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I have read several accounts transplant recipients who suddenly develop new appetites for certain foods. In one instance, the patient was able to discuss this with a donor family - who relayed that the donor had always loved said food. Other changes in behavior have been noted by recipients - none of them negative. Of course, when organs are transplanted there is a whole host of new genetic information that is transplanted as well - so the experiment is already in progress, and has been for some time. ---------- God bless Mary Ann (CG Jamie 67/27 with PD) www.bentwillowfarm.org Subject: GENE THERAPY: Going too Far? > It's time to stir up some of those stagnant brain cells. If so moved (and > without argument), please respond with your views on this: > (Excerpts are listed below - follow the link for the entire article) > Peggy > > http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...062802046.html > > Scientists Report DNA Transplant > Organisms Adopt Donor Traits > > By Rick Weiss > Washington Post Staff Writer > Friday, June 29, 2007; Page A03 > > Scientists said yesterday that they had transplanted a microbe's entire, > tangled mass of DNA into a closely related organism, a delicate operation > that cleanly transformed the recipient from one species into the other. > * * * > "This is equivalent to changing a Macintosh computer into a PC by > inserting > a new piece of [PC] software," said study leader J. Craig Venter, chief > executive of Synthetic Genomics, a Rockville company racing to be the > first > to create fully synthetic, replicating cells. > > The success confirms that chromosomes can survive transplantation intact > and > literally rewrite the identity and occupation of the cells they move into. > That is a crucial finding for scientists who hope to make novel life forms > by packing synthetic chromosomes into hollow, laboratory-grown cells. > * * * * > The total identity makeover, described in yesterday's online edition of > the > journal Science, is a modern version of work done in the 1940s, when > Rockefeller University scientists moved DNA from one strain of a bacterial > species to another, causing a change that was passed to its offspring. > That > work is enshrined in history books as the first proof that DNA is the > chemical carrier of genetic information. > > Similarly, scientists at Harvard University earlier this month reported > they > had performed "whole genome" transplants from mouse cells into fertilized > mouse eggs, a move that reprogrammed those eggs to behave differently. > > But the new work, done at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, is > the > first in which the entire genetic load from one species has been > transferred > to another species "naked" -- without the cumbersome protein coatings that > usually envelop DNA and can get in scientists' way. > > Moreover, the size of the transplanted genome, about 1 million genetic > letters, or "bases," is large. That offers hope that complicated genetic > programs requiring lots of DNA code will be transplantable. > * * * * > The organisms he is working with do not cause disease, he said, and could > be > modified so they cannot survive outside the laboratory. > > The DNA transplants involve chemical washes that gently clean the donor > DNA, > and other washes that make the recipient's outer membrane porous, so the > new > DNA can enter. > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: > mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn