Scientists Use CRISPR To Make Chickens More Resistant To Bird Flu (nytimes.com) 35
Scientists have used the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR to create chickens that have some resistance to avian influenza, according to a new study that was published in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday. From a report: The study suggests that genetic engineering could potentially be one tool for reducing the toll of bird flu, a group of viruses that pose grave dangers to both animals and humans. But the study also highlights the limitations and potential risks of the approach, scientists said. Some breakthrough infections still occurred, especially when gene-edited chickens were exposed to very high doses of the virus, the researchers found. And when the scientists edited just one chicken gene, the virus quickly adapted. The findings suggest that creating flu-resistant chickens will require editing multiple genes and that scientists will need to proceed carefully to avoid driving further evolution of the virus, the study's authors said.
The research is "proof of concept that we can move toward making chickens resistant to the virus," Wendy Barclay, a virologist at Imperial College London and an author of the study, said at a news briefing. "But we're not there yet." Some scientists who were not involved in the research had a different takeaway. "It's an excellent study," said Dr. Carol Cardona, an expert on bird flu and avian health at the University of Minnesota. But to Dr. Cardona, the results illustrate how difficult it will be to engineer a chicken that can stay a step ahead of the flu, a virus known for its ability to evolve swiftly. "There's no such thing as an easy button for influenza," Dr. Cardona said. "It replicates quickly, and it adapts quickly."
The research is "proof of concept that we can move toward making chickens resistant to the virus," Wendy Barclay, a virologist at Imperial College London and an author of the study, said at a news briefing. "But we're not there yet." Some scientists who were not involved in the research had a different takeaway. "It's an excellent study," said Dr. Carol Cardona, an expert on bird flu and avian health at the University of Minnesota. But to Dr. Cardona, the results illustrate how difficult it will be to engineer a chicken that can stay a step ahead of the flu, a virus known for its ability to evolve swiftly. "There's no such thing as an easy button for influenza," Dr. Cardona said. "It replicates quickly, and it adapts quickly."
I always wanted my chicken to be (Score:4, Funny)
even more CRISPR-er.
Nah, just the viral reservoir will be more ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Persistentier
If you have large flocks of domestic animals, that can harbor the virus without harm, then they will become a reservoir of the virus, and any contact with wild species will result in massive die-offs ince they do not have the CRISPR advantage
Same for humans, might not have the intended result
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Wait until you hear about the new genetically modified lettuce. The headline writers will have fun with that.
I prefer the original (Score:5, Funny)
I prefer the original, not extra CRISPR.
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But it's finger-licking-good, all 6 fingers.
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I'd rather have "extra spicy"....
Waste of research (Score:3)
Why didn’t they do something more useful like make it taste better? Cross it with tomato and make the chicken sweat ketchup or something. Hmm that could be a billion dollar idea right there! I’m patenting it and going on Shark Tank.
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Uh.. I dunno about you, but I don't want anything tasting like "sweat"
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Ok fine I won’t list you as co-founder on the Y-combinator application form.
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> do something more useful like make it taste better?
Make them up grow up pre-fried.
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Misinformation (Score:2)
As well know chickens evolved from nature, and stories that they came from lab are just xenophobic conspiracy theories. "Gene-edited chickens" is obviously misinformation and a conspiracy theory!
This will be the end of us (Score:2)
Bird flu spreading to humans is in my top 10 list of likely causes of human extinction. For all the great and terrible stories we could imagine for the end of humanity, it's going to be rather ignominious if it ends up being the chickens.
Re:This will be the end of us (Score:4, Interesting)
One of the biggest "risks" of bird flu has always been that we relied on chicken eggs for flu vaccine manufacturing [nih.gov], and the process does not work with bird flu, which kills the egg. [cdc.gov]
The WHO, etc crowd have been pushing the industry to modernize, and there are a couple other cell-based manufacturing processes, but things were moving along glacially, until... COVID
mRNA vaccines had been "teased" as being able to utilize the body's immune system to go after every sort of selective target, from HIV to cancer. BUT they faced a long uphill slog through the FDA for approval, until the call to create a COVID vaccine went out and companies got approval to perform the biggest test roll out of a new vaccine manufacturing process in, well EVAAARRRRR!!!!(Don't get me wrong on this, I am up to date on COVID jab, and just waiting for the next big wave of mRNA vaccine products to hit the market.)
