • Muscle too much in heart: cardiomyopathy
    • Many people of this die from heart problems

But if you lack the myostatin gene, wouldn’t your body be unable to hold up the weight from the muscle? Or does the rest of the body also have genes that are able to 

• Body will be able to adapt to the muscle —> bones will get denser
  • Strongest bone density recorded was from a power lifter (so dense that it was stronger than concrete)

Alfa-actinin-3

• Are better endurance runners (strucural protein)
• Potentially protective against injuries
• Not having structural protein 

Eddie Hall

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3. Beast (x- man) – animal human hybrids

Donor hearts

• Heart pump
  • Can’t account for walking
• Heart transplant
  • Have to find someone that died that matches genetic profile with you, have to die in the right way

Q: If an animal has a heart of the right size, and right speed, could we put them into a person?

• @1980s, looked at baboon, and did the first xenotransplant (baby Fae)
  • Doctor convinced parents that only way to save baby was through xenotransplant
• Heart did beat, but as a baboon’s heart is very different genetically, the body attacked the heart thinking it was a foreign invader and the baby died in a few days

But possible to use animal heart, wondering whether its compatible or not

Possibly utilize pigs as organ donors?

• Perfect for human transplantation
  • ex. Pig corneas
  • ex. Heart, can keep it alive in a baboon
    • Gave baboon a second heart, lived for several years
  • Liver, lungs, pancreas, even cells to make it more amendable

Problem with xenografts is us (humans)..

Xenograanpsalntations with pigs

• Harvard trying to remove antigens that cause immune response to pigs
  • Chimeros for pig cells mixing with human cells
    • Wouldn’t attack pig cells because doesn’t identify it as harmful

Ancient conserved pathways

• Because humans have evolved from primates, we have a lot of similar pathways maintained
  • Some of the pathways evolved in oral venom production, lots of animals still have similar pathway within them
    • Chickens and frogs (maintain the ability to grow teeth), could easily make venom
• Chickens also have ability to grow out teeth
  • Activated genes till saw teeth formation
• Shows that there are pathways that can possibly enable some things that are maintained

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3. Magneto – mastering magnetism

• Magnetic implants (body mod)
  • Implant magnets into fingertips since fingertips have so many nerves that if you implant a magnet, you can feel the vibration from a magnet when interacting with metal
  • People can “feel” magnetic field —> ability to have light magnetic abilities
    • But can break fragile electronics —> have to be very careful with what you’re handling
• Magneto(somes)
  • Some microorganisms (generate their own magnets) integrate iron with proteins to make magnetic chains in their bodies that allow to orient to magnetic field
    • Make their own iron chains = “magnetosomes)

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4. Forge – super intellgience

FOXP2 Gene

• Noboos, chimpanzees, gorillas

All mutations —> gene that let us to speak  —> allow to develop more complex societal, cultural intelligences

• Taken these gens and put them into mice
  • Mice were actually more intelligent with given the human FOXP2

FOXP2 Mutations in mice

• Declarrative learning
  • See certain cue, learn something
• Procedural learning
  • Teaching certain things without a cue

• Mice are much better at solving the maze
  • People are looking into the gene and see similar homologs to see whether it’s underpinning for human intelligence

@ China, GWAS – Genome Wide Association Studies

• Sequencing DNA and finding mutations
• Possibly if take DNA sequences from thousands of people and match with IQ, possibly can find certain mutations that’ll make someone intelligent?
  • Sequence genomes of thousands of smart people to find genes associated with these mutations
    • Problematic because other countries are starting to genetically modify children —> genetically modify children to be hyperintelligent

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5. WOLVERINE – INCREASED LIFESPAN

How can you improve human lifespan?

Two main mechanisms that’ll prolong lifespan

1. Rapamycin (antibiotic)
   1. Improves lifespan considerable
   2. Activates mTOR pathway(=enhances the turnover of cells, helps breakdown more proteins)
      1. mTOR is good because cells get more sickly and resist authology (cancer), so if enhance cells dying in a healthy way —> can prolong life

2. Chloric restriction

Possible to survive in a biodome with crops and water? (possibly a solution to survive in other planets)

1. Plant yields were Bismal 
   1. Were point of starvation
2. Look at metrics before vs. after biodome
   1. Actually, looked healthier after biodomme 

—> starve yourself in a healthy way, you look younger?

3. Metphormin (veratrol)

Tardigrades = waterbear (microorganism that can survive in vacuum of space if put in right conditions)

• Draw all of the water out of their cells (dececate themselves)
  • If have no water, resistant to DNA damage
  • If rehydraete at slow speed, can survive better in vacuum
• Genes from waterbears — >humans..?
  • Radiodurans
    • Only organism living in Neuroreactors
      • Credible ability to live in any type of radiation damage
    • No longer protected from ionosphere from radiation, but if have this gene, able to protect against radiation damage and cancer

Metphormin (diabetic drug) that works through 

• Convince themselves that we need to die to live longer
  • Try to get cells to die easier
    • How can we get cells to die healthy through autopolgy?

