MODIFIED BACTERIUM · Bacteria Made to Order — Oversized Drop-Shoulder

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TEE-MED-PR-SYN-01-M-BK T-Shirt

Piece

MODIFIED BACTERIUM · Bacteria Made to Order Oversized Drop-Shoulder T-Shirt

$ 2,345.00

Description

A bacterium is reprogrammed to make inside the body what the patient does not produce, or to consume what is left over; in clinical trials since 2018, it is in phase 2. Printed here is that inserted genetic circuit.

A Author

Bacteria modificada

B Subject

Synthetic Biology

C Aesthetic

Diagram · Typographic

Exploration

In phenylketonuria the body does not break down an amino acid and it accumulates until it damages the brain. Diet is the only defence and it lasts a lifetime.

The proposal is to introduce into a gut bacterium the genetic circuit that does that job. It is swallowed, settles in the gut for a few hours and consumes the amino acid before it is absorbed.

The bacterium neither cures nor replaces any organ. It is a biochemical function administered in the form of a living organism, which is eliminated and has to be replaced.

The circuits carry containment switches: dependencies on an artificial nutrient, or genes that kill them outside the gut, so that they neither colonise nor pass on what has been inserted.

There are phase 2 trials in phenylketonuria and in hyperammonaemia. What decides whether this arrives is not the biology but what margin of containment a regulator accepts.

Details