Somatic cell engineering?

[augment]

I think that this would be a lot better foray into genetic engineering than germline manipulation. How far away are we from seeing the effects of somatic cell engineering? What will the benefits of somatic cell engineering be? We we be able to make humans stronger or smarter or both? Anything else anyone would like to add.

 

-John

[Yggdrasil]

The first somatic cell gene therapy treatment was performed in 1990s in the National Institutes of Health. The procedure was used to correct adenosine deaminase deficiency which is a cause of the so-called "bubble boy" syndrome. The treatments did work, however, because the treatment combined conventional methods of treatment with gene therapy, it was inconclusive whether the gene therapy treatments were the primarily responsible for the patients' improvement.

 

Unfortunately, efforts to continue gene therapy experiments in the US have been stymied by the death of Jessee Gelsinger in a gene therapy trial in 1999 (investigation showed that the death resulted from the negligence of the doctors performing the procedure, not from any inherent flaw in the procedure itself).

 

Despite the setbacks in the US, researchers in France have succcessfully treated SCID (another genetically-cause of bubble-boy syndrome) using somatic cell gene therapy. However, the treatment may have the unfortunate side effect of causing leukemia.

 

So, currently somatic cell gene therapy remains an experimental technology which still has many safety issues which need to be resolved. However, it is definitely closer to clinical usage than germline cell gene therapy, and despite its limitations, will still have important usage in the treatment of genetic disease. Somatic cell gene therapy, however, probably wouldn't be used for cosmetic or purposes other than correcting genetic defects.