Will the Asimolar Conference on Geo-Engineering bring us the same overwhelming changes that the Asimolar Conference on Recombinant DNA brought back in '75 ???
Recombinant DNA did not solve Cancer or AIDS as was expected
Gene Therapy applications are no where near perfect
- Short-lived nature of gene therapy –Problems with integrating therapeutic DNA into the genome and the rapidly dividing nature of many cells prevent gene therapy from achieving any long-term benefits. Patients will have to undergo multiple rounds of gene therapy.
- Immune response – The risk of stimulating the immune system in a way that reduces gene therapy effectiveness is always a possibility.
- Viruses, the carrier of choice in most gene therapy studies, present a variety of potential problems to the patient —toxicity, immune and inflammatory responses, and gene control and targeting issues. In addition, there is always the fear that the viral vector, once inside the patient, may recover its ability to cause disease.
- Chance of inducing a tumor (insertional mutagenesis) - If the DNA is integrated in the wrong place in the genome, for example in a tumor suppressor gene, it could induce a tumor.
Viral gene therapy technology could "theoretically" be applied to create "smart" biological weapons. These weapons would target groups or individuals based on their general or particular DNA pattern and use the recognition of said pattern to trigger either a naturally occurring or genetically engineered "designer" disease.
In fact we can thank Recombinant DNA for genetically modified foods, chimera organisms , and such wonderful inventions as Bovine Growth Hormone
What then will Asimolar 2.0 bring forth for Geo Engineering?
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