Re: NANOMED: [was Weekend tidbits~ Nanogirl News.]

From: GBurch1@aol.com
Date: Mon Sep 06 1999 - 11:03:55 MDT


In a message dated 99-09-06 12:54:34 EDT, bradbury@www.aeiveos.com (Robert J.
Bradbury) wrote:

> [An interesting side-note here is that we are discovering interesting
> therapeutic uses for biochemical processes developed by the HIV virus...
> Dowdy's work is using the HIV TAT protein fragment to introduce a
> carefully engineered protein that causes cell death if and when the cell
> becomes infected with HIV. This new protein effectively functions as a
> "trojan horse". Very very slick work.]

A probably naive question: Are these mechanisms exploitable to do wholesale
somatic cell genetic engineering, i.e. can a retrovirus be tinkered with to
be a vector to carry specified genome "edits" into lots and lots of
(targeted?) somatic cells?

     Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
     Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
      http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
                         "Civilization is protest against nature;
                  progress requires us to take control of evolution."
                                      -- Thomas Huxley



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