Re: [DIYbio] Biosecurity

Ahem. The transgenic shark has been jumped with all the wild eyed scaremongering going on. Personally I'm ready to post the tale of the toxic mind-controlling kombucha .... /sarc

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 28, 2019, at 5:35 PM, Matt Endrizzi <matt.endrizzi@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> We're adding drops to an ocean of genetic transformation, no doubt, but the drops we're adding are self-replicating in an environment covered with cellular life. We harvest sequences that already have high vector potential. We are now getting good at manipulating chromosomes directly. Transposase is a ubiquitous gene fragment in nature, and so probably our labs, and it could likely contaminate tubes that contain wildly different sources of genetic material and a ligase to connect the gene fragments. While there is some comfort in knowing nature has a much larger research budget than humans, I am not certain how blind evolution is. I know I am blind to where evolution will take us, so I feel an ethical need to act out of an abundance of caution.
>
> I pose that any single human-derived nucleic acid (as long or longer than the smallest SGE) that is not a replica or complement of a natural nucleic acid holds the potential to reboot evolution. We cannot know what a doomsday sequence is until it already exists. We should keep these recombinant nucleic acids out of the environment.
>
> I'm calling for precaution, not zero tolerance. If people handling recombinant nucleic acids shared my perspective, they would be more careful and attentive in the lab. Until there is a significantly better way to contain recombinant nucleic acids, this is the best I can hope for. For those of you who are careful, thank you! Expecting high school and middle school teachers to manage this with kids is a tall order we may want to put more thought into.
>
> Personally, from a moral perspective, I believe one is justified in manipulating nucleic acids if they respect its power and seek to alleviate suffering.
>
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