Re: [alife-boston] Re: December meeting at Harvard Medical School.

[David Croll]

Sounds good to me! While I am interested in ALife and technology as
they relate to carbon based life and theoretical biology, I also have
a long-standing interest in science policy issues and welcome
discussion of social and economic aspects of biotechnologies. I think
that discussing these topics is worth our time.

David H. Croll
Professor Physics and Chemistry
Chemistry and Biochemistry Program
Center for Science and Technology
Regis College
Weston, MA 02493

----- Original Message -----
From: "ASW" <alexan...@gmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, December 1, 2004 4:24 pm
Subject: [alife-boston] Re: December meeting at Harvard Medical School.

>
> Inspired by the heated discussion with Nevin Summers at NECSI, I
would
> like to talk in December (at HMS) about my efforts to find new
> businessmodels for funding "open" biotechnology:
>
> The escalating cost of developing successful new drugs has spawned a
> cabal of lobbyists for new legal restrictions on the distribution of
> proprietary ideas. Multi-billion dollar expenditure, so the
argument
> goes, requires offsetting government intervention on behalf of
> investors. The Free Software movement, by contrast, has used the
law
> to ensure that software and, more recently, software documentation
can
> be distributed, modified and used without restriction. From my
vantage
> point-- as a commercial user of Free software since 1993-- I believe
> the gap is closing between Free and proprietary software. Government
> protectionism--not the action of unfettered market forces--is the
main
> threat to Free software now. But the success of Free software does
> not translate naturally to drug development. Instead, I would
> like to
> consider the explosive growth of certain on-line communities--whose
> founders have embraced Free software ideals--as a model for the
> biotechnology community. I have taken some initial steps to
> implementthis idea and would like to report my progress.
>
> ---
>
> Irene Chen, a graduate student in Jack Szostak's lab, has kindly
> volunteered to speak in January (at MIT, date/time/room to be
> arranged)with this abstract:
>
> We are exploring simple mechanisms by which cellular-level traits may
> arise in model protocells. The encapsulation of genetic material
> by a
> semipermeable membrane was presumably an important transition during
> the origin of cellular life. How might these two components, the
> membrane and the genome, combine to produce a unified cellular
> 'system'? Using vesicles composed of prebiotically plausible
> amphiphiles, we first demonstrated that membrane growth causes the
> generation of a transmembrane pH gradient, which can be sustained for
> several hours under certain conditions. The energy stored in such
> gradients would be available for use in cellular processes, such as
> genomic replication. This illustrates how the growth of one
component,
> the membrane, might convey a fitness advantage to the protocell.
>
> Second, we observed the emergence of Darwinian selection between
> vesicles encapsulating RNA and empty vesicles. Vesicles containing
> highconcentrations of RNA experienced substantial osmotic stress,
> whichdrove the uptake of membrane components from unstressed
> membranes.Therefore during protocellular evolution, vesicles
> encapsulating highly
> active genomic replicators might grow at the expense of other
> vesicles,effectively translating genomic fitness into
> protocellular fitness.
> These results highlight the prospect of building a protocell with
> apparently complex behaviors using simple components and
> physico-chemical processes.
>
> ---
>
> Val, maybe you could speak in February (at NECSI again)? Please
send
> me an abstract when you have the chance.
> What do people think about this plan?
>
> Thanks,
> Sasha
>
>