Nature is the best innovator; however, sometimes innovations such as disease and sickness hurt rather than help us.
Such examples are the reason why biologists are fascinated by reprogramming human cells to work in the ways we want.
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“Cell”ular computing
Essentially, cells work just like computer programs—if you chug a Frappuccino, your blood sugar spikes, your pancreatic cells get the message, and the output is insulin.
Led by Wilson Wong, a team of biologists at Boston University had significant success in reprogramming cells.
The idea of their particular experiment was to create a “genetic circuit” that reprograms cells to light up on command.
The instructions are fairly basic:
- If a cell contained a specific DNA recombinase protein, it would NOT produce a blue fluorescent protein that made it light up.
- If the cell did not contain the enzyme, it would light up.
In 113 trials, they successfully programmed 109 of the cells, a vast improvement to their expectation of a 25% success rate.
What’s the big deal?
Ideally, this technology could be used in disease diagnosis. If a protein associated with a particular disease showed up in someone’s blood, they could program the cell to light up. With this innovation, it could actually be fun going in for blood work.
Alternatively, pharmaceutical companies are interested in teaching immune cells to be better cancer scouts using similar technology.
For instance, Juno Therapeutics is working on engineering immune cells that could detect particular proteins in cancer cells and target them specifically, essentially making fighting cancer a proactive game of cat-and-mouse.
Reprogramming what took human nature billions of years to perfect is a huge goal, but Wong’s success shows promise in creating a “superhuman” quality that eradicates what’s holding us back.
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