Parabiosis

• Take two mice, sew together to share blood supply
  • Fatic tissue shared
• If combine old + young mouse, young mouse gets older, old mouse gets younger just by having it connected to another mouse
  • Works so well that were able to get males to give birth technically
• @China, did parabiosis model to take male mice that they catastrated, mix it with female mice, and plant it into embryos, emplant female mice to give hormones, and actually implant it into male mice —> able to carry pregnancy
  • Ended up delivering babies through surgical procedure
    • Failure was pretty high (1/10 rat pups survived, 1/6 with female —> low birthrates)
• Also the key for male pregnancy

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6. MAN-THING/SWAMP-THING – HUMAN-PLANT HYBRIDS

Photosynthetic probiotics

Elysia clorotica (slug)

• Actually doesn’t generate its own mitochondria
• Lines its gut with chloroplast from algae (preserves chloroplasts and transport into cells)
  • Lines are digestive tract, lets chloroplast go through body
    • Goes through several weeks 
• Possible probiotics from chloroplast from algae —> chloroplastic skin to reduce sugar? (Could solve world hunger if get shot from probiotic)

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7. CYCLOPS – SUPER VISION

Generating Mammalian near infrared vision by nanotechnology

• We can’t see anything without visible light
• Night vision goggles are sensitive to infrared light —> allows us to see at night
  • See directly, wouldn’t need the googles
• University of Science and Technology of China and University of Massachusetts inject special nano particles that convert near infrared light into isotropic green light
  • Pupils of injected mice constricted, non injectedd didn’t change
• Created certain type of protein that could be activated through gene therapy in the eye
  • Mice can now see in a different wave length(cell respond to wavelengths outside of visible spectrum —> see x ryas, radio waves, gamma rays, etc.)
• Possibley allow us t have night vision without goggles?

Luxturna

• Eye is Aminoprivileged – doesn’t have an immune system
  • Reason why cornea pig transient is able, is eye doesn’t have immune response -> can easily make virus that displays certain gens and put it into eye —> eye won’t attack ,but will get infected with the virus and change genes —> gene therapy
• Helps treat inherited form of vision loss
  • Only need little bit of the protein
• Can be reversed through gene therapy
• Inject Healthy gene in back of the ey 
  • $200,000 for treatment

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8. IRON MAN – SUPER MATERIALS AND SUPER SCIENCE

Modifying own biology is scary, so if we develop better materials, could avoid that?

Antivenom snake production

• When get snake bite, need antivenom (you need actual snake)

Production process:

1. Collect venom form snakes 
2. Inject it into a horse a bunch of times 
   1. Horses are able to form antibodies to venom
      1. You have to know snake because antibodies only created for that virus
   2. Collect blood from horse into anticoagulant
3. Fractionation and purification of horse blood to create the gene

*horses are not humans , so horse anitbodies can make people sick (not good treatment)

The mighty opossum!

• Can survive bite
• Can inject toxins 

Possums develop special protein that can survive any bites or toxins

• Genetically engineer possums to take out protein (or make bacteria express it) —> treatment for snake bites, toxins, botches

Spider-Silk

• Take genes for spider silk —> genetically engineer into goats foo that genes express the genes in their milk —> spider silk has tensile strings, so if produce high amounts of spider silk, could produce strong material

Silk worms

• Can easily augment type of silk made
• If cover leaf with material, can incorporate material into their silk
  • Graphene/carbon sheets that are incredibly tensile or hard to produce large scale—> cover a leaf in it and create properties of spider silk by incorporating the genes into them
• Could make even better silk at large production levels

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9. CAPTAIN AMERICA – GENETICALLY MODIFIED HUMANS

Discussion:

• What about genetically engineering ourselves?
  • Mysostatin mutation can be delivered through muscles using CRISPR (probably a mixture of cells in your body, but brain might be a bit difficult)
    • Nanoparticles with CRISPR theoretically works with some extent
      • Blood/lymphatic tissue, since your body filters through that way
  • Possibly reduce diabetes using CRISPR

First genetically modified babies – but rather, problems are the ethics

• Should adults be allowed to choose the consent of other children?
• Mutation in your body (stop protein function to increase muscle) —> don’t know intended consequence from genetically modification
  • Far away to genetically engineer adults

CRSPR-Cas9

• Utilize gRNA to match nucleotides of DNA, Cas9 binds onto the targeted sequence
  • Can modify gRNA to fit
• Either add a new DNA or disrupt gene by adding something else

*( I was too excited and ended up having an entire discussion with the Instructor for this Seminar all by myself…HAHAA)

