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Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

lanternbioworks.com

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Re: Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

#91

Post by imjonse »

nemo44x wrote: post #52
dgreensp wrote: post #23

Charging $20,000 for a dose? Really?

What’s a fair price? Spending well over $20k on dental work over a lifetime is easy for many people. Adjust for inflation and it’s a steal. Cavities often lead to eventual root canals which require a crown which one day will probably require an extraction and a dental post and prosthetic tooth. That is probably around $8k or more for a single tooth at todays rates.

If this is such a revolutionary technology and it is cheap to mass produce, it should be like water fluoridation and similar state funded measures that increase overall population health. I am not arguing that $20k is more than regular dental work's cost over a lifetime, in the US at least, but that it's because dental work is so expensive is why oral health is so bad worldwide,Lifestyle, sugar consumtion and the like notwithstanding.

Re: Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

#92

Post by irdc »

midnitewarrior wrote: post #70

> "to produce ethanol instead of cavity-causing lactic acid" So, brush your teeth and have ethanol in your mouth forever? I'm curious if this would be of high enough concentrations to show up on a breathalyzer, or if it would cause problems for people in recovery from alcohol or drugs.

Don't forget alcohol is also a carcinogenic.

Re: Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

#93

Post by gene91 »

fdye wrote: post #69

So within the existing population today there exist individuals who essentially never get cavities. The hypothesis for this has been 1. they don't eat sugar, or only fibrous foods, etc. 2. They have a genetic difference that builds stronger enamel or similar. I have never heard of anyone discussing bacteria in the mouth as a possible difference. Be interested to see if there is a natural strand that some people have…

A dental hygienist (those people who do maintenance cleaning at dentist’s offices) told me that saliva quality is key to cavity and periodontal health. The ability of keep all teeth moist prevents plaque/tartar build up. I don’t know how true that is, but this at least provide an alternative hypothesis to the two that you listed.

Re: Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

#96

Post by [deleted] »

queuebert wrote: post #80

The FDA requirements for the original clinical trial were wild: "...the FDA required them to find a cohort of 300 healthy 18-30 year olds who lived alone, not near a school zone, and had fully removable teeth." I can see why this makes sense, but no wonder they failed at enrolling the cohort.

[deleted]

Re: Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

#97

Post by prepend »

burkaman wrote: post #59
crazygringo wrote: post #26

This is certainly an interesting idea, but there's absolutely no way for anyone to judge whether the claim on this page is bulletproof true, something plausible worth researching more, or just total nonsense. But the fact that there isn't a single link to any scientific paper or evidence whatsoever, or even a single person's name linked to the site (or source of funding or anything ), makes me assume this is just spa…

Yeah, if it's in "patent hell and FDA hell" there should be applications and evidence of that online, right?

Patent hell should be over if this was invented in 1985.

Re: Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

#98

Post by smoldesu »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #78
fdye wrote: post #69

So within the existing population today there exist individuals who essentially never get cavities. The hypothesis for this has been 1. they don't eat sugar, or only fibrous foods, etc. 2. They have a genetic difference that builds stronger enamel or similar. I have never heard of anyone discussing bacteria in the mouth as a possible difference. Be interested to see if there is a natural strand that some people have…

I'm 40 years old. Never had cavities. I eat plenty of sugar.

Yeah, it's always baffled me. Growing up I ate snacks and sugar fiendishly, but only ever had maybe one or two cavities in 2nd grade or so.

I had another friend who got cavities on an almost yearly basis. What was really fascinating was how boring her diet was; I never saw her eat anything more complex than a peanut butter sandwich or cheese pizza. She brushed, flossed and mouthwashed every day but could never get ahead of it. Meanwhile I went through all of middle and high school without any major dental work besides getting my wisdom teeth pulled.

It's all very odd, and my personal experiences have also led me to believe that diet plays a smaller role than we might think. I could be wrong though, I'm willing to defer to the most reasonable explanation.

Re: Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

#99

Post by mrosett »

teddyh wrote: post #10

> stuck in patent hell […] for decades Patents only last for 20 years.

That’s the freedom-to-operate side. But “Patent hell” could also be the lack of clear IP that would allow a commercializer to capture a return on developing this. Not much incentive to spend tens of millions on trials if at the of the process the product can be sold by anyone.

Re: Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

#100

Post by Someone »

crazygringo wrote: post #26

This is certainly an interesting idea, but there's absolutely no way for anyone to judge whether the claim on this page is bulletproof true, something plausible worth researching more, or just total nonsense. But the fact that there isn't a single link to any scientific paper or evidence whatsoever, or even a single person's name linked to the site (or source of funding or anything ), makes me assume this is just spa…

I didn’t look at that Google drive, but Google search gave me:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12369203

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caries_vaccine

As a layman, I would be concerned about trying to control a bacterium called Streptococcus mutans, as that, to me, signals “this thing mutates rapidly”.

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