Genetic revolution - Maria Konovalenko

Gene-editing nucleases can make targeted and precise changes to an organism's genome. This has opened up new possibilities for the study of gene function, as well as the treatment of disease. While gene-editing nucleases have been in use since the mid-1990s, in the form of zinc finger nucleases, the more recent discovery of TALENs (transcriptor-like effector nucleases) has created new interest. In this video, Nature Methods technology editor Monya Baker explains how gene-editing nucleases work and why they were chosen as Nature Methods 'Method of the Year' for 2011.

The Human Genome and Individualized Medicine - David Valle, M.D.
Genomics in Medicine Lecture Series
December 2, 2011

A groundbreaking work, Redesigning Humans tackles the controversial subject of engineering the human germline -- the process of permanently altering the genetic code of an individual so that the changes are passed on to the offspring. Gregory Stock, an expert on the implications of recent advances in reproductive biology, has glimpsed the inevitable future of biomedical engineering. Within decades, Stock asserts, technological advances will bring meaningful changes to our offspring; this scientific revolution promises to fundamentally alter the human species.

DNA is a programming language for living cells. The cell's basic operating system, or genome, directs functions like growth and reproduction, energy utilization, and the production of useful compounds like ethanol or penicillin. With genetic engineering, new functions can be added to cells or broken metabolic pathways repaired. Until recently, genetic engineering has required the DNA molecule itself to be physically manipulated, a tedious and expensive process.

Will the genetic research that gave us the Flavr Savr tomato also give us the power to customize our children? Medical thinker Gregory Stock believes that this is precisely what's happening and that we'd better get used to it fast. Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future explores gender selection, gene therapy, germinal choice, and many more options available now or in the near future, but lays aside the hysteria common to such discussions.

Dr Anthony Poole (works on the evolution of DNA and the origin of life. He been a Monbusho Scholar at the University of Tokyo and a Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Research Fellow at Stockholm University. He is now based at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and usually falters if you ask him about his own origins

"Now think of it. It's 2016 and the leading candidate releases not only her 4 years of back tax return, but also her personal genome. Do you think that's not going to happen?"

Richard Resnick on the pros and cons of the increasing ease with which millions of human genomes are being sequenced and connected. While commoditizing gene sequences will save lives by identifying diseases, it also raises serious cultural and ethical concerns on sharing personal information.

Synthetic life is just a close mimic to what already exists—it isn't a truly new form of life, Venter's human genome rival says.

Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Carol Greider says the age of genetics is not around the corner—it has already arrived. The question now is what limits to set on change.