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FDA approves a CRISPR-based medicine for treatment of sickle cell disease

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Re: FDA approves a CRISPR-based medicine for treatment of sickle cell disease

#171

Lots of AI content recently (and I am working on AI-adjacent stuff myself lol), but I am most excited for upcoming medical changes. Cure every disease, then let people have designer bodies if they like.

You might enjoy Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future if that idea is appealing to you. Very curious execution of a disease-free bio-tech (organ-ic-tech?) future.

I'm a big Cronenberg fan but I haven't seen this one (these ones? as there seem to be two). Would you recommend the 1970 or the 2022 version?

Re: FDA approves a CRISPR-based medicine for treatment of sickle cell disease

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which is why this gene has not been bred out of the population over time. Is that why? Or is it just the people with it aren’t sick enough to die before procreating?

It's a recessive/heterozygous thing. If you get the gene from neither parent, you're vulnerable to malaria. If you get the gene from either parent, you're immune to malaria and don't get sickle cell. If you get the gene from both parents, you get sickle cell. A hypothetical future person who's going to be born in an area with a lot of malaria would really want exactly one parent with sickle cell and one parent lackin…

(You already know this but for the general audience)

The train doesn't make you immune to malaria but it does increase resistance after infection.

Re: FDA approves a CRISPR-based medicine for treatment of sickle cell disease

#173
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the cancers were caused by the chemotherapy conditioning regimen for the treatment, not Lyfgenia itself. I am certain some media group is going to conveniently leave this part out of the title of their article, and surely no one is gonna waste time reading the actual article and the rumors will take off.

The article says "patients must undergo a preparatory treatment with a chemotherapy drug to remove any native stem cells that might remain in their bone marrow." It doesn't make much difference to the patient if it's the Lyfgenia itself or the chemo drug, if the chemo drug is a requirement. Right?

[deleted]

Re: FDA approves a CRISPR-based medicine for treatment of sickle cell disease

#174
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the cancers were caused by the chemotherapy conditioning regimen for the treatment, not Lyfgenia itself. I am certain some media group is going to conveniently leave this part out of the title of their article, and surely no one is gonna waste time reading the actual article and the rumors will take off.

The article says "patients must undergo a preparatory treatment with a chemotherapy drug to remove any native stem cells that might remain in their bone marrow." It doesn't make much difference to the patient if it's the Lyfgenia itself or the chemo drug, if the chemo drug is a requirement. Right?

I was thinking more that it could poison the reputation of gene therapy by causing folks to falsely associate cancer with gene therapy. And that false stigma could carry on even if one day chemo was no longer needed.

Re: FDA approves a CRISPR-based medicine for treatment of sickle cell disease

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might enjoy Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future if that idea is appealing to you. Very curious execution of a disease-free bio-tech (organ-ic-tech?) future.

I'm a big Cronenberg fan but I haven't seen this one (these ones? as there seem to be two). Would you recommend the 1970 or the 2022 version?

Sorry, I wasn't even aware of 1970.

They are apparently unrelated, it is 2022 that I was referring to.

Re: FDA approves a CRISPR-based medicine for treatment of sickle cell disease

#176
post #120

Ohalo (the company Dave Friedberg is now CEO of) recently got approval for a potato edited by CRISPR: > Ohalo had two RSRs under consideration this year for its potato, one which focuses on higher concentrations of beta carotene – enhancing the overall health and nutrition value of the potato – and another which results in reduced glucose and fructose content in the potato, which, according to Ohalo, will reduce the…

I would have bred them for more potato protein. It's a very close meat protein substitute by essential amino acids. Might be why it tastes so good. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6245118/ >Of the ten plant-based proteins included in the current analysis, potato protein is the only protein source containing the WHO/FAO/UNU requirements for all essential amino acids. Thus, when consuming potato protein as…

1. Soy, brown rice, pea, corn, and potato all hit their EAA/total protein cut-off.

2. I don't see how amino acid % of total protein is a useful way to gauge a food's protein especially in this context. Wouldn't you want to look at protein per calorie or EAA per calorie?

For example the paper's chart might make you think that you should eat potatoes and corn if you want to maximize plant-based protein, but that's not the case at all.

- 500 calories of potatoes boiled: 10g protein (650g of food)

- 500 calories of rib-eye steak: 54g protein (200g of food)

- 500 calories of soy chunks (TVP): 75g protein (btw hits all EAA objectives for the day) (150g of food)

- 500 calories of wheat gluten (seitan): 101g protein (135g of food)

Potatoes are dense in other nutrients and a great part of a healthy diet, but you definitely wouldn't use potatoes as a "meat protein substitute". Even broccoli is 3x as protein dense as potatoes.

On the other hand, seitan, tofu, and TVP are the trifecta of plant-based protein that can actually substitute for meat.

Re: FDA approves a CRISPR-based medicine for treatment of sickle cell disease

#177
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I meant the premium for a specific person is not related to their expected loss. For example, if you carelessly drive and get into car collisions where you are at fault, your premiums go up, because your expected loss goes up. In health “insurance”, it does not matter what you do, because your premiums are not based on your expected health costs. Hence it is more akin to a tax (or subsidy).

You're really not understanding this. That's got nothing to do with the insurance model. That's just a regulatory thing. All those choices do is change the specific population that gets insured in a single pool, such that their specific computed premiums are different. But for ANY such population, the total premiums paid == the total loss outflow + a reasonable profit. And you can tell that's true because the account…

> All those choices do is change the specific population that gets insured in a single pool, such that their specific computed premiums are different. But for ANY such population, the total premiums paid == the total loss outflow + a reasonable profit. And you can tell that's true because the accounting for those companies appears in their SEC filings.

I do not dispute this. As I wrote in a sibling comment:

>Insurance and tax/wealth redistribution is a spectrum.

Re: FDA approves a CRISPR-based medicine for treatment of sickle cell disease

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a big Cronenberg fan but I haven't seen this one (these ones? as there seem to be two). Would you recommend the 1970 or the 2022 version?

Sorry, I wasn't even aware of 1970. They are apparently unrelated, it is 2022 that I was referring to.

Excellent, thanks!

Re: FDA approves a CRISPR-based medicine for treatment of sickle cell disease

#179
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would have bred them for more potato protein. It's a very close meat protein substitute by essential amino acids. Might be why it tastes so good. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6245118/ >Of the ten plant-based proteins included in the current analysis, potato protein is the only protein source containing the WHO/FAO/UNU requirements for all essential amino acids. Thus, when consuming potato protein as…

1. Soy, brown rice, pea, corn, and potato all hit their EAA/total protein cut-off. 2. I don't see how amino acid % of total protein is a useful way to gauge a food's protein especially in this context. Wouldn't you want to look at protein per calorie or EAA per calorie? For example the paper's chart might make you think that you should eat potatoes and corn if you want to maximize plant-based protein, but that's not…

> Wouldn't you want to look at protein per calorie or EAA per calorie?

PDCAAS is a reasonable standard to use, pro-rated against total calories.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_Digestibility_Correc...

Re: FDA approves a CRISPR-based medicine for treatment of sickle cell disease

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might enjoy Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future if that idea is appealing to you. Very curious execution of a disease-free bio-tech (organ-ic-tech?) future.

I just wanna be able to digest plastic

Speaking of digesting random things, I found myself bored in the shoe section of some store (I wanna say Nordstroms), and I was curious if I could eat the leather shoes. Beef is beef, right? Apparently you cannot digest leather due to the chemicals involved in the curing process.
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