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Eradicating ALL human viruses? 3 years 11 months ago #68232

Hal9000
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Give me all your platelets and nobody gets hurt
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Well, here we go again.
I'm happy to report more exciting new medical research efforts currently underway that could radically change the 'auto immune' disease landscape, and with that, the ITP landscape. There is this genetics researcher named George Church. His sights aren't just on eradicating Herpes viruses (which can trigger ITP), but on eradicating ALL human viruses. Yes, that is right, all viruses.

At first reading that sounded awfully far fetched / impossible. But the more I think about his approach to this goal, the more I wonder if it might actually be possible. One of those 'need to try it' to see if it is possible sort of things.

So here it is. The video describing his 3 main projects, as reported on 60 minutes TV show a couple of weeks ago.
www.cbsnews.com/news/harvard-geneticist-george-church-goal-to-protect-humans-from-viruses-genetic-diseases-and-aging-60-minutes-2019-12-08/

Cheers to no more chronic ITP.

ITP Types and Treatments by HAL

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Eradicating ALL human viruses? 3 years 10 months ago #68323

Hal9000
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Give me all your platelets and nobody gets hurt
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Here is some more on Church's work. Work on 'de-extinction' of the Woolly Mammoth.
"Bringing Back the Woolly Mammoth Has Already Had an Unintended Consequence"
medium.com/neodotlife/de-extinction-woolly-mammoth-16c31a2dc3b3

After reading the article, I have to wonder. Did a Herpes virus against the Woolly Mammoth (like EEHV in the article) mutate to a state which eradicated both the Woolly Mammoth AND the virus itself? We think of Herpes viruses being just dangerous enough to not kill the host. But what if some gene mutations do just that?
That situation puts a whole new light on what past extinctions can be. That species aren't necessarily killed off by other predators/environmental conditions. That mutations of Herpes viruses alone are sufficient to cause extinction. How long did the Mammoth roam the earth before a Herpes virus mutation destroyed the species? 400,000 years?

ITP Types and Treatments by HAL

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