The incredibly complex genetic codes of all living things on Earth are written with a simple four-letter alphabet: A, C, G and T. These letters are abbreviations for the four nucleotides that are the natural building blocks of DNA.
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The incredibly complex genetic codes of all living things on Earth are written with a simple four-letter alphabet: A, C, G and T. These letters are abbreviations for the four nucleotides that are the natural building blocks of DNA.
Hachimoji DNA, however, expands the natural genetic alphabet. Hachimoji means eight letters in Japanese and hachimoji DNA adds four new letters: B, P, S and Z.
The creation of hachimoji DNA is not merely a matter of inserting four new synthetic types of nucleotides into a string of DNA. The big scientific challenge is to ensure that the cell understands and follows the instructions given by this new code.
The first step towards overcoming this challenge, called DNA transcription, has been accomplished in laboratory conditions by the researchers who developed hachimoji DNA. But there is still a long and difficult research journey ahead.
Hachimoji DNA is a nascent technology and thus its applications are, at least for now, far off into the future. Currently, the thinking is to use hachimoji DNA to create microscopic organisms programmed to diagnose illnesses, other microscopic organisms to detect new viruses, and still others to produce useful proteins to be used for medicines.
Consider the following: insulin, the well-known medicine that can be life-changing for people who suffer from diabetes, is produced by using legions of microscopic organisms, bacteria to be exact, to replicate the human insulin gene. The same “production line” can be employed but with hachimoji-created micro-organisms, which can produce more complex cures.
The news about hachimoji DNA and other advances does not only point to a better future for humankind but also calls to mind concerns about possible, less desirable outcomes.
A popular theme in the sci-fi genre is the emergence of a dystopian society in which a genetically enhanced, elite class of humans, seeing themselves as superior, trample on the unenhanced underclass, which is made up of natural humans like us.
The moral question of these futuristic sci-fi dramas seems to be: As human societies already struggling with social inequality, should we go down the path of developing genetic technologies that may exacerbate the current inequalities?
Completely stopping some technological development may be impossible, given that consensus on such an issue and actual enforcement by all jurisdictions in the world are unlikely. If we accept that hachimoji DNA and other biotechnological developments are likely to continue apace at an international level, the question should rather be: How should South Afri