Telomeres & Petri Dish Wagyu: Hack Life

Recently, business Tycoon and ousted former Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra started a podcast called good Monday. He mentioned something called Telomeres, a word I never heard of hitherto, which led me to discover that shoelaces have a striking similarity to DNA, Wagyu could be grown/cultured in petri dishes, and the possibility of printing human organs. It’s obvious hacking isn’t limited to computer codes anymore.

 

Biohacking is a relatively new word, first used in 1992 according to Merriam-Webster, but its manifestation has come a long way since the 90s, and it might very well shape the first century of the new millenia. Telomeres are the areas of the ends of chromosomes, the cap, the aglets of shoelaces, and similarly, once the cap or the aglets of the shoelaces wears down the shoelace expiration becomes increasingly imminent.

Each time a cell divides, the process wears down the telomeres of the cell’s genetic material. The more worn down or shorter the telomeres of the cells of an organism becomes, the likelihood of faulty cells increases. Telomere length is widely believed to be the measure of cellular aging. And the telomeres through out your body are not kept equal, but varying on your lifestyle. Smoke? Older lungs.

A whole new approach to medicine has been attributed to such discoveries and observations of genetic components like the telomere, Age Management Medicine. This cellular aging prevention oriented approach to health has terms like, Immuno­Age, CardioAge, TelomerAge, NeuroAge, CutoAge, and PulmoAge, which I never heard of until reading this article on Wired. In simplified terms, and understanding, is that by measuring the telomere of each associated physiological component of health, physicians are able to determine which parts of your body needs to be tended to. It’s like a preventive approach with the telomeres as the key index.

After reading enough to kind of grasp the word on the net about telomeres, the science fiction inclination started to wonder which other ideas are crossing over the science fiction line into scientific breakthrough territory.

As a kid, I had the idea that maybe we could grow meat from trees, so we didn’t have to kill animals for meat, of course, I don’t remember where the idea came from, but it’s most likely a amalgamate of many sources propelled by Buddhist beliefs indoctrinated from a