Tag: gmo

Baby Given World-First CRISPR Gene-Editing Treatment

In a global first, doctors in Philadelphia have used personalized CRISPR gene-editing to treat a baby with a life-threatening genetic disorder—marking a major milestone in the future of individualized medicine.

The patient is KJ Muldoon, a 9-month-old boy diagnosed shortly after birth with CPS1 deficiency, a rare and often fatal genetic condition that disrupts the body’s ability to eliminate toxic metabolic waste. “You Google ‘CPS1 deficiency,’ and it’s either fatality rate or liver transplant,” said his mother, Nicole Muldoon, in a video released by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where KJ received his treatment.

Instead of undergoing a liver transplant, KJ became the first person in the world to be treated with a version of CRISPR designed specifically for him. The therapy, developed by CHOP and Penn Medicine, used gene-editing technology to directly target and repair his unique genetic mutation—something that had never been done before.

“Our child is sick,” said his father, Kyle Muldoon. “We either have to get a liver transplant or give him this medicine that’s never been given to anybody before, right?”

The treatment consisted of three infusions delivered to KJ’s liver, where the CRISPR system—essentially a set of molecular scissors—sought out and edited the faulty gene. “The drug is really designed only for KJ,” said Dr. Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, director of CHOP’s Gene Therapy for Inherited Metabolic Disorders program. “The genetic variants that he has are specific to him. It’s personalized medicine.”

According to the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, KJ has responded well to the therapy. He’s now able to eat a higher-protein diet—something that was previously dangerous due to his condition—and he requires fewer medications. He’ll still need long-term monitoring, but doctors say early results are promising.

“While KJ will need to be monitored carefully for the rest of his life, our initial findings are quite encouraging,” Ahrens-Nicklas said in a statement. “We hope he is the first of many to benefit from a methodology that can be scaled to fit an individual patient’s needs.”

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The Pentagon Is Using a Fabricated Chinese Threat to Build Genetically Engineered Soldiers

On April 8, a bipartisan commission chartered by Congress warned that China is rapidly advancing a terrifying new military threat: genetically engineered “super soldiers.”

The report by the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) urges the U.S. to respond with a sweeping effort to militarize biotechnology. It offers little concrete evidence that such Chinese programs even exist.

In the name of national security, Washington is now pushing for deregulation, massive government investment, and human experimentation. Experts say this effort echoes Cold War-era paranoia and threatens to erode ethical boundaries in science and warfare.

A Congressional Research Service fact sheet on the report claims its contents “describe how biotechnology could potentially revolutionize agricultural production in the U.S., transform U.S. health care, and change the future of computing power.” While that may sound promising, the report’s focus is overwhelmingly on using biotechnology for military purposes, including the creation of “genetically enhanced soldiers.” The report also states that “biotechnology’s impact on surveillance could be … transformative.”

The report argues that biology could revolutionize warfare just as airpower did in the 20th century, promising new advantages in stealth, logistics, and real-time physiological monitoring of soldiers. It calls for “a fundamental rethinking” of how the U.S. uses biotech in combat.

Biotechnology also promises new advantages in stealth and mobility. Dynamic biological camouflage, for instance, could shield warfighters from thermal detection, while wearable biosensors could adjust mission parameters based on real-time physiological data. Taken together, these advances demand a fundamental rethinking of how biology supports sustained, agile military operations, revolutionizing what it means to defend the U.S., including building for, nourishing, and healing forces in the field.”

The report argues that “winning” the global biotech race will “require de-risking the domestic production of defense-related biotechnology products” and changing “military specifications” to enable biotechnology companies to sell their products to the Pentagon more easily. Repeated references are also made to the need to “reduce or remove regulatory hurdles for familiar products.” Although the report never defines “familiar products,” the term may refer to controversial and experimental technologies such as CRISPR gene editing and mRNA therapeutics.

NSCEB also calls for large-scale “biological databases” to be treated as a “strategic resource.” It urges Congress to direct the Pentagon to build commercial facilities across the country to biomanufacture products deemed “critical for DOD needs.” The U.S. government “will need to shoulder some of the risk of early-stage financing for biotechnology and encourage private investment,” such as “[streamlining] regulatory processes to alleviate unnecessary burdens and accelerate the commercialization.”

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World’s first pig to human liver transplant is carried out in major breakthrough

A pig’s liver has been transplanted into a human recipient for the first time in a ‘milestone’ for organ transfers between animals and people.

Scientists in China used a liver taken from a seven-month old Bama miniature pig which had been genetically modified to reduce the risk of rejection.

Once removed, it was kept ‘alive’ using a medical solution and chilled to 0-4C.

