CRISPR in the U.S. Midwest

[woodsmoke]

Ok
I know, there are a lot of people who just won't believe this but to illustrate just HOW FAST this whole gene editing thing is moving, I was at a "certain establishment" and a fellow sat down next to me and offered to buy a round and after a while...pulled out his phone and said "take a look at this and tell me what you think". I did not know anything about the company but I know about CRISPR and was actually teaching about it this week... not kidding folks... in a few weeks I will have my "intro / transfer biology" class doing a "kit" on "DNA figerprinting" which sounds kind of out of the park but it is how I, personally, try to get students to think that they could actually do this work when they are exploring options...

but he is a salesperson for Synthego. To verify that he wasn't just showing me a website he showed me his e-mails. Okaaay...

Point being that he is a "midwesterner" and OLD and has been selling pharmaceuticals as an independent for maybe twenty years but...lol...he is being "shut out" by the young people with fancy clothes that live on the coasts and talk fast.

And, he was wondering if I would car to be a kind of "other coast rep" for him...okaay... and also I would bring a degree and bonafides from my work in DNA at the state's land grant college... okaaayyyy... because he is "just a salesperson" having worked his way into it decades ago ...okaayyyy He said that where there was previously NOBODY working the market except him, in the space of a year the company has dozens of sales people and he is being squeezed out because he is "not with it" any more...and he doesn't want to lose a six figure income..

Well, I really just can't do it until maybe next summer since well, I am teaching. lol...but we are going to talk more.

I asked him why he just didn't go to the full time faculty at the local university instead of looking up a part timer at a biotech community college and he said... "because I've heard that you DO stuff and selling stuff needs people who can DO stuff"... lol...okaaayyy...

I asked why he didn't just move and he talked about family etc. but also that he does a lot of sales work for a local company that makes ultrapure insulin and doesn't want to lose that. He and I actually intersect with knowing a few of the people...I said that it was kind of beyond me that somebody there would recommend he should talk to me etc. and he said, basically, well, call them up... lol... okaaay...

BUT..THAT IS ALL JUST BACKGROUND FOR...the POINT for this post.

...folks...this stuff, gene editing...is just exploding... we "read about it " on news items and all that and yada and yada and yea we know it intellectually...

but when there is SO MUCH ACTIVITY...that a SALESPERSON plops his derrier onto a stool next to one and offers a SALES job... it really does show the LEVEL of what is going on...

And yeah we could get off into a debate about whether it is "good" or "bad" or whatever and I do NOT want to do that...this is just to kind of give people a "sense" of the level of activity...

Things, they ARE...a' changin' folks... they really are...

woodsmoke

[TWPonKubuntu]

woodsmoke, at what point do we get our CRISPR pod installed in the bedroom? Not joking.

I'm old school and don't want to attempt to be gene edited unless... I'm at deaths door and am offered immortality..

I don't think we are close enough to that technological level to benefit me, but your salesman acquaintance may see that market for this technology. "Pods_R_Us" copyright TWP 2019, all rights reserved.

If our society survives (questionable), this future scenario has a high probability of become reality. It will be a rough toad to get there though...

[woodsmoke]

I agree completely TWPK

We are a biotechnology campus in the middle of the Bible Belt so that the introducory classes have to "tiptoe around the tulip" as it were. We "teach" a little about it but I'm probably the only one who actually has the students do the "DNA figerprinting kit" which is just some dyes beiing pulled by the "gel" by weight, and I do it precisely to get the students to think about this, otherwise it "just some more book stuff".

I mean, if we keep it as an "advanced topic" for " a few " then the ' rest of the students " are left to the whim of the first demagogue to argue that her or his way is the only way...

I mean...we supposedly want an "educated society"... i dunno...

And, I do not in any way "lead" them on this, I try to find two ..."discussions" as it were, pro and con or just "statements" about the topic and then literally go out in the hall and stand by the door, "kind of listening" so that i can determine if shoes are being thrown but, surprisingly, there is little discussion.

One thing that "midwesterners" learn early on is that it is probably best to not "argue politics or religion" if one wants to maintain friendship...

