Summary of Amy Webb & Andrew Hessel's The Genesis Machine

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 Bill, a student in Duxbury, Massachusetts, was a gifted student with wide-ranging interests in photography, math, and journalism. But in other ways, he was unremarkable. He was constantly thirsty, and his parents took him to the doctor, who found that his blood sugar was elevated.
#2 Bill’s parents were told that it was just bad genes, but there was a silver lining: a treatment regimen that would require him to manually perform all the tasks that his body should have been doing automatically.
#3 The clinical symptoms of type 1 diabetes were first recorded some 3,000 years ago in Egypt. It was another 1,500 years before Aretaeus, a Cappadocian physician who spoke Greek, described a melting down of the flesh and limbs into urine, a condition he named diabetes after the Greek word for siphon.
#4 The treatment worked in dogs, and it was later used on humans. It was the discovery of insulin that changed the course of life for millions of people worldwide.

Sujets

• Life science

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 24 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669359814
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Amy Webb & Andrew Hessel's The Genesis Machine
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Bill, a student in Duxbury, Massachusetts, was a gifted student with wide-ranging interests in photography, math, and journalism. But in other ways, he was unremarkable. He was constantly thirsty, and his parents took him to the doctor, who found that his blood sugar was elevated.

#2

Bill’s parents were told that it was just bad genes, but there was a silver lining: a treatment regimen that would require him to manually perform all the tasks that his body should have been doing automatically.

#3

The clinical symptoms of type 1 diabetes were first recorded some 3,000 years ago in Egypt. It was another 1,500 years before Aretaeus, a Cappadocian physician who spoke Greek, described a melting down of the flesh and limbs into urine, a condition he named diabetes after the Greek word for siphon.

#4

The treatment worked in dogs, and it was later used on humans. It was the discovery of insulin that changed the course of life for millions of people worldwide.

#5

In the 1950s, Eli Lilly began developing insulin from other sources, such as pigs and rats. It took 8,000 pounds of pancreas glands to make just one pound of insulin.

#6

There were two problems addressed by the group at Genentech, who were working on recombinant DNA technology. The first was the supply issue of human insulin, which could be solved by having engineered bacterial cells produce human insulin. The second was reprogramming bad genes to behave properly, which could be addressed in the future.

#7

As a startup, Genentech spent no money on creature comforts. It recruited a team of scientists fresh out of graduate school and put them together to synthesize the insulin molecule.

#8

The team at Genentech produced the exact DNA sequence, and an organism to execute commands, to produce human insulin. It was the birth of biotechnology and the genesis of a new field of science called synthetic biology.

#9

The human body is a collection of cellular factories that are controlled by DNA. Each factory has three main components: a set of instructions, a communications system to transmit those instructions, and a production line that makes the designated product.

#10

The genome is the operating system of life, and it is full of non-coding sequences that control which genes are turned on and off. It has been difficult to study these sequences because they are hard to measure in real time, but they are still important.

#11

Synthetic biology is the use of computer science, chemistry, biology, and engineering to create new biological products. It will allow scientists to develop drugs far more quickly than the trial-and-error method used by Genentech to create Humulin.

#12

Bad genes, like type 1 diabetes, are not a fact of life. Bill’s parents knew how to get him excellent care, but even so, his condition is still uncertain. Bill would have been able to get insulin if it were available at a reasonable price.

#13

The future may very well see us producing our own insulin using genetically modified cells, which would eliminate the need for expensive vials and injections.

#14

The race to find the human genome began in the 1980s, and scientists began to theorize how they would use a genetic map to predict the likelihood of two genes being closely linked together.

#15

The Human Genome Project was an initiative to sequence the human genome that was spearheaded by the Department of Energy and the NIH. It was originally planned to be completed by 2005, with three five-year funding cycles. NIH would get the bulk of the funding, but DOE would play a supporting role.

#16

Venter began decoding bits of genes, rather than entire sequences. He isolated expressed sequence tags, or ESTs, which are mRNA strands that have been copied back into DNA using the enzyme reverse transcriptase. These short DNA fragments could provide insights into what genes exist, where they are located in the genome, and whether they are turned on in a particular cell or tissue.

#17

The Human Genome Project was an endeavor to sequence the human genome, and it was led by James Watson, who was opposed to the speed of Venter’s process. He was a traditionalist who didn’t seek out new approaches.

#18

The NIH was also uncomfortable with the way Venter ran his lab, as he was a challenging and brusque person who didn’t care much for charm or negotiation.

#19

The NIH applied for patents on the gene fragments Venter had identified. This was an important move, because whoever held the patents determined how they could be licensed. Venter was not trying to patent the biological material itself, but rather the code he had sequenced.

#20

shotgun sequencing is the process of taking multiple copies of genomic DNA, shredding them, and then cloning the fragments into bacterial plasmids. Each plasmid contains a few hundred letters of DNA, which are then sequenced.

#21

The Human Genome Project was led by Francis Collins, but it was actually being slowed down by the complex organizational structure that Watson had insisted upon.

#22

In 1998, Venter and colleagues announced that they were forming a private corporation aimed at sequencing the human genome. They made the case for a public-private partnership, and suggested sharing the data after the genome was published.

#23

Venter’s trash-talking didn’t stop there. He told the press that the HGP would be better off sequencing the genome of a mouse, and that the public project was wasting money. The higher-ups at the Wellcome Trust heard this and became concerned about a private corporation suddenly butting in and saying that the public project was wasting money.

#24

The race was on. Venter said his group would have a working draft of the human genome by 2001 and a completed version by 2003. The HGP had no option but to speed things up.

#25

The race to sequence the human genome was fueled by intellectual property concerns. Celera could patent thousands of human genes, and once it did, who knew what Venter might dream up.

#26

The race to sequence the human genome was close to being decided, with Celera finishing first and the public project finishing second. But the implications of this research were far-reaching, and it was clear that whoever controlled access to the genes controlled access to biology’s future.

#27

The race to sequence the human genome was finally over. Venter and Collins, pretending to be collegial, joined President Bill Clinton at the White House to announce that the project was finished. They then used the genome data to develop new medical treatments.

#28