Gene drive

• Only expressed CRISPR briefly for a few days in cells

But what if we integrate CRISPR Cas9 into the genome? (Cells always having Cas9) —> can induce any mutation to organism, will be passed onto progeny

You could possibly add Deleterious (super rare) and possibly make population 99% have that mutation within three generations

Put in mutation to make mosquitos to not transfer malaria —> good, but as long as keep it in insects

2 years ago, Dr. He Jiankui convinced two parents to use CRISPR on their children

• Fathers had HIV, cand in china, very taboo to have HIV
  • Didn’t want children to have HIV
  • When father has HIV, has chance to have/not, but if mother has it, almost will have it
• He said to make mutation to stop cells from being able to get HIV
  • HIV has two receptors that it looks for on your cells to gain entry (CD4 and the CCR5)
    • Humans have mutation in CCR5 that stops it from being a full protein
      • Don’t need a fully function CCR5 to live
  • But decreases chance of getting HIV into cell
• Made naturally occurring mutation, other mutation (don’t know)
  • Particularly problematic because he made a chimera
    • Start with sperm + egg cell —> zygote
      • The zygotę is when you want to use CRISPR on it
      • If you’re sloppy with how you do CRISPR, the cell divides
        • He did CIRPSR when four cells were present
          • Only 2 cells had CRIPSR in them —> made CCR5 mutation (so human’s some cells had chunkated CCR5, and other none)
            • Two different types of phenotypes that wouldn’t have occurred
  • Embryos were born, paper published
    • Babies came out healthy —> CRISPR can work healthily work in humans now
      • Can modify babies before born with or without their consent
        • But trying to protect them because they can have possible stigma from the experiment
• Smallpox gets through same CCR5, people developing mutation against CCR5 gene —> stopped small pox from getting in, caused HIV stopping progression 

Biological Warfare

• Bacterial
  • Anthrax
  • Plague
  • Cholera
  • Brucellosis
  • Mycobacterium
• Viral
  • Small pox
  • Viral Encephalitis
  • Hemorrhagic fever

Since bacteria and virus generate quickly, we must create things tat can fight against them quickly

Wrapped in capsule protein,

–> Virus unable to duplicate on their own

• Smallpox being a way to protect against HIV

We have evolved with viruses to help

1. Enhance our immune system (encounter to be healthY)
2. Force diversity in a population
   1. Parthenogenesis (some organisms can reproduce asexually, all female, give birth to genetic copy of themselves, the offspring become very proliferated —> invasive species)
      1. If visu/bacteria finds problem with organisms repdocuing asexually, have no way to fight against it
         1. Since have not selection in biological level, they are quickly wiped out
   2. Integtrated viruses in DNA to he
3. Only adapted organisms survive

The reason why we know we have a cellular nucleus

• Where cell protects al it’s DNA
  • A virus that was making nucleus like structures to protect its own DNA
    • Possibly pick up new ability to create nucleus in virus

Gene therapy = 

• Modifying your cells through CRISPR
  • Hurdles with CRISPR: how we get it int cell ?
    • Through viruses!
• Use nanoparticles
• Viruses can target certain tissue —> target specific area to infect 
  • ex. Zika virus (cause developmental issues)
    • That means zika’s good at affecting brain cells to get pass blood brain barrier (Even CRISPR struggles with it)
  • tenuated Zika virus that expresses CIRSPR proteins (modified zika with cripsr —> cellular intelligence to target geoblastoma))

Why isn’t gene theory more commonplace?

• Gene expression doesn’t last very long unless integrated into genome
  • Gene drive always has CRISPR genes on (dangerous)
  • benefit for CRIPSR to only have it to be expressed a few weeks
• Viruses that do integrate into the genome seem to like inserting into spots that cause cancer
• Our immune response blocks the activity of most of the viruses and renders subsequent rounds less effective

Is it possible to use more of the brain —> possibly give us more superpowers?

• In the brain, we technically use all of our brain (but accesss it small amount at a time)
  • Don’t know what it would look like if we could activate all the brain (could be very disorienting)
    • Speaking to you right now (parts or brain for speech and hearing are activated)
    • But if talking and experience everything with high acuity (probably be very intense, but if get used to it, could remember things better)

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Personal Opinion: I loved this lecture, especially how it was simplified to explaining the broader concepts of the different “superpowers” we could attain from genetic modification.

Especially since genetic modification was a topic that I’ve conducted research on (AHEM MY PAPER AND MY EXPERIMENTS), it was one of the more familiar seminars to listen to and actually understand hahahaha

I was quite fascinated by the slug that could photosynthesize and also hunt for its own food, which I thought would be physically impossible, considering the lack of energy one might get from photosynthesis but also the necessity to hunt around for food. I think if we were able to study about that slug more deeper and possibly extract its genes to insert into a human embryo, it would be possible to actually create some plant-human?? That would be SO COOL

– Joanna Kim, July 13th ,2021, 2:55AM KST-