Tag: dna

Bay Area scientist launches new company with sights on gene-edited babies

Last month, as he announced the launch, he said that Preventive has raised almost $30 million from private funding.

The funding is reportedly coming from some heavy hitters in the tech world, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and his husband Oliver Mulherin.

Harrington also said his team included leading experts in the fields of reproductive technology, reproductive medicine and genome-editing.

“Our goal is straightforward,” he wrote, “to determine through rigorous preclinical work whether preventive gene editing can be developed safely to spare families from severe disease.”

Harrington acknowledged the major ethical concerns around the science and the gray areas in the regulatory process, which he said, have opened the field to potentially detrimental outcomes. 

“The combination of limited expert involvement and lack of a clear regulatory pathway has created conditions for fringe groups to take dangerous shortcuts that could harm patients and stifle responsible investigation,” the researchers said, adding, “Given that this technology has the potential to save millions of lives, we do not want this to happen.”

Gene editing can only be used in in vitro fertilization to allow for the first step of genetic testing on an embryo.

“It requires IVF because you have to have the embryo in a dish,” explained Stanford law professor Henry (Hank) Greely, a leading expert on ethical, legal, and social implications in bioscience technologies.

Once a test determines an embryo has the DNA makeup of a genetic disease, for example, like Huntington’s or cystic fibrosis, scientists would then use the DNA editing technique known as Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, or CRISPR, to make alterations to the DNA.

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DHS Invokes Immigration Enforcement To Justify Gathering Americans’ DNA

Government agencies inevitably turn enforcement responsibilities into opportunities to extend the security state. Every initiative to document, monitor, track, or otherwise spy on Americans starts with a mandate to ensure that people are obeying some rule or law. So it is with immigration policies, which fuel government efforts to gather biometric information not just on those who want to enter the country, but on citizens born and raised here. Fortunately, the scheme is getting pushback.

Massive Data Sweep Hiding in a Proposed Rule Change

On November 3 of last year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposed a rule change allowing its agents to gather and store more biometric data on anybody associated with applications for “benefits” including family visas, Permanent Resident (green) Cards, and work permits. The DHS summary of the rule states, in part:

DHS proposes to require submission of biometrics by any individual, regardless of age, filing or associated with an immigration benefit request, other request, or collection of information, unless exempted; expand biometrics collection authority upon alien arrest; define “biometrics;” codify reuse requirements; codify and expand DNA testing, use and storage; establish an “extraordinary circumstances” standard to excuse a failure to appear at a biometric services appointment…

According to the proposal, the purpose of gathering biometric data, including fingerprints, photographs, signatures, voice prints, ocular images, and DNA (which is heavily emphasized by DHS) is “identity management” to verify that people are who they say they are.

Immigrants aren’t especially popular in certain U.S. circles at the moment, or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that leniency towards those who want to enter the country is unpopular. But the rule change also ropes in lots of Americans. The proposal specifies that “by ‘associated,’ DHS means a person with substantial involvement or participation in the immigration benefit request, other request, or collection of information, such as a named derivative, beneficiary, petitioner’s signatory, sponsor, or co-applicant.”

As attorneys Alessandra Carbajal, Lee Gibbs Depret-Bixio, and Ryan Mosser  note in an analysis, the new rule would affect not just immigrants but “U.S. citizens, nationals, and lawful permanent residents, regardless of age.” They add that “signatories for employers that serve as sponsors/petitioners may potentially be subject to biometrics requirements. This would mark a departure from current practice, where only foreign nationals seeking benefits typically provide biometrics.”

“This data collection would not be limited to just immigrants, it would also impact millions of American citizens,” agrees Institute for Justice (I.J.) attorney Tahmineh Dehbozorgi. “DHS is claiming this DNA collection is meant to serve one narrow purpose, but realistically, it is creating a vast genetic dragnet that endangers the Fourth Amendment rights of everyone, all without Congress’ approval.”

