On Thu, 26 Dec 2002 16:57:30 GMT, Larry Caldwell
wrote:

In article ,
says...
Instead of screwing the world's poor with nightmares like the
"Terminator Gene,"

The terminator gene is not being deployed. This decision was made two
years ago. You are a bit out of date.

wouldn't it be great if the biotech firms could
come up with things like:
1) Splice together the bottom of a carrot and the top of a
cabbage.

Isn't this known as the beet? Beet greens are known as chard, and it is
quite a tasty and nutritious vegetable. Beet bottoms are, of course,
known as beets, and are also a tasty and nutritious vegetable.

2) Join together salt marsh plants with rice.
These two would go a long way to relieve world hunger.

This has been done, and work is continuing. Many of the vegetables in
the Middle East, particularly, are grown from salt resistant strains.
and droght resistent as well.

Then for disease:
3) Develop a virus that attacks cancer cells.

This is probably not necessary or desirable, but viruses are showing
great promise for gene therapy for diseases like cystic fibrosis.

Actually, this is being done (the first experiments were done in
1988). There are several published clinical trials that utilize
various viruses including adenovirus and herpesvirus for this purpose.
There are quite a few people walking around today who have had their
lives extened by such viruses. There have also been some deaths, but
remember that only terminally ill pateints who did not respond to
othet therapies are enrolled in the trials.


4) Develop other viruses that attack infectous bacteria.

Bacteria would quickly develop resistant strains to any virus that wasn't
100% lethal.

This is also happening right now. The viruses employed are
genetically engineered bacteriophage. There has been some moderate
success in experimental systems. This is actually an old idea that
has seen a resergence. We really do need new treatments as there have
not been any new antibiotics in over 20 years. The bugs are winning.

No, I'm not some kind of Pollyanna, I'm usually very cynical.And some
of these ideas may be naive, I am not a biologist. But I wanted to
offer people something nice to think about for Christmas. Have a merry
one, and feel free to add to the list.