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[Nilocy]

In my great procrastination from writing a report that'll end up being 25% of my over mark this semester, I figured I'd share some of my findings about retroviruses.

These little super amazing biological machines are possibly some of the most interesting things you'll ever encounter in biology, and will most likely be hearing about them in the future for possible gene therapies.

They get their name from their ability to reverse transcribe their RNA genome, into DNA and insert it into the hosts genome. This shit it totally whack, a natural organism evolved the ability to for us to basically use it to cure genetic diseases (which have been done to a very small degree) and hold huuuuuuuge potential for future gene therapies. All because of a super enzyme called reversetranscriptase, hard to figure out what it does eh?

They cause all sorts of interesting nasties as well, HIV being one of them, T-cell leukaemia as well, because of their indiscriminate insertion into the host genome they sometimes insert themselves into the parts that code for your cells normal reproductive mechanisms (oops).

Also, some interesting theories is that they're the cause of us having DNA in the first place, lookup the RNA world theory while you're at it, interesting stuff there...

Anyway, anyone have anything interesting they know about these viruses that they wanna share (I'm desperately looking for more info, especially weird things, about these 'ere viruses)

Also edit: Telomerase reverse transcriptase this enzyme holds the possibilities to cure old age :3

OH AND ALSO: Your genomes about 1/3rd viral DNA, all cause of this bastard enzyme and its viruses infecting sperm and eggs.

[Levi]

Part of my job is to write software for analyzing HIV sequence data to understand drug resistance patterns, so I know a little bit about that at least.   

Um, but I can't think of anything too interesting right this second.  If I think of anything cool I'll post.

[Nilocy]

Part of my job is to write software for analyzing HIV sequence data to understand drug resistance patterns, so I know a little bit about that at least.   

Um, but I can't think of anything too interesting right this second.  If I think of anything cool I'll post.

Ah awesome, bioinformatics? Cant quite remember the name of it... is this right?

[i2amroy]

I believe that there is a group of scientists who have successfully used retroviruses in order to cure red/green color blindness in monkeys by setting the packet that is injected to be the gene combination for growing the red/green sensors in your eyes. They then injected the virus into the monkeys' eyes and within about a month the monkeys were able to see red and green when they couldn't before. Personally I think that this will really open up the worlds of gene therapy and grant us the ability to significantly alter genomes without being limited to doing so before birth.

[Nilocy]

I believe that there is a group of scientists who have successfully used retroviruses in order to cure red/green color blindness in monkeys by setting the packet that is injected to be the gene combination for growing the red/green sensors in your eyes. They then injected the virus into the monkeys' eyes and within about a month the monkeys were able to see red and green when they couldn't before. Personally I think that this will really open up the worlds of gene therapy and grant us the ability to significantly alter genomes without being limited to doing so before birth.

Yeah, its a field I _Really_ want to get into, blame sci-fi books and stuff, but christ, I want perfect genes dammit.

[Levi]

Part of my job is to write software for analyzing HIV sequence data to understand drug resistance patterns, so I know a little bit about that at least.   

Um, but I can't think of anything too interesting right this second.  If I think of anything cool I'll post.

Ah awesome, bioinformatics? Cant quite remember the name of it... is this right?

Yeah, although I haven't specialized in that field.  Thankfully the people who got me to do this in the first place are really good at explaining things.   

The software is pretty generic too, so it can be used for things like HBV and the lab I work at uses it for some human dna sequencing as well.  Apparently my boss has convinced the WHO to start using it as the industry standard for HIV sequencing.  Haha.

---

I love the idea of gene therapy though.  Giving people more freedom over their bodies and helping to fix medical problems with nothing more than an injection of an engineered virus would be pretty amazing.

[Nilocy]

Currently the issues remain with the vectors and the issue that instead of fixing the problem it might give you cancer : D

[Zrk2]

Yeah, its a field I _Really_ want to get into, blame sci-fi books and stuff, but christ, I want perfect genes dammit.

Aw shit. We accidentally Hitler.

[Nilocy]

Yeah, its a field I _Really_ want to get into, blame sci-fi books and stuff, but christ, I want perfect genes dammit.

Aw shit. We accidentally Hitler.

Who told you?

[Zrk2]

Yeah, its a field I _Really_ want to get into, blame sci-fi books and stuff, but christ, I want perfect genes dammit.

Aw shit. We accidentally Hitler.

Who told you?

It was...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

ZE JEWS!

[Criptfeind]

Currently the issues remain with the vectors and the issue that instead of fixing the problem it might give you cancer : D

Ah hah hah hah hah...

But no really. I am really excited about these developments. First thing I am going to do? Wings. Totally. Go flying man.

These virus can give me wings right?

[Cyprinus]

I believe that there is a group of scientists who have successfully used retroviruses in order to cure red/green color blindness in monkeys by setting the packet that is injected to be the gene combination for growing the red/green sensors in your eyes. They then injected the virus into the monkeys' eyes and within about a month the monkeys were able to see red and green when they couldn't before. Personally I think that this will really open up the worlds of gene therapy and grant us the ability to significantly alter genomes without being limited to doing so before birth.

Here's the relevant article: link

I was fortunate enough to attend a lecture, held at [redacted], that was given by [redacted], the principal investigator in the research group.

[Knirisk]

Currently the issues remain with the vectors and the issue that instead of fixing the problem it might give you cancer : D

Ah hah hah hah hah...

But no really. I am really excited about these developments. First thing I am going to do? Wings. Totally. Go flying man.

These virus can give me wings right?

There are weight problems to deal with. Birds are very light.

[IronyOwl]

Also edit: Telomerase reverse transcriptase this enzyme holds the possibilities to cure old age :3

:3

These virus can give me wings right?

Sadly no, or at least nowhere in sight. Stuffing bird genes in you just won't work, and we've got to master copy+paste before we can handle writing things from scratch.

On the bright side, eyes with hawklike, inhumanly good vision might be a viable middle ground, so at least you'll be able to count ant legs from across the street while not aging and waiting for them to figure out how wings work.

[Criptfeind]

Well. I hope the government takes over this, even if it is a huge expense and needs a tax hike or something, the last thing we need is genetics falling into the private sector and giving rise to a genetic as well as economic upper class.