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Fallout From Chernobyl Might Be Creating A New Kind Of Dog

Dogs are humanity’s best friend, and this is partially because we’ve bred them to better suit our preferences and needs. The Alaskan Malamute and Komondor, for example, were intentionally bred to serve specific roles (pulling sleds across the Arctic and guarding sheep from predators, respectively, in these two cases). It’s not just breeding that can produce new types of dogs, though. The harrowing damage to the ecosystem left in the infamous Chernobyl disaster’s wake may be contributing, too.

The April 1986 calamity caused ecological damage so severe that it will continue to scar the land for generations to come. In fact, according to Time, the director of the Chernobyl plant, Ihor Gramotkin, has stated that it would be “at least 20,000 years” before the plant’s immediate area would be safe again. The dangers of radiation exposure are severe, and the further scientists are able to study animals that live in the wider area, the better they can understand those effects. The local dog population has been regularly exposed for some time, as they shelter in the dangerously radioactive Semikhody train station. The area is still extremely hazardous, and Russian military activity throughout the exclusion zone could have far-reaching effects.

A 2023 study published on ScienceAdvances titled “The dogs of Chernobyl: Demographic insights into populations inhabiting the nuclear exclusion zone” investigated the DNA of some of these dogs and found that “genome-wide profiles from Chernobyl, purebred and free-breeding dogs, worldwide reveal that the individuals from the power plant and Chernobyl City are genetically distinct.”

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DNA Evidence Proves “First Black Briton” Was Actually A White Girl

In 2021 the establishment media was electrified by a discovery involving the ancient remains of a woman found over a century ago near a village in East Sussex in Britain.  The reason leftist journalists were so hyped?  A supposedly comprehensive study by “experts” in facial reconstruction had determined that the nearly 2000 year old skeleton belonged to a Sub-Saharan African person.

The remains became known as the “Beachy Head Woman” and images of her reconstructed black face began circulating internationally.  This was proof, somehow, that progressives had always been right to support third world immigration.

The new data arrived conveniently in time to support a far-left campaign to defend the ideas of multiculturalism.  Part of this narrative asserts that Caucasian regions of the world have never actually been Caucasian and that western culture doesn’t really exist.  In fact, white Europeans have no claim to any lands anywhere, they have no home, and African/Asian migrants have “always” freely traveled throughout Europe.

The political left was enthralled, taking to social media and reposting the discovery millions of times over to “own the fascists”.  The BBC even paid to have a plaque constructed on the site where the bones were discovered proudly proclaiming that this is where the first Briton of “African origin” had been found.

School lessons were immediately developed in the UK, teaching students about the multicultural history of Britain.  This was scientific confirmation to back up the avalanche of European entertainment content depicting Sub-Saharan Africans as integral to the history of the continent, roaming the lands as tribesman or enjoying the finery of royal court.   

Leftists argue that their version of history justifies the expansion of open mass immigration, because “things have always been this way” and white people today who want to protect their histories and cultures from erasure are merely ignorant of the past.  

The problem is, Beachy Head Woman is not African or black.  Recently confirmed DNA evidence shows she was white with blonde hair and blue eyes.  She was not a migrant, but born in ancient Britain.

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We know exactly how and why the DNA is in the Moderna and Pfizer vials

This past week has been epic for me. Not only did I have the extreme pleasure of volunteering alongside Kevin McKernan and Charles Rixey at Medicinal Genomics, but we have pretty much confirmed how the DNA is in the Moderna and Pfizer COVID shot vials.

Ages ago, when I was presenting the original findings that there was DNA in these vials, I was sleuthing how this happened by looking into the N1-methylpseudouridine modified RNA synthesis pathway as part of Process 2 manufacturing. Process 2 involved using a plasmid/E. coli system, don’t forget. And also don’t forget that this methodology was bait ‘n’ switched and was not safety tested.

