Despite being fairly well established as a discipline, genetics is a science that has yet to reach its potential, both policymakers and the general population are extremely skeptical of it and, as a consequence, our society has setup several barriers to prevent its flourishing.

In this post I will try to imagine what the potential benefits of embracing genetics and bioengineering are for humanity, in the present as well as in the near future.

Gene editing and genetic engineering are well developed techniques that have been commercially available for a while. Despite this human genetic enhancements are almost completely unavailable and even for our domesticated species they are hard to come by.

A number of genetic diseases are well characterized and could be fixed with this techniques, this would give reproductive options for a lot of people as well as diminishing the frequency of morbid conditions in future generations (for whom this represent both an improvement in quality of life as well as a reduction in healthcare expenses).

A number of mutations that could constitute “genetic enhancements” are also known, most of these are aminoacid substitutions that can be performed with the editing of a single DNA base, here are some of them:

Several variations in the genes MSTN, ACTN3, MYG, EPO, VEGFC can significantly enhance athletic performance, knockout of the myostatin gene gives individuals skeletal muscles that grow naturally without exercise and can likely halt the loss of muscle mass and strength that comes with old age. Mutations in the control sequences of the IGF1 gene are known to also improve athletic performance as well as confer strong resistance to metabolic diseases (a very important cause of death in the developed world). A single substitution in the LRP5 sequence produces very strong bones that are believed to not weaken with age.

Knockout of the PRNP gene makes individuals completely immune to prion diseases. Prion diseases are caused by aggregation toxicity of the prion protein, these are conditions like mad cow disease, Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, Fatal Familial Insomnia etc. Since these conditions are exceptionally rare one might think they are not of great interest however I think certain characteristics make them useful target for weaponization, so the fact we can create complete immunity with a single edit is relevant. PRNP plays some role in short term memory formation but knockout animals do not seem to suffer any meaningful side effect.

Other single point mutations in the genes IFIH1 and SLC30A8 are associated with low incidence of diabetes and, similarly, mutations in APP are associated with low rate of Alzheimer while mutations in FUT2 and CCR5 are associated with resistance to viral infections.

Leaving morbidities, mutations in DEC2 generates a very interesting phenotype called supersleeper. These people can get away with getting a full rest with only a few hours of sleep per night, effectively giving them a lot of “extra life”.

Introducing new genetic material is possible with existing technologies though it is a bit more complicated than doing simple base editing. The LTNF gene gives Opossums immunity to snake venom, when injected in the blood of test animals the short peptide codified by the gene made them resistant to envenomation while all control animals died. 

Human have three opsin genes, one for each of the three fundamental colors we can see; certain animals, like birds, have four opsin genes and can see four basic colors (the fourth one is in the near-ultraviolet). Introducing this gene might give us the ability to see a fourth color-qualia, greatly increasing our visual experience of the world. 

The human mitochondrion has its own genome, a small circular piece of DNA that contains 13 genes. Moving these genes into the nucleus of the cell is an old idea that can help eradicate a number of medical conditions, as well as help living a longer and healthier life (decay of mtDNA is considered one of the causes of aging). These proteins are translated in the citosol anyway so moving them in the nucleus will not cause any side effects.

While existing technologies are more than enough to carry out the modifications that I just discussed, new technologies can unlock even more radical possibilities. When it comes to genetic engineering the “missing piece” is the capacity of assembling entire chromosomes in-vitro. If we had access to this technology any type of genetic editing will become available at no extra cost, as any editing will take place in-silico. The other necessary steps, like replacing and inserting new chromosomes into cells, are not that hard and have been done for decades. The longest human chromosome is 240 Mbp, right now we can create de-novo DNA fragments with a maximum length of about 20 kbp, so about 4 orders of magnitude short of target. Four orders of magnitude is a lot, however, technical advancements in several fields have experienced exponential growth for short periods in many cases. Unfortunately in the last decade or so almost no improvements have been made but I am confident that something will come.

The advent of this technology will create many possibilities like circumventing any kind of reproductive disease, introducing as many edits as we want as well as resurrecting a number of species that became extinct in the last 1 million year.

An interesting type of genetic modification that this technology makes possible is the idea of the genetic firewall. Basically, we can modify the genetic code Enigma machine-style, changing the correspondence between DNA triplets and aminoacids. A human with a modified genetic code would be completely immune to any viral disease; since, once a cell becomes infected, the virus would be unable to produce any protein needed for replication as its genetic information would be unreadable to the host (in most cases a virus would likely not even be able to infect a cell to begin with).

Others have discussed the possibility of greatly enhancing human intelligence with gene editing. I am somewhat skeptical of this as we don't know for sure to what extent these edits are just spurious correlations.

Still, there is considerable untapped potential in the field for human enhancements that is not being seriously considered by society at large. As technology continues to advance, it is important to strike a balance between the benefits and risks associated with its potential hostile use, however the current abandonment of its applications will probably create a even stronger shock when its benefits are finally captured.