We
are witnesses of an exponential increase – explosion – of our knowledge about ourselves,
about our origin and about the substance we are made of. No sooner we have completely
recognized our structure, than we are starting to change it. There is still a
lot to learn about the mechanisms shaping the quality and length of our lives,
but we start to edit our DNA and our future as well. The dreams of ancient
alchemists about the transmutation of base metals into noble ones have
come true, and now
their panacea curing any disease and even their dreamed elixir of immortality are becoming nearly reality. Below are several milestones, from the last three hundred years, on our road to almost eternity.
their panacea curing any disease and even their dreamed elixir of immortality are becoming nearly reality. Below are several milestones, from the last three hundred years, on our road to almost eternity.
1828 Friedrich Wöhler
synthesized organic material urea from
inorganic ammonium cyanate, thereby disproving the vitalism theory – the belief
that the organic matter could be formed only in the live organisms owing to
their special vital force
1866 Gregor Mendel demonstrated existence of discreet inherited traits,
later called genes
1869 Friedrich Miescher isolated nucleic acid from the cell nuclei
1919 Phoebus Levene identified nucleic acids components (ATGC) and
their chemical structure, and named them nucleotides, he distinguished two
types of nucleic acids, RNA (ribonucleic) and DNA (deoxyribonucleic). Undeservedly
he is remembered mainly for his incorrect assumption that the nucleotides are
linked in DNA equimolar ratios, and strangely he did not get a Nobel Prize
1952 Martha Chase and
Alfred Hershey (Nobel Prize, NP, 1969) confirmed
that DNA is the genetic material and not proteins or other materials
1952 Frederic Sanger (NP
1958) determined the sequence of amino acids in the protein
insulin (51 amino acids) after cutting the molecule to several shorter, defined
oligopeptide pieces by peptidase enzymes
1953 James Watson (NP
1962) and Francis Crick (NP 1962) disclosed the
double helix structure of DNA made of two reversely oriented (5’→3’ and 3’→5’) complementary strands, G and C in the opposite
strands being bound by three hydrogen bonds, A and T with by two hydrogen bonds
1961 Genetic
code was deciphered within 1961-1965 by Marshall Nirenberg (NP 1968), Heinrich Matthaei, Severo Ochoa (NP 1959),
Gobind Khorana (NP 1968), Robert Holley (NP 1968) and Philip Leder,
showing that each of the 64 nucleotide triplets (codons) represents one of 20
naturally occurring amino acids or a stop signal in the process of translating
the nucleotide sequence of the nucleic acids into the amino acid sequence of
the proteins, the process occurring on the ribosomes in all cells on Earth
1971 Daniel Nathan (NP
1978) and Kathleen Danna showed that a viral genome
can be cut to defined separable DNA pieces by restriction enzymes
(restrictases)
1977 Frederic Sanger (Second
NP 1980) et al. determined the sequence of
nucleotides in the whole genome of fX174
virus having 5386 nucleotides after cutting the molecule to defined
oligonucleotide pieces by restrictases, separating the pieces and sequencing them,
and deducing their order in the viral genome
1983 Jack Szostak (NP
2009) and many others found the importance of DNA
double strand breaks in DNA repair and its potential for artificial DNA
modifications within 1983 to 2012, including techniques of
meganucleases, ZFN, TALEN, and CRISPR
2001 The human genome was published, haploid 23
chromosomes, 3.2 billion nucleotides in each strand
2012 Jennifer Doudna and
Emmanuelle Charpentier re-engineered a ready-to-use
CRISPR-Cas9 for universal DNA editing
2017 Blindness in
thousands of people caused by retinal dystrophy will soon be cured by
correcting DNA in retinal cells
2028 Many debilitating diseases will start to be treated via editing
DNA
2128 The humans – products
of the evolution – together with robots will take
full control over the evolution of nearly all species on Earth
No comments:
Post a Comment