N1-methylpseudouridine has a higher melting temperature than Uridine.1 (Higher thermal energy or specific enzymatic activity is required to disrupt base pairing.) What this means in terms of it binding a cognate base is that it will require a very high temperature to rip them apart. Either that, or it will require a specific enzyme. Two examples of such specific enzymes are RNase-H (in us) and RNase-XT (on bench). It is well-known in nerdy science circles that DNase1 – the enzyme the COVID shot manufacturers used to chop up the DNA for endpoint synthesis cleaning – does not work on DNA:RNA hybrids.

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Hitler had hidden genetic sexual disorder, DNA analysis reveals

In May 1945, Allied soldiers wandered through Adolf Hitler’s Führerbunker in grim fascination, but one of them spotted a macabre opportunity.

Colonel Roswell P Rosengren of the US army, one of General Eisenhower’s press officers, fixed his eye on the sofa where the Nazi dictator had taken his own life.

He cut a piece of the blood-stained cloth and carried it home.

Eighty years on, that grisly memento has allowed scientists to do something extraordinary: they have sequenced Hitler’s DNA.

The biological design of the tyrant has been studied in detail, and the research will be covered in the Channel 4 documentary Hitler’s DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator, which will be broadcast on Saturday. The study has made astonishing revelations and raised tantalising questions.

There is a staggering insight into Hitler’s sexual development, an analysis of his ancestry and question marks over his neurodevelopmental and psychological condition. How these discoveries add to our understanding of history is up for debate.

The research will probably provoke controversy, both for its having been done and for its findings. What is clear is that if Hitler had seen these genes in anyone else, his verdict would have been unequivocal.

Professor Turi King, the lead geneticist on this research, said: “If he was to look at his own genetic results, he would have almost certainly have sent himself to the gas chambers.”

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Tech billionaires back startup probing gene-edited ‘designer babies’ despite US ban: report

A Silicon Valley startup backed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong is pursuing research that some fear could lead to the birth of a genetically engineered baby — a step that’s illegal under US law and banned in most countries, a report said.

The company, Preventive, says its goal is to end hereditary disease by editing human embryos before birth, a claim that has ignited fierce debate over safety, ethics and the specter of designer children, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Preventive, founded earlier this year by gene-editing scientist Lucas Harrington, has raised $30 million and set up headquarters in San Francisco, where it is conducting research on modifying embryos to prevent hereditary disease.

The company says its mission is to prove the technology can be made safe and transparent before any attempt to create a baby is made.

Altman and Armstrong are among the firm’s early investors, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Altman’s husband, Oliver Mulherin, said he led their investment, calling it an effort to help families avoid genetic illness.

Armstrong, who has publicly promoted embryo editing, posted that he was “excited” to back Preventive and argued it is far easier to correct a genetic defect in an embryo than to treat disease later in life.

But federal law prohibits the Food and Drug Administration from considering applications for human trials involving genetically edited embryos used to start pregnancies.

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The Geometric Code: Genome’s 3D Shape Functions as the Living Computer that Enabled Complex Life

New research reveals the second language of the human genome – one not written in its chemical letters but in its physical shape.

Scientists have long thought of DNA as an instruction manual written in the four- chemical bases—A, C, T, and G—that make up the genetic code. The prevailing belief was that by decoding these sequences, we could unlock how cells and organisms fundamentally work. Now, research from Northwestern Engineering’s Vadim Backman reveals a second “language” of life: the “geometric code” embedded in the genome’s physical shape. Like a blueprint for making living microprocessors, the geometric code helps cells store and process information. 

“Rather than a predetermined script based on fixed genetic instruction sets, we humans are living, breathing computational systems that have been evolving in complexity and power for millions of years,” Backman said.

Backman is the Sachs Family Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medicine at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering, where he directs the Center for Physical Genomics and Engineering. He also is an associate director of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University.

