A question

[Silent Xenoc]

Hi, I probably don't know nearly as much about science as you guys do, but I had a question. Would it be possible (maybe in the future) to geneticly modify a human to I dunno say add wings on the back or something?

[Daecon]

I don't think that would be workable, the musculature required to manipulate the wings effectively would be rather disfiguring, I'd imagine?

 

The density of the human body would mean the wings wouldn't work anyway as you'd still be too heavy to fly.

 

It should be possible to enhance or change a part of the body that already exists in human physiology, such as growing a tail, adapting bone structure or even reproducing organs that are already a part of human anatomy - having 4 arms or two hearts for instance.

 

 

I don't know much about human DNA, but if there was code for wing development, or gills, or electromagnetic sense organ somewhere, then you'd know what to modify - some part of a redundant gene sequence.

 

But it would be far more difficult to create something from nothing.

 

(NOTE: These are just my thoughts on the subject, nothing that has been proven yet.)

[Bluenoise]

I believe it would be possible, but there would be 1000's if not more genes that would most likely have to be modified/added. It's not as simple as just adding a few genes you'd probably have to modify/redesign practically everything to accomodate for them.

[Mokele]

Not currently possibly, and possibly never. Such things are wings, limbs, tails, eyes etc all form during early development of an organism. Once the organism is fully grown, the possibility to producing these structures, even if the genetic material is added, is almost nill. It's just just a matter of what genes, but of when they're activated.

 

Mokele

[Silent Xenoc]

Couldn't you stimulate the body to develop them after the development stage using stem cells or something like that?

[Daecon]

I think the closest you could get would be to grow them independently of the body, then graft them on after maturation.

 

But that seems kinda icky. Not to mention there would be no nerve pathway connections, circulatory system connection and everything else...

[donkey]

i'm not so convinced it's impossible but it would be insanely complicated to engineer; our understanding of the many many cellular processes and inter cellular processes would have to come a long way.

[Daecon]

Possibly in a couple of hundred years, that's assuming if any project is even allowed to be researched - free from interference from ignorant godbodies with their biased objections.

[Dr_666]

No, it will not.

[rakuenso]

There's a reason as to why homeoboxes are so ridiculously preserved, as they are essential to an organism's organ and body development. The system of homeoboxes has been evolving since the dawn of... well lets just say that both flies and humans have a system of homeoboxes, and their common ancestor is.. well is pretty damn ancient.

 

In order to add any body parts would have to be accomplished by engineering the gametes, not somatic cells. And as people have previously mentioned, trying to add DNA to homeoboxes so that it will develop into somethin with wings is almost nil. If you were however, trying to modify certain organs so that they are similar to that of other species, it is an easier process.

[Daecon]

What about chimeraical engineering? Mix and match a couple of zygotes to have two organisms fused together, as if they were a single lifeform?

 

Imagine stopping a zygote from splitting into two identical twins, except they were never identical twins to begin with, and you didn't so much "stop" the splitting, as "reversed" it...

 

BTW - What does "gestalt" mean?

[rakuenso]

Sigh, if you talking about hybridomas, then that only works because one of the cells was cancerous while the other one was normal. And cancerous zygotes are a bit scary.

[Daecon]

To be honest I've never heard the word "hybridomas" before, and have no idea what you're referring to with cancerous zygotes and such.

 

Was there a study or an experiment or something...?

[rakuenso]

sigh its a standard procedure... i'm not going to waste my time explaining the procedure, just do a quick image google of hybridomas.

[donkey]

I'm pretty sure Transdecimal is talking about making chimeras not hydridomas.

[rakuenso]

lol Chimaeras, hybridomas are the closest thing you'll probably ever come across to mix n matching 2 species.

[Daecon]

Okay, I will do.

 

Maybe a decongestant will help you breathe easier, stop all that sighing...

[rakuenso]

^ I was laughing, and laughing is a form of breathing that people who have difficult breathing do with less frequency.

[donkey]

lol Chimaeras, hybridomas are the closest thing you'll probably ever come across to mix n matching 2 species.

 

but what about chimeras? They're a much better example of mixing two strains or even species than hybridomas are.

[Bluenoise]

Chimeras have been done before.

 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0125_050125_chimeras.html

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(animal)

[donkey]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(animal[/url'])

that's the link i linked to btw

[Daecon]

Aha! Yes, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(animal)#Research_chimerism is JUST what I was talking about!

 

See, I'm not the only person to have that idea... *preens*

[Helix]

And think of the practical issues: can we really modify 100's of genes in several pathways without harming another pathway?

 

And Mokele brought up a great point: some of these features happen in development. Is it possible to add them post-development? I think it would be pretty hard.

 

And even if you have a wing it might be too small (as someone also said) or it might be incredibly hard to learn to fly. Humans are conditioned not to know how to fly because...well....we can't. So learning something that evolution has programmed "no, you can't do it" for millions of years would be tough.

 

In any case, flying to work would be neat.