# Man translates holy books into DNA and injects it into himself **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 19, 2018, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368 "2018-12-19T14:53:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/1 "2018-12-19T14:53:30Z")
This is insane. > **[Student branded an 'idiot' for INJECTING religious books into his legs](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6507937/High-school-student-branded-idiot-INJECTING-religious-books-legs.html)** > > Adrien Locatelli, from Grenoble in France, converted the religious texts into DNA code and used the sequence to build proteins in a lab, which he then injected into his thighs. > [@](#): > > A high school student has been called an ‘idiot’ after injecting himself with biological forms of parts of the Bible and Koran in a risky DIY experiment. He had no idea what kinds of proteins these new genes might make. ---
**Author:** ![ohiomstr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/82dd89/32.png) [@ohiomstr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ohiomstr2)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/2 "2018-12-19T15:23:04Z")
> **[Demon with a Glass Hand](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_with_a_Glass_Hand)** > > "Demon with a Glass Hand" is an episode of the American television series The Outer Limits, the second to be based on a script by Harlan Ellison, which Ellison wrote specifically with actor Robert Culp in mind for the lead role. It originally aired on October 17, 1964, and was the fifth episode of the second season. In 2009, TV Guide ranked "Demon with a Glass Hand" #73 on its list of the 100 Greatest Episodes. > "Through all the legends of ancient peoples — Assyrian, Babylonian, Sumerian, Semitic... [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/QXQ0KhTM3Ps/hqdefault.jpg "The Outer Limits Demon with a Glass Hand Ending") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXQ0KhTM3Ps) ---
**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/3 "2018-12-19T15:47:32Z")
It’s not going to produce any proteins or persist in any quantity for more than a few hours or maybe a day before being degraded. The swelling the student experienced is primarily due to their injection technique, choice of buffer, and any contaminants. Bare DNA injected into the blood will not enter any cell nucleus and will not be transcribed, notwithstanding it’s extremely unlikely a valid enhancer and promoter sequence was present. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/4 "2018-12-19T16:05:44Z")
I’m not very knowledgeable about this but the text near the top of the article mentions an rAAV vector and a cyclic peptide. Wiki says that recombinant AAV is used to insert genes into mammalian cells. > **[Recombinant AAV mediated genome engineering](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recombinant_AAV_mediated_genome_engineering)** > > Recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) based genome engineering is a genome editing platform centered on the use of recombinant AAV vectors that enables insertion, deletion or substitution of DNA sequences into the genomes of live mammalian cells. The technique builds on Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies' Nobel Prize–winning discovery that homologous recombination (HR), a natural hi-fidelity DNA repair mechanism, can be harnessed to perform precise genome alterations in mice. rAAV mediated ge... > [@](#): > > Recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) based genome engineering is a genome editing platform centered on the use of rAAV vectors that enables insertion, deletion or substitiution of DNA sequences into the genomes of live mammalian cells. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/5 "2018-12-19T16:56:46Z")
I smell a SyFy movie in the making. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/6 "2018-12-19T17:01:44Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > I smell a SyFy movie in the making. Yeah, made by The Asylum folks for authenticity. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/7 "2018-12-19T17:11:26Z")
_Sharknado VS The Three-Headed Messiah At Lake Placid_ ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/8 "2018-12-19T17:17:33Z")
^ …in 3D! ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/9 "2018-12-19T17:46:29Z")
If he had translated, “Watership Down,” and injected it, could he have turned into a rabbit? ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/10 "2018-12-19T18:05:06Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > If he had translated, “Watership Down,” and injected it, could he have turned into a rabbit? what a hare brained idea. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/11 "2018-12-19T18:36:15Z")
…and it begins. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/12 "2018-12-19T18:47:18Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > I smell a SyFy movie in the making. It should be based on the original short story > **[Review: Written in Blood, by Chris Lawson](https://simonpetrie.wordpress.com/reviewing/review-written-in-blood-by-chris-lawson/)** > > (MirrorDanse 2003  ISBN 0958658390) (Review first published on the Australian Specfic in Focus {ASif!\] site, February 2008. Republished on ASif! as a ‘Retro Review’ in November 2012, an… “Written in Blood sounds, from the title, as though it should be a zombie gore-fest. But Lawson writes exclusively about characters with brains, and “Blood” is in actuality a prescient pre-9/11 story of anti-Muslim sentiment and prejudice in Australia, seen through the eyes of Zada, a Muslim girl whose father agrees to an experimental procedure of “bloodwriting”, coding the white blood cells of his body with a translation, in redundant DNA, of the text of the Qur’an. It’s one of the collection’s stronger stories.” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/13 "2018-12-19T18:53:02Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > I smell a SyFy movie in the making. Super hero Sura Boy. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/14 "2018-12-19T18:55:11Z")
How scientific is a translation of a Holy Book into DNA?! ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/15 "2018-12-19T18:56:19Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > It should be based on the original short story > > [Review: Written in Blood, by Chris Lawson | Simon Petrie](https://simonpetrie.wordpress.com/reviewing/review-written-in-blood-by-chris-lawson/) > > “Written in Blood sounds, from the title, as though it should be a zombie gore-fest. But Lawson writes exclusively about characters with brains, and “Blood” is in actuality a prescient pre-9/11 story of anti-Muslim sentiment and prejudice in Australia, seen through the eyes of Zada, a Muslim girl whose father agrees to an experimental procedure of “bloodwriting”, coding the white blood cells of his body with a translation, in redundant DNA, of the text of the Qur’an. It’s one of the collection’s stronger stories.” Thanks for linking to that – that was my immediate thought. And that was a terrific story. ---
**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/16 "2018-12-19T21:20:20Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > I’m not very knowledgeable about this but the text near the top of the article mentions an rAAV vector and a cyclic peptide. Wiki says that recombinant AAV is used to insert genes into mammalian cells. > [Recombinant AAV mediated genome engineering - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recombinant_AAV_mediated_genome_engineering) I didn’t see any text at the top of the article, but found a tweet screenshot later down. The (very short) “article” the student submitted to OSF only describes injection of a viral vector (DNA, a plasmid), not a packaged virus. It does have a promoter, but without the viral package, it isn’t going into any cell. They injected a short peptide fragment into their other thigh. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/17 "2018-12-19T21:33:07Z")
Anyone else old enough to be a little amazed that the technology for mucking about with DNA is advanced and simple enough that a high school student was able to do this? ---
**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/18 "2018-12-19T21:45:36Z")
DNA synthesis has been around for a very long time and improvements in the synthesis process have made it routine for labs to order constructs to design instead of laboriously cloning and assembling from fragments themselves. What’s happening now is synthetic biology houses are now cheap enough for individuals to afford their services. I think these companies will soon be pressured to limit their customers to businesses and universities, in much the same way major chemical suppliers (Sigma, _et al_.) don’t take individual orders. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/19 "2018-12-19T22:08:44Z")
> [@glee](#): > > How scientific is a translation of a Holy Book into DNA?! It’s really difficult, as you have to spell all the words with only four letters. Genesis: “Tg ta caggatg tac ta cagt…” It loses a lot in the translation ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2018, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368/20 "2018-12-20T12:34:15Z")
Isn’t Stewie Griffin a little old for high school? Was he held back a couple of grades or something? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-translates-holy-books-into-dna-and-injects-it-into-himself/826368.md?page=2)