The study, led by Backman in collaboration with Igal Szleifer, Christina Enroth-Cugell Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering; Luay Almassalha, of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology within the Feinberg School of Medicine; and Kyle MacQuarrie, assistant professor of pediatrics within the department of hematology, oncology, and stem cell transplantation at Feinberg, titled “Geometrically Encoded Positioning of Introns, Intergenic Segments, and Exons in the Human Genome,” published Oct. 27 in Advanced Science, decodes this language, showing how cells can perform computations through the physical shape of their genomes.

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Dinosaur egg unearthed in perfect condition after 70M years— and it could hold genetic material

It was in egg-cellent condition.

Argentine paleontologists found a real diamond in the rough after happening across a perfectly preserved 70-million-year-old dinosaur egg during an excavation.

“It was a complete and utter surprise,” Gonzalo Leonel Muñoz, a Vertebrate paleontologist at the Bernardo Rivadavia Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences, told National Geographic of the “spectacular” find. “‘It’s not uncommon to find dinosaur fossils, but the issue with eggs is that they are much less common.”

The team of paleontologists was reportedly conducting an excavation campaign in the fossil-rich region of Río Negro, when they stumbled across the primeval embryo.

While dinosaur eggs had been excavated in the area before, finding one this well-preserved was super rare.

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First Peer-Reviewed Study Finds Direct Molecular Evidence of mRNA “Vaccine” Genomic Integration

For the first time in the peer-reviewed literature— we present direct molecular evidence that genetic material from a COVID-19 mRNA “vaccine” has integrated into the human genome.

In our sentinel peer-reviewed case report, Genomic Integration and Molecular Dysregulation in Aggressive Stage IV Bladder Cancer Following COVID-19 mRNA Vaccination—published in the International Journal of Innovative Research in Medical Science (John A. Catanzaro, Nicolas Hulscher, and Peter A. McCullough; a Neo7Bioscience–McCullough Foundation collaboration)—we describe a previously healthy 31-year-old woman who developed rapidly progressive stage IV bladder cancer within 12 months of completing a three-dose Moderna mRNA injection series.

Bladder cancer is exceedingly rare in young women, and such aggressive presentations are almost unheard of.

To investigate, we performed comprehensive multi-omic profiling, including plasma-derived circulating tumor DNA, whole-blood RNA, and urine exosome proteomics. What we uncovered was striking:

  • Direct genomic integration event: Within circulating tumor DNA, a host–vector chimeric read mapped to chr19:55,482,637–55,482,674 (GRCh38), in cytoband 19q13.42, positioned ~367 kb downstream of the canonical AAVS1 safe harbor and ~158 kb upstream of ZNF580 at the proximal edge of the zinc-finger (ZNF) gene cluster. This sequence aligned with perfect 20/20 bp identity to a segment (bases 5905–5924) within the Spike open reading frame (ORF) coding region (bases 3674–7480) of the Pfizer BNT162b2 DNA plasmid reference (GenBank accession OR134577.1).
  • Oncogenic driver hyperactivation (KRAS, NRAS, MAPK1, ATM, PIK3CA, SF3B1, CHD4) — unleashing uncontrolled proliferative and malignant signaling cascades.
  • Critical DNA repair pathway collapse (ATM, MSH2) — leaving the genome acutely vulnerable to instability, double-strand breaks, and catastrophic mutations.
  • Severe transcriptomic and proteomic disarray across plasma, blood, and urine biospecimens — consistent with systemic molecular breakdown.

Although the patient received only Moderna injections, the sequence aligned to Pfizer’s published BNT162b2 plasmid reference because Moderna has never deposited its proprietary plasmid in NCBI. Crucially, both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines encode the same prefusion-stabilized SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein and therefore share identical stretches of nucleotide sequence within the Spike ORF coding region. It is within one of these conserved regions that the integration was captured, producing the perfect 20/20 bp match to the Pfizer reference.

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