If that is the case, then bird flu may not have it's chance to "great filter" us.
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The mRNA technology had been in the works for at least 20 years before the mRNA vaccines were rolled out. Do you think they simply created it from scratch in a year?
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/0... [nytimes.com]
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No, if you read my post, I also said that it has been in the works for years, what we got with covid vaccine was the first wide scale use of the technology, which will likely lead to it being allowed for human use in many more ways. This is a good thing
It is not effective communication when you try to talk down to people who you agree with
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Although to be fair to the chickens, they never posed any threat to humans while in their natural habitat. Or even in groups of a dozen or so pecking around outside a farmhouse.
It was profit-greedy, psychopathic humans who decided to cram them into vast cruel factory sheds, feed them crap, and deny their very nature. While energetically working to develop new and possibly much more lethal strains of their resident pathogens.
The stories of the Sorcerer's Apprentice and the Golem have not been widely enough r
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Interestingly enough, many of the older "swine flues" that came out of China were due to their communal farms having ducks, pigs and humans in close proximity that allowed novel flu viruses to move from the ducks to the pigs and then to the humans, from which they spread globally
Profit motives and corporatism are not always the root cause, although they do commit more than a few blunders of their own
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All knowing AC's should at least consult wikipedia before trolling [wikipedia.org]
Here is one of the sources for the wikipedia article:
Genetic Evolution of Swine Influenza A (H3N2) Viruses in China from 1970 to 2006 [nih.gov]
Hai Yu,1 Rong-Hong Hua,1 Qiang Zhang,1 Tian-Qiang Liu,1 Hui-Li Liu,3 Guo-Xin Li,1 and Guang-Zhi Tong1,2,*
ABSTRACT
Pigs are susceptible to both human and avian influenza viruses and have been proposed to be intermediate hosts, or mixing vessels, for the generation of pandemic influenza viruses through reassortment
Technique is all (Score:2)
2. Place Chicken in CRISPR
3. A few hours later, enjoy your CRSPY Chicken
Note, some people have had problems with getting their chickens in the CRSPR unit. Those Birds Flu away.
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The LMP1 motif is presented in the TRAF3 crevice as a close structural mimic of the PVQET motif in CD40, and the intermolecular contacts are similar. However, the viral protein makes a unique contact: a hydrogen bond network formed between Asp210 in LMP1 and Tyr395 and Arg393 in TRAF3. This intermolecular contact is not made in the CD40-TRAF3 complex. The additional hydrogen bonds may stabilize the complex and strengthen the binding to permit LMP1 to compete with CD40 for binding to the TRAF3 crevice, influencing downstream signaling to B lymphocytes and contributing to dysregulated signaling by LMP1.
Maybe at one point the genetic code that makes LMP1 was actually the DNA that makes CD40. A small change noted above re
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Yah. Elizabeth Holmes was so nearly there.
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Not quite all, perhaps. Only about 90%.
What do you do when the nations you are supposed to crush and eliminate can beat you in a conventional war, and can wipe you out just as fast as you wipe them out in a thermonuclear war?
Obviously, make a biological end run.
Sure, it's against international law. But it's allowed by the "rules-based order" that has superseded international law.
"Driving further evolution of the virus" (Score:2)
the options (Score:2)
Costco: genmod roast chicken: $6.95; uncontaminated roast chicken: $19.95; non-radioactive Lunar-raised roast chicken $119.95 plus Space-X delivery fee.
KFC special: bucket of nano chicken with graphene spices: $9.95
Gene Modification Worries Me (Score:2)
Oh well ... just so they don't start growing teeth ... and more scales.