Harvard Medical School
We develop technology for reading and writing genomes. Four mutations can increase bacterial radiation resistance 100,000-fold. Is this generalizable to human cells? Low-gravity bone loss might be prevented in humans with increased bone density mutations (LRP5). Pain insensitive humans (SCN9A mutations) inspire developing regulatable variants. Combined with elimination of microbes (+ vaccines) could reduce payload needs of surgery and cleaning. What minimal biospheres suffice for recycling food and materials (including self-replicating manufacturing). Given diverse target environments, what is the minimal (relativistic) transport time to nearby stars of cells capable of making complex structures like radio transmitters?
Email
arep.med.harvard.edu/gmc/email.html
Websites
Publications
Rogers JK, Guzman CD, Taylor ND, Raman S, Anderson K, Church GM (2015) Synthetic biosensors for precise gene control and real-time monitoring of metabolites. Nucleic Acids Research. PMID: 26152303
Church GM, Regis E (2012) Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves 288 pages. Basic Books, publisher.
Drukier A, Freese K, Spergel D, Cantor C, Church G, Sano T (2012) New Dark Matter Detectors using DNA for Nanometer Tracking ArXiv. 29-Jun-2012
Yaung SJ, Church GM, Wang HH (2013) Recent Progress in Engineering Human-associated Microbiomes. Methods Mol Biol. 2014;1151:3-25. PMID: 24838875