The title pretty much spells out the question. I’m curious about the physical process(es), not the biological/chemical process (although they may be the same…).
As I understand it, genes are tiny, tiny, tiny little buggers, strung out on chromosomes all stuffed inside the nuclii of cells.
How the hell do they get different (engineered) genes inside the nucleus of a cell which itself is quite small?
How do they get enough of them inside enough cells (production line involving skillions of cells) to do appreciable benefit?
I had a thread I started asking how DNA works - I can’t find it because searching on something short like “DNA” is hard to do.
IIRC, it goes something like this: within many/most of our various systems - e.g., bones, muscles, blood/circulatory, etc. - there is a constant cycle of cells wearing out and needing to be replaced. Think about losing and replacing skin and hair, or growing fingernails. The new cell generation happens within our cells and uses DNA - so the whole time we are alive, our DNA is being used throughout our bodies as the blueprint to create the new cells we need.
Over time, most (all?) cells get replaced - leading to the classic question “if you replace one cell at a time in a body, is it still the same body? If not, at what point is it different?” Anyway, if you introduce modified DNA that changes one or more of the genes in the DNA and can get that modified DNA to be used as the blueprint for new cells going forward, then all new cells will reflect that updated blueprint - and over time, pretty much every cell will end up with that new design…
IANA Scientist at all - this is an attempt to relate what I learned from that thread I can’t find. If a real scientist wants to chime in and critique my attempt, please do…
I understand the concept. As I mentioned in the OP I’m curious as to the PHYSICAL process. How are new/engineered/fucked-with genes actually, physically introduced to the person/body/whatever?
A lot of the studies use viruses as gene-delivery devices. Many viruses normally work by inserting their genetic material into the DNA of the host cell, then using it to make more baby viruses. Scientists try to engineer a virus that a)has the new genes that they want to insert, b)targets the cell type they’re looking to target (so a cystic fibrosis gene therapist might want to use a modified cold virus, which will infect cells in the lungs), and c) has the genes that actually make somebody sick removed. There are other techniques, but I believe this is the most common.
