Bioengineering

The rapidly accumulating knowledge from DNA sequencing, Biology, Evo Devo and the Nested Derivative Development (NDD) can and is being used to develop a broad range of bio-technologies. In particular, the extensive overlap of DNA coding sequences and the similarities in the development of related species, enables gathering gene function evidence in an inexpensive and relatively rapid manner. This is particularly true for the case of mice & men who share 90% of the genes. Mice being a rapidly reproducing and economical species, with no attached emotional overtones. As it has been the case in a number of other fields of Science, the resulting flourishing of applied research is creating a new field of Engineering: Bioengineering.

Bioengineering activities stem from the very many ways that one can control the bio development processes that were discussed in NDD. The various kinds of development processes that can be executed are:

Creating in the lab the original zygote cell by merging an egg cell with a sperm cell from the same species. We can now do this routinely in the process of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). The zygote so created is developed "in vitro" for a few days and then implanted in the uterus of the mother to be. This technique is being used for human fertilization, and it is legal in most countries. Furthermore an adult animal can be cloned by starting from one of his cells, taking the nucleus and inserting it into an egg cell from the same species which had previously been enucleated. This implies that the egg cell has the capability to de-program the adult cell nucleus so that the resultant zygote has the power to generate the whole embryo. Current work is proceeding to see if such process can be successfully completed using eggs from a different species of the individual to be cloned.
The cells of an embryo, before the blastocyst differentiates into the three basic cell types: endoderm, mesoderm & ectoderm, have not undergone any cell differentiation processs. In other words, such cells are capable of diversifying in any of the many types of cells that comprise the organism. Such cells are said to be multi-potent since they still retain all the development multiple potentiality. Such cells are also referred to as stem cells (SCs) since they are the "stem" of development processes. The early embryonic cells are thus multi-potent stem cells or mSCs. mSCs are extremely interesting and useful for bio-engineering processes since they are capable, if in the proper support environment, to replicate the entire development of a copy of the organism. For instance, one could in principle isolate all the mSCs of an embryo, at the blastocyst stage, and get a few dozens of identical twins by letting them develop independently.
If it were possible to find mSCs in an adult organism it would be possible to create an identical twin of the donor organism. In other words, if one were to find that adult organisms still retain a supply of mSCs one could readily "clone" such organisms. Dr. Gerd Hasenfuss of Goettingen University has apparently shown that the testes of adult mice contain cells involved in the production of sperm, which when cultivated in vitro have shown that they could diversify into the endo-, meso- and ectoderm cell types. In other words the mice testes appear to have an abundant supply of mSCs. The cells are referred to as multipotent adult Stem Cells or maSCs.
summary report

Several questions immediately arise in connection with this finding. Firstly, is true of just the mice? Hasenfuss's group is investigating if the same holds true for humans. However, it is extremely likely, on deductive grounds (See NDD), that the answer is an emphatic yes. In fact, the processes involved in producing sperm and the testes are very ancient, probably pre-dating the advent of mammals 208 MYA, and very likely not drastically changed since about 65 MYA when the lines leading to humans & mice separated. Once this answer is empirically verified, the door to technically unlimited human cloning would be wide open.

Another important question is: can this be the basis for producing specialized cell types such as heart muscle cells, neurons, etc. According to NDD the answer to this question is likely to be affirmative. This would mean that such "easily" available msSCs could be used to produce replacement organs that would be completely histo compatible with the recipient, given that the initial maSCs were taken from him. So, in a not to too distant future (next ten year or sooner), a candidate for a heart (or liver or etc..) transplant would submit to a biopsy of his testes to harvest some of his maSCs. These, in turn would be used to grow a replacement organ, which would eventually be installed via standard organ transplant surgery procedure. Such development would solve two major problems. First, it would eliminate our present organ shortage. Secondly, it would eliminate all together organ rejection and the need to use drugs to depress the immune system to reduce such rejection reactions. The latter, naturally being a dangerous procedure.

Bioengineering procedures have been developing at an astounding pace, in the last few years, well before the epoch making Goettingen announcement. We'll briefly discuss a few of the most recent ones to give a flavor of what is happening world wide in bioengineering.

We'll start with an EvoDevo project on a grand scale: the EuroMouse project. This project, as it can be seen from: the project description exploits the close relationship between the man & mouse genomes to produce transgenic mice to study the effect of specific genes and GeNets (see discussion in the NDD for details). In fact, to learn the function of a specific human gene or GeNet all one has to do is alter the corresponding or homologous gene or MCG in the mouse genome, reproduce mice having the altered DNA & observe how the resultant mice develop or behave. This is an inexpensive & practical way to get a lot of evidence very rapidly about the DNA architecture & function. It is easy therefore to anticipate that many labs around the World will be making numerous discoveries & developing numerous biological technologies in the next few years.

Evodevo may lead us to control aging. As an example we can give the case of the Klotho gene presented in the following two references:

John Hopkins Medicine

NewsWise article

The next reference discusses the Tert gene which controls the shedding of telomeres at the end of the chromosomes. The shedding of the telomeres in turn controls cells' reproductive aging and ultimately the organism aging:

NIH Tert article

Another area of applied research which is enabled by the scientific advances discussed here is organ repair and reconstruction. A recently reported case involved the reconstruction of seven human bladders:

The Guardian

Xinhuanet

The lead investigator, Dr. Antony Atala, biographical information:

His Alma Mater

Wake Forest Medical Center

In addition, EvoDevo progress will enable a number of truly exotic human reproductive options, as indicated by this Guardian article.

Finally, here are a couple of research results from University of Wisconsin-Madison: Engineered stem cells show promise for sneaking drugs into brain - Dec 15, 2005. Fatal nervous system disorder treatment - Dec 12, 2005