Hacking The Evolution

Let's Learn A Fact

By HazraelPublished 9 months ago • 3 min read

As you all know protein is just a tools that cells use to do their job. They doing that kind of job pretty well. Right now we have advance technology that can help us in the future. We are talking about the new tools that need to be invented, one that would let a cell do something it normally wouldn't such as rewrite its own DNA in a way that you controlled. Well there is a new way to develope a new tools. It is called evolution. Evolution doing a pretty good job for now.

But we are human. Of course we want much better solution than evolution. But why we want something better rather than depends on evolution? The answer is the evolution process is really slow compare what we have discovered. Evolution that are incrementally better at surviving than their ancestors over hundreds generation. But "better for survival" isn't something that you can choose but adapt to your environment.

Evolution take the form of random DNA mutations which turn out to be helpful. Now, when I say random you better believe it because it is really difficult to predict the outcome or which one will happen. With directed evolution gives that natural process a big nudge in the right direction.

Here is how it's work

1) Speed up time by using viruses which reproduce much faster than human cells allowing you to get through hundreds of generations in just couple of days.

2) You have to create an environment in which those viruses can only reproduce if they possess tool that you are looking for even if that tool normally wouldn't help them survive in the wild. You are essentially creating a new set of selective pressures that are totally artificial. You can say semi artificial.

3) Speed up the rate of happy accidents. If there are DNA mutations happening per generation inside a box versus outside of it then the things living inside that box will evolve much faster. Provided that the mutation isn't so high that you would kill them all.

It is kind like warp drive to shorten the time of evolution but at the same time point toward a specific goal that you can control. With directed evolution you end up creating new molecular tools without having to go to the trouble of designing and troubleshooting them by yourself.

Just walk into the lab say hi to the other scientist and push the button to start the machine and the viruses get to work evolving for you. David Liu's lab has been using this technique to generate new proteins that are capable of editing DNA in extremely precise and specific ways. This is a huge deal because I think this will change the field of medicine forever.

Another question from you guys is who is Dr. David Liu?.

Scroll down and you will find the answer.

A doctor named David Liu has become one of the most important human in the world right now. He is already hacking the evolution and create a new technology for medicine field and it is sounds like a science fiction. He create 3 separate DNA editing technologies that are safer and more efficient than the previous tech and his secret weapon is a technology called directed evolution.

A few days ago David Liu won the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.This prize is a huge win for the field of DNA editing and how it can be used to make better medicine. The Howard Hugh Medical Institute (HHMI). He was awarded the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for developing two gene-editing technologies – known as base editing and prime editing – which enable the correction or replacement of virtually any genetic mutation, including those that cause countless human genetic diseases.