Evolution is a very complex phenomenon, affected by millions of variables and difficult to control precisely. At the purely mechanical level, however, we understand it quite well. The Rice research examined how viruses and bacteria mutate by exchanging genes and gene sets. Then they came up with a formula for several key factors: recombination rate, mutation rate and fitness function. If you know any two of the factors for a given organism, you can figure out the third. That means you can create a drug that will manipulate one of the factors and create a very specific outcome.

One such outcome is called lethal mutagenesis. Using a designer drug, you increase the mutation rate so fast that the population undergoes what bioengineers call a "phase change" (they liken their formula in many ways to thermodynamics, hence the reference to phases of matter). Rice professor Michael Deem described the ultimate result:

"If the mutation, recombination or horizontal gene transfer rates are too high, the system delocalizes and gets spread all over sequence space."

I have no idea what that means, but I'm sure it isn't good news for the virus. It also makes for great sci-fi dialogue.

Handsome Smuggler: Watch your horizontal transfer rate, kid. You don't want to delocalize the system.
Adventuresome Farm Boy: Why not?
Handsome Smuggler: Then we'll end up spread all over sequence space.
Adventuresome Farm Boy: I made out with my sister.

Image by: hans s.

Forced evolution: Can we mutate viruses to death? [EurekAlert!]

Of course, we could take this in the exact opposite direction. How about a gene mod for blue skin? Maybe someone out there wants to osseointegrate an extra set of arms onto his torso. Right now, we're focused on replacing or repairing damaged parts, but how long before we start on the upgrades? This year we dealt with the question of whether an amputee athlete with prosthetic running legs had an unfair advantage over runners with just human legs. Are you feeling post-human yet? Image by: StudioCanal.

Surgery Will Put Dog With Amputated Leg Back On All Fours Again. [Science Daily]

Belcher told a rapt audience at the AAAS conference over the weekend about how she could create a liquid full of these altered viruses, dip a thin sheet of plastic into it, add a few more ingredients, and wind up with a translucent, ultra-thin battery. After working on this project for just over a year, her team got the battery to power an LED, and now they're scaling up to something that could power your next laptop or cell phone.

"Let's see what we can get biology to do for us," she said. "It's just a matter of giving biology new opportunities, new materials to work with." One audience member asked if Belcher is concerned about the viruses mutating and perhaps replicating on their own. Not possible, responded Belcher. The only mutations she's seen so far have been viruses reverting back to their old state (ie, making regular virus shells instead of battery components), and viruses making depolarized battery components.

So we won't be seeing a plague that turns your lithium ion batteries into piles of virus any time soon.

Biomolecular Materials Group [Angela Belcher's Lab]

According to a story in Reuters:

Researchers said on Friday the breakthrough opened up new ways to treat severe tissue damage and made the prospect of custom-made living spare parts for humans a step closer to reality. [Lead researcher Riitta Suuronen] and her colleagues . . . isolated stem cells from the patient's fat and grew them for two weeks in a specially formulated nutritious soup that included the patient's own blood serum.

In this case they identified and pulled out cells called mesenchymal stem cells — immature cells than can give rise to bone, muscle or blood vessels. When they had enough cells to work with, they attached them to a scaffold made out of a calcium phosphate biomaterial and then put it inside the patient's abdomen to grow for nine months. The cells turned into a variety of tissues and even produced blood vessels, the researchers said. The block was later transplanted into the patient's head and connected to the skull bone using screws and microsurgery to connect arteries and veins to the vessels of the neck.

Finnish Patient Gets New Jaw [Reuters]

Apparently, sperm tails contain their own energy-producing system that grabs glucose out of your blood and coverts it instantly to fuel. That special engine is why Cornell scientists are saying they want to model nanobots on sperm: spermbots will manufacture energy from their host bodies. Image courtesy of Azonano.com.

Sperm is the ideal model [The Daily Galaxy]