During the nine-hour-long surgery the recipient – a 50-year-old clinically dead man whose family had authorised the procedure – had the donor liver stitched to his blood vessels in his abdomen alongside his own liver. 

Over the next 10 days, the donor liver successfully produced bile and maintained a stable blood flow.

The team hope that rather than a long-term solution, their procedure could one day be used as a temporary treatment for patients with liver failure while they wait for a human donor.

In the UK, there are more than 11,000 deaths due to liver disease each year. Around 700 people are currently on the waiting list for a transplant, and the average wait is three to four months.

The announcement follows a slew of recent breakthroughs, including transplanting a pig’s heart into a man and a woman currently living with a pig’s kidney.

Professor Lin Wang, one of the study’s authors from the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi’an, said: ‘The liver collected from the modified pig functioned very well in the human body.

‘It’s a great achievement. This surgery was really successful.

‘We examined the blood flow in the different vessels and arteries. The flow is very smooth. It functioned very well.’

The experiment was terminated after 10 days because of requests made by the patient’s family members.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, suggest modified livers can survive and function in human bodies, but further research on long-term outcomes is needed.

‘We have the opportunity in the future to solve the problem of a patient with severe liver failure,’ Professor Wang added.

‘It is our dream to make this achievement. The pig liver could survive together with the original liver of the human being and maybe it will give it additional support.’

He also expressed a desire to conduct further research on living, non-brain-dead human beings in the future, but stressed the complications and ‘many rules’ around this.

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Hoping to revive mammoths, scientists create ‘woolly mice’

Scientists have genetically engineered mice with some key characteristics of an extinct animal that was far larger — the woolly mammoth.

This “woolly mouse” marks an important step toward achieving the researchers’ ultimate goal — bringing a woolly mammoth-like creature back from extinction, they say.

“For us, it’s an incredibly big deal,” says Beth Shapiro, chief science officer at Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas company trying to resurrect the woolly mammoth and other extinct species.

The company announced the creation of the woolly mice Tuesday in a news release and posted a scientific paper online detailing the achievement. Scientists implanted genetically modified embryos in female lab mice that gave birth to the first of the woolly pups in October.

“This is really validation that what we have in mind for our longer-term de-extinction project is really going to work,” Shapiro told NPR in an interview. The company says reviving extinct species like the mammoth, the dodo and others could help repair ecosystems. Critics, however, question whether de-extinction would be safe for the animals or environment.

Shapiro and her colleagues started by trying to identify the genes responsible for making mammoths distinctive. They compared ancient samples of genetic material from mammoths with genetic sequences of African and Asian elephants, the mammoth’s closest living relative.

These included long, woolly hair and a way of metabolizing fat that helped the animals survive well in the cold.

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GMO Tomato Project Funded by Gates Foundation and U.S. Taxpayers Hits Roadblock

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is funding research to genetically engineer tomatoes to be able to disrupt the reproductive cycle of the whitefly, a common insect that damages tomato plants, Jon Fleetwood reported on Substack.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — a division of the U.S. Department of Defense — also funded the research as part of its “Insect Allies” project, according to a study on the tomatoes published last month in BMC Plant Biology.

Whiteflies, or Bemisia tabaci, are a common pest that drinks sap from phloem, the food-conducting tissue in tomato plant stems and leaves, sometimes causing the plant to dry up. The insects also excrete a sticky substance called honeydew, which attracts ants.

Whiteflies can decimate crops. The BMC study estimates the pest causes $2 billion in annual losses in cassava production in Africa alone, which can cause food insecurity in regions that rely on the crop.

The researchers aim to develop a genetic modification (GM) technology that could modify plants to produce proteins that target and destroy whitefly eggs. The authors note that targeting egg viability is a “unique strategy” for transgenic plants, setting it apart from most GM insecticidal plants that target adult insects.

Fleetwood raised concerns about the technology’s potential to harm human health and the environment.

“If commercialized, these ‘[t]ransgenic plants’ — genetically engineered to include genes from other species — could introduce reproductive-disrupting insecticidal compounds into the human food chain,” Fleetwood wrote.

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Bill Gates Funds Genetically Engineered Tomatoes with Insecticides Inside Them That Attack Reproduction—And Yes, You’d Eat Them

Bill Gates is funding research to genetically engineer tomatoes to produce insecticides inside their tissues, specifically targeting the reproduction of whiteflies, a destructive agricultural pest. According to a study published last month in BMC Plant Biology, these genetically engineered (GE) tomatoes express proteins designed to infiltrate and disrupt whitefly eggs.

“The molecular tools for achieving both apoplastic and phloem-specific expression of insecticidal proteins are well developed,” the study explains, highlighting the advanced genetic strategies employed.

