[ExI] crispr question

[Anders Sandberg]

On 2016-04-07 06:01, spike wrote:
>
> This CRISPR technology sounds really cool, but I lack the technical 
> understanding to know, so I am asking our local hipsters please.
>
> As you understand it and extrapolate to a reasonable estimate of your 
> lifespan, have we any reason to think that if we had an organism’s 
> complete genome, we could synthesize that file into a DNA strand using 
> CRISPR or any other reasonably foreseeable technology?
>

CRISPR doesn't involve synthesizing strands, just putting in or removing 
sequences at particular spots.

Current synthesis mainly make short strands that have to be ligated 
together into genomes; this is cumbersome and limits it to short 
genomes. However, I have heard that there are technologies emerging that 
look like they could build entire human-sized genomes.

-- 
Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University

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