Generation Genome Cameron Kerr

This Wednesday I got the amazing opportunity to go to SynBio 2019. I heard a lot of great talks and learned a lot about how the field of research is changing. The conference featured many talks including one by George Church and there was also a start-up pitch competition.

With the rise of the new age of synthetic biology, we are quickly redefining how we look at life from a molecular standpoint. Our genetic code is becoming more malleable, opening the door to new innovations to solve some of the worlds problems. Artificial Gene synthesis involved chemically synthesize a strand of DNA base-by-base. It is not like the process in our body like polymerase chain reaction because it does not require a template strand. The first gene synthesis came around in the 1960s but the de novo synthesis has greatly improved since then with our vast knowledge about the human genome and epigenome. In this episode, I talk about the procedure and applications of artificial gene synthesis. 

 795 million people are malnourished worldwide. World hunger and climate change are huge problems alive today. If we are not feeding the world of 2019, how will we feed the world of 2050, and how will we prevent the effects of climate change when we have all of these people? Today I discuss a revolutionary idea on creating a phototropic human genome that will allow humans to produce food on their own. 

All life has been founded upon the same 4 letters of our genetic code. Recently, scientists have been looking beyond that and seeing how they can synthetically produce base pairs to make semi-synthetic organisms. In this episode I describe a study that has produced the bases X and Y to produce new amino acids in microbes!

Scientists have been talking a lot lately about the world of mRNA therapy. In this podcast, I discuss a study that happened at MIT with increasing the expression of a bio-luminescent protein in the lungs of mice. I also discuss the future opportunities for this space. Enjoy!

In the second episode of 5-Minute-Reviews I discuss the possible cure for allergies. Enjoy!