But, all of the students enjoy the activity for one reason mainly, I do not approach it as "YOU NEED TO LEARN THIS YOU STUPID KID" but more about them learning whether or not they can actually manipulate the equipment.

In other words, actually getting the micropippete tip into the very tiny hole in the "gel" and actually SEE it in the gel is not an easy task.

A lot of people spend a lot of time in a "major" doing different classes that require a physical activity later on and find out that they can't do the activity and are stuck with a major that they can't use.

I provide one and only one test question about it and i is something like this: "Have you, personally, learned something about your ability to manipulate really "fine" pieces of equipment" yes or no... they always choose yes! lol

And, we also have the unending drumbeat of "23 and me" on television ...and all the controversy that has stirred up so the students are intrigued.

So, yeah, it is a conundrum. Are we really, finally, letting a Pandora out of the Box that we really won't be able to control? Back in "my day" it was the A-bomb... but..now...

Without getting into controversy...as an example... what about a country / society that is "atheist"? Which, would, seemingly, have no compunction about making test tube babies... so, if said country actually makes test tube babies...how does that affect maybe...Buddhist societies?

I dunno... really don't ... when I got into biology this was not even a glimmer on the horizon and now I am full plunked into it... I mean I went to the land grant university to get a PhD in physics and didn't do that because I retired.

but that lead me to DNA fingerprinting technology so that I could image DNA using Atomic Force Microscopy.. and that lead to recombinant DNA ... and here I am... ...so, dunno...

Hey, thanks for the nice response...!

woody

I

[TWPonKubuntu]

On thinking about CRISPR technology and where it is today, I'd settle for something which would give me a 10% increase in telomere length. That would (maybe) keep me going long enough for the technology to advance to the point of being able to correct genetic drift.

One problem I have is that this requires that my genetic structure be completely mapped and available to the CRISPR software. That implies a danger to my privacy because I'd likely be integrated into the global database (Borged?).

I'd also want complete control over the technology and not simply donate myself to some research project... Needless to say, the technology had better be running Linux or some open source version of it. No way would I trust a proprietary set of software to be reaching into my cellular structure.

Do you bring up any of these points to your students? Are they aware of any of it already?

[woodsmoke]

On thinking about CRISPR technology and where it is today, I'd settle for something which would give me a 10% increase in telomere length. That would (maybe) keep me going long enough for the technology to advance to the point of being able to correct

genetic drift. WOAH! a person who knows stuff! Good on!

One problem I have is that this requires that my genetic structure be completely mapped and available to the CRISPR software. That implies a danger to my privacy because I'd likely be integrated into the global database (Borged?).

I'd also want complete control over the technology and not simply donate myself to some research project... Needless to say, the technology had better be running Linux or some open source version of it. No way would I trust a proprietary set of software to be reaching into my cellular structure.

Do you bring up any of these points to your students? Are they aware of any of it already?

Yes, some of the students are aware of the problem with 23 and me and I just let them visit about it, prior to that i had to bring it up.

As to Linux,yes, I talk about it before class. I start with Shoutcast music of which none have heard.
I also point out how Apple made a ballyhoo about giving their users some "free music stations" "carefully curated" which were from Shoutcase!
I always have some kind of music playing before class and will open different stations.
There "usually" is one student that has a laptop running Ubuntu but since the college went to the digital books for a lot of classes they are not using them in class but play games in the community room. Unfortunately, for now the students are opting for Windblows tablets so that the book's software doesn't produce formatting problems.
I usuallly start out the database discussion with a poster about the MAIZE gennome and kind of let it take it's own head.
So yes as to your questions, but not usually a YOU MUST KNOW THIS... but in a roundabout way and because of that they usually actually listen! lol

woodlikesthequestionssmoke

[TWPonKubuntu]

It's a sad commentary on society when we, as teachers, have to trick students into learning... I feel like a drug pusher: "The first one is free, after that you'll need to install this Open Source Software"...

[woodsmoke]

both sadness and lol about the software.

woody