{"id":17197,"date":"2024-11-25T15:00:07","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T16:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=17197"},"modified":"2024-11-25T16:23:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T16:23:53","slug":"dna-typewriters-can-record-a-cells-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=17197","title":{"rendered":"\u2018DNA Typewriters\u2019 Can Record a Cell\u2019s History"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Labs around the world are trying to turn cells into autobiographers, tracking their own development from embryos to adults.<\/p>\n

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Shortly after conception, a fertilized egg divides, becoming two. Then each of those cells splits, becoming four, and on and on. Over time, those lineages of cells grow distinct, giving rise to all the different organs and tissues in the human body and comprising as many as 36 trillion cells<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Scientists would love to understand the trajectory of each of those cells over time. \u201cIt\u2019s something that developmental biologists like me have dreamed of for over 100 years,\u201d said Alex Schier of the University of Basel in Switzerland. But the best they have managed has been taking snapshots of cells at different stages.<\/p>\n

Lacking that complete history, scientists still have much to learn about how, exactly, cells produce our organs, or how they heal wounds later in life. \u201cWe really only understand bits and pieces,\u201d said Tanja Stadler, a computational biologist at ETH in Zurich.<\/p>\n

Dr. Stadler\u2019s lab and others around the world are trying to turn cells into their own historians, as she and her colleagues described in the journal Nature Reviews Genetics<\/a> on Monday. Their engineered cells can insert distinctive bits of genetic material into their DNA. As the cells divide, those genetic bits turn into distinctive bar codes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The technology is also allowing cells to create a genetic record when they experience a notable event, such as receiving a signal from other cells or making a particular protein.<\/p>\n

Dr. Schier speculated that doctors might even someday inject sentinel cells into our bodies to track our changing health. \u201cI feel kind of sick now \u2014 did I have an infection three months ago? Did I have mercury poisoning seven months ago?\u201d Dr. Schier said. The answers could be found in the cellular history recorded by sentinel cells.<\/p>\n

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Labs around the world are trying to turn cells into autobiographers, tracking their own development from embryos to adults.Shortly after conception, a fertilized egg divides, becoming two. Then each of those cells splits, becoming four, and on and on. Over time, those lineages of cells grow distinct, giving rise to all the different organs and tissues in the human body and comprising as many as 36 trillion cells.Scientists would love to understand the trajectory of each of those cells over time. \u201cIt\u2019s something that developmental biologists like me have dreamed of for over 100 years,\u201d said Alex Schier of the University of Basel in Switzerland. But the best they have managed has been taking snapshots of cells at different stages.Lacking that complete history, scientists still have much to learn about how, exactly, cells produce our organs, or how they heal wounds later in life. \u201cWe really only understand bits and pieces,\u201d said Tanja Stadler, a computational biologist at ETH in Zurich.Dr. Stadler\u2019s lab and others around the world are trying to turn cells into their own historians, as she and her colleagues described in the journal Nature Reviews Genetics on Monday. Their engineered cells can insert distinctive bits of genetic material into their DNA. As the cells divide, those genetic bits turn into distinctive bar codes.The technology is also allowing cells to create a genetic record when they experience a notable event, such as receiving a signal from other cells or making a particular protein.Dr. Schier speculated that doctors might even someday inject sentinel cells into our bodies to track our changing health. \u201cI feel kind of sick now \u2014 did I have an infection three months ago? Did I have mercury poisoning seven months ago?\u201d Dr. Schier said. The answers could be found in the cellular history recorded by sentinel cells.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17199,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17197"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17200,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17197\/revisions\/17200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}