If commercialized, these “[t]ransgenic plants”—genetically engineered to include genes from other species—could introduce reproductive-disrupting insecticidal compounds into the human food chain.

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New Zealand media’s go-to source for expert opinions supports a bill to deregulate the use of genetic modification; Dr. Guy Hatchard responds

Guy Hatchard, PhD, was formerly Director of Natural Products at Genetic ID (now FoodChain ID) a global food safety testing and certification company. He presented to the original Royal Commission on Genetic Modification in New Zealand in 2000 which helped to clarify the safety ground rules and labelling requirements for genetically modified organisms (“GMOs”) which currently form a part of the New Zealand Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (“HSNO”) legislation. Dr. Hatchard is retired and has no financial interest in the outcomes of the current legislative initiative to deregulate biotechnology experimentation.

The following is his formal response to the Science Media Centre (“SMC”) – an “independent” source of information for the media on all issues related to research, science and innovation – which has published expert opinions in support of the Bill.

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GMO Corn, Glyphosate Pose Unacceptable Health Risks, New Scientific Analysis Shows

A new scientific analysis prepared by CONAHCYT, Mexico’s National Council for Humanities, Science and Technology, argues there are unacceptable health risks for Mexican people who consume genetically modified (GM) corn and glyphosate, the world’s most widely used herbicide.

The 200-page document with 1,200 references — posted here for the first time in English — underpins Mexico’s 2023 decree to restrict the use of GM corn in tortillas and other minimally processed corn products, and to phase out the use of glyphosate.

The U.S. challenged those policies as unfair trade practices under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). A decision in that case is expected imminently.

Whatever the ruling, Mexico’s new President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo has said her government will not allow the cultivation of GM corn.

Sheinbaum Pardo also recently announced plans to try to place GM corn restrictions in Mexico’s Constitution; “This is the best defense we have for biodiversity as well as for our health,” she said.

Mexico’s stand for food sovereignty and the scientific evidence they gathered to support their case have worldwide relevance, as nations across the Global South grapple with seed laws that would open the doors to GM foods.

It also comes at a time when U.S. consumers are losing faith in the safety of our food supply, according to a recent Gallup poll.

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Scientists Are Developing CRISPR Gene-editing Tools to Cure Inherited Diseases — But There’s a Catch

CRISPR-based gene-editing tools are being developed to correct specific defective sections of the genome to cure inherited genetic diseases, with some applications already in clinical trials.

However, there is a catch: under certain conditions, the repair can lead to large-scale deletions and rearrangements of DNA — as in the case of targeting the NCF1 gene in chronic granulomatous disease (CGD). This was reported by a team of researchers and physicians from the ImmuGene clinical research program at the University of Zurich.

Their findings have important implications not just for gene editing-based therapy, but also for CRISPR-mediated gene editing of animals and plants, where the same types of large-scale genetic damage could be triggered.

Indeed, because such editing is carried out with much less caution in non-human organisms, the likelihood of such large-scale damage occurring is hugely increased (see below on multiplexing).

The study also shows that attempts to avoid these problems by using adaptations of CRISPR gene editing technologies, such as prime and base editing, may not succeed.

This research on CGD is also only the latest in a series of studies that have repeatedly shown that different types of unintended mutations resulting from gene editing can affect the functioning of multiple gene systems, with potentially damaging consequences.

What is CGD?

CGD is a rare hereditary disease that affects about one in 120,000 people. The disease impairs the component of the immune system responsible for fighting off infections, which can be life-threatening to the patient.

One variant of CGD is caused by the absence of two letters in the DNA base unit gene sequence which codes for the NCF1 protein. This error results in the inability of blood cells known as neutrophils to produce an enzyme complex that plays an essential role in the immune defense against bacterial, yeast, and fungal infections.

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Bill Gates uses vaccines and genetically modified crops to impoverish and reduce the world’s population

Bill Gates, through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has funded various scientific research programs and vaccination initiatives, such as “Grand Challenges Explorations.”

It’s not only his investment in vaccines globally that is the problem.  He has also invested in companies that contribute to poverty and pollution and seeks maximum returns on his investments regardless of the social cost.

Gates’ advocacy for vaccines is intertwined with population control, with many concluding his true interest is in reduced fertility or even the elimination of a significant portion of the world’s population.

In addition to vaccines, he has also supported genetically modified organisms in food, which have been linked to health and environmental issues such as the development of super-bugs and super-weeds.

His Foundation has invested in genetically modified crops research, claiming to help African farmers grow their own food but it has led to dependence on large corporations for seeds, pesticides and equipment.

You probably think the above is an introduction to an article written fairly recently, but it’s not.  The article that follows was written 9 years ago.

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