Re: The Future of Cloning

Well this is a rather interesting question. Here are a couple ideas. You
could look further into it and take it from there.  As you know, right now
none of these ideas are technically possible, and they might never be. There are
some great ideas out there that have potential to work in theory, but who
knows if they will ever work in a complex organism. But my guess is as good
as anyone else so here are my ideas for your questions. Most of these
answers are science fiction but have some sort of sound science background
that could be considered reasonable. I am stretching it a bit though.

1)"the way a defective clone is disrupted" Not quite sure what you mean and
I'm not quite sure this will ever be possible, but something like this is
currently being worked on. Gene therapy is basically what you are talking
about. It is the selective transfer of one piece of DNA with another with
the use of viruses Viruses infect certain cells and are naturally capable
of putting thier DNA in ours. In the case of gene therapy, the idea is to
take out or disrupt the bad gene and put in a good gene. This idea is
currently being worked on but the problem as of now is the proper insertion
in specific tissues and without negative effects on the organism. 

In an ideal world, I could see a mass of viruses, each cell or tissue
specific, and each carrying the ability to disrupt any gene you need. The
human genome has roughly 35,000 genes times an 'x' number of tissues times an
'x' number of cells. This would give you the variability to create any
disruption in DNA you like in a given tissue or type of cell.  That's only counting the genes, not the rest
of the DNA that we haven't a clue what it does.  (I'll talk about this more
later) 

The idea of genetic recombination (swapping out one DNA for another) is
widely used in biological research. We can make mice with deleted genes so the
ability to disrupt genes is not out of the question. Viruses are also used to insert DNA into cells. I'm 
sure you can build around that as a fundamental
technology.

2) I'm not sure if you are asking if one twin could be more suseptible than
another or if twins in general would be better hosts. I think with this
"technology" we have set up you really could create anything you'd like.

For instance, twins do not have the same fingerprints.  Therefore there
must be some form of genetic difference to warrant this. Genes (genotype)
will express proteins to show a result (phenotype, or what we see). When
you add in variables such as environment, chemicals, development, nutrition
things can change immensely.  

As I said before, there is a lot of DNA not being used as genes but is
still very essential for the organism. Some of this DNA is used to
regulate when genes turn off and on. The type of twins matter as well - identical or fraternal, this may
increase your ability to make one twin more vulerable to gene disruption
than another. Here's one idea:

You could think about the differences in the "non-coding" regions of DNA
between twins and/or other people. There is no evidence for this, but since
this is science fiction, why not! From my answer in number 1, you could
have a virus with DNA specific to this difference in one and not the other.
That's one idea. Many of these "non-coding" regions in DNA are highly
repeated so targeting a specific sequence may not be easy. One possibility is to add chemical 
modifiations to the DNA. For instance, addition of methyl groups,
or acetyl groups on one twin's DNA and not the other. Therefore the sequence could be
the same but modifications on the DNA could be different and that is what
you target. 

3) The first thing that comes to mind are the clones and rapid clone development in Star Wars. If you 
want to keep any scientific credibility you will have to keep in mind the natural process of
development. You could argue that with the right dose of chemicals you
could speed this up and keep the clone aging until you want them to be a
certain age. One idea you could play with is how much of an effect
chemicals really have in our reality.  Our bodies are basically made up of
a bunch of chemicals responding to other chemicals.

When you think of it, all of our actions, emotions and other such
experiences all turn into chemical signals in the brain. The idea would be to have
brain inducing chemicals to make the clone "experience" events you want it
to. I could imagine (hypothetically of course, I don't think this would
ever happen) that with enough brain research scientists could figure out
what chemicals cells either produce or respond to when certain emotions are
felt. It will probably be a large number in variable doses. But, if you had
the answer to that puzzle then all you'd have to do it control the dose of
a specific mixture of chemicals given to the clone during development to
create a memory of something you wish. It's all chemistry and illusion
anyhow. Think of all the optical illusions and psychotropic drugs out there
making people think something happening that really isn't. I think this
idea is scientifically plausible in the world of 2250.

4) The only thing I can think of is the idea of chromosomal engineering. In
science now we can engineer small pieces of circular DNA (like the ones
bacteria use) that act like a chromosome, can be regulated to express and
shut off gene production and such. We use this sort of technology all the
time. In fact, virus production and vaccine production is just like this.

I could imagine in the world of 2250, that the sequence of all the DNA of a
person could be known, as well as where that DNA is found, and on which
chromosome (the genes have already been placed on each chromosome so this
has already been done). The biggest problems now is what does the "non
gene" or "non-coding" DNA do and what are the functions of all the genes we
know.  Think of it like an entire genetic or chromosomal blueprint.

With that information you can engineer which ever genes and controls for
those genes (from whomever) for whoever you'd want. Building a chromosome
would be like building a building. You just have to know where stuff should
go, how it should be organised and so on. Most likely impossible, but this
is a couple hundred years away. We are less than 60 yrs into the genetic
age and look at how much we've already discovered.

Think of it this way. We all have the same genes in our cells. Our DNA is
99% identical. So why are we all so different? My best example can be found
in music. All music contains essentially 7 notes (not counting sharps and
flats). But think of all the variation found in music. It is quite easy to
pick out country from rap! With only the same 7 notes, how is it different?

When are the notes played? What notes are played together? When do notes
increase in tempo and decrease in tempo as well as increase and decrease in
volume.  You can think of genes acting the same way. With music you only
have 7 notes to work with. In life, you have 35,000 notes (genes) to play
with.  That is how I see it.

If you engineer the right chromosome, somehow incorporating which ever
switches are unique to that person. Each person has the ability to group
together and play the same genes differently. That is most likely found in
the "non-coding" DNA and our environment. If you can link some of those
factors from one person with factors from another person you could argue
the ability to create hybrid clones. How you would deal with differences of
each, emotions and responses and stuff would be up to you.

I think if you have a blueprint, you could engineer anything you want.
Putting together a chromosome of genes with their personal controls (unique
gene from one person or another) could be hypothically possible. 


Just my ideas, email me if you have any questions or would like to speak
further, I think its an interesting idea.

Good luck and I hope that I helped you.
Matt
mkinseth@ucsd.edu