Freethought & Rationalism Archive

trunks2k · 07-11-2002, 08:00 PM

<a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/64320.html" target="_blank">http://www.iht.com/articles/64320.html</a>

Anybody have more information on this? Did they take a allready existing virus and just alter it so that it became a polio virus? Or did they make a completely new virus out of solely non-living material?

eddited to add:

After looking at the article more, it seems that they got a stable copy of polio RNA and put it in a solution of the proper chemicals. The RNA then began to self replicate, and eventually formed it's own protein coat.

[ July 11, 2002: Message edited by: trunks2k ]</p>

I am · 07-12-2002, 05:35 PM

Quote:

[...]the team first made a DNA version of the virus's code by ordering pieces of DNA from an Iowa company that sells laboratory-made custom snippets of genetic material.

Quote:

"This shows it's now possible to go from data printed on a piece of paper or stored in a computer, and, without the organism itself, it's possible to reconstruct a life form," said John La Montagne, deputy director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

Looks like they started with DNA. Strictly speaking it is not living, but viruses in general are not concidered living by many.

ishalon · 07-13-2002, 11:16 AM

<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2122000/2122619.stm" target="_blank">BBC News' Article</a> and a <a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=58&t=001066" target="_blank">mirror thread.</a>

MrKnowItAll · 07-15-2002, 01:57 PM

There seems to be some misconception as to what they did to make the synthetic polio virus. First off, the most important thing to understand is that the company that made the DNA that they started with did not just sell them a whole length copy of polio DNA.

These companies (there are several around the country) will make DNA of any sequence using their DNA synthesizer machines, but the length of the DNA that they produce is very limited. The longest strand of DNA I�ve ever heard of coming off of one of these machines is 210 bases, and this was from a heavily tweaked machine in an academic lab. In making the polio virus, they used strands of an average length of 69 bases.

The paper is a little light on the details of the assembly of these fragments, but basically they synthesized overlapping segments from both strands of the DNA and put them together in ~600 base segments. They put things together until they finally had full length DNA for the virus. This is mostly a tedious technical step. The real trick is making changes to the original sequence to make this process manageable.

They made RNA from the DNA using the enzyme RNA polymerase. They put the viral RNA into a cell free extract (basically the innards of cells without the actual cells) and voila � polio virus from scratch.

This is a good first step in playing god (somebody has to do it

).

I disagree with the comments in the article that only a few people in the world could do this. Molecular Biology PhD�s are a dime a dozen, and most of them could do this.

07-11-2002, 08:00 PM	#1
trunks2k Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Philadelphia Posts: 6,997	Scientists make a polio virus from scratch?! <a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/64320.html" target="_blank">http://www.iht.com/articles/64320.html</a> Anybody have more information on this? Did they take a allready existing virus and just alter it so that it became a polio virus? Or did they make a completely new virus out of solely non-living material? eddited to add: After looking at the article more, it seems that they got a stable copy of polio RNA and put it in a solution of the proper chemicals. The RNA then began to self replicate, and eventually formed it's own protein coat. [ July 11, 2002: Message edited by: trunks2k ]</p>

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07-13-2002, 11:16 AM	#3
ishalon Regular Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: From: Posts: 203	<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2122000/2122619.stm" target="_blank">BBC News' Article</a> and a <a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=58&t=001066" target="_blank">mirror thread.</a>

07-15-2002, 01:57 PM	#4
MrKnowItAll New Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: USA Posts: 3	There seems to be some misconception as to what they did to make the synthetic polio virus. First off, the most important thing to understand is that the company that made the DNA that they started with did not just sell them a whole length copy of polio DNA. These companies (there are several around the country) will make DNA of any sequence using their DNA synthesizer machines, but the length of the DNA that they produce is very limited. The longest strand of DNA I�ve ever heard of coming off of one of these machines is 210 bases, and this was from a heavily tweaked machine in an academic lab. In making the polio virus, they used strands of an average length of 69 bases. The paper is a little light on the details of the assembly of these fragments, but basically they synthesized overlapping segments from both strands of the DNA and put them together in ~600 base segments. They put things together until they finally had full length DNA for the virus. This is mostly a tedious technical step. The real trick is making changes to the original sequence to make this process manageable. They made RNA from the DNA using the enzyme RNA polymerase. They put the viral RNA into a cell free extract (basically the innards of cells without the actual cells) and voila � polio virus from scratch. This is a good first step in playing god (somebody has to do it ). I disagree with the comments in the article that only a few people in the world could do this. Molecular Biology PhD�s are a dime a dozen, and most of them could do this.

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