Mighty Mouse, for real, courtesy of gene therapy

[khafra]

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A guy at the University of Pennsylvania genetically manipulated a virus that, when injected into rats, carries a gene that dramatically increases IGF-1 production. They even designed it to stay in the target muscle, so it won't damage other organs.

How long 'til we get the homebrew version?

 

[MikeBU]

I work in a Gene Therapy Lab and 99% of any injected virus ends up in the liver. Target specification is pretty much the biggest reason gene therapy is not more useful right now, but it looks like it will in the near future (5-10 years).

 

[khafra]

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They even designed it to stay in the target muscle, so it won't damage other organs.

He said the technique was designed so that the IGF1 gene stays in the target muscle and does not move into the bloodstream where it could cause damage to other organs.

(from the article)


Or maybe 0 to zero years!
Cool to hear from someone that's involved personally in the same kind of research, though--if you get the target specification down like this guy says he did, and have some spare material, well... *wink, wink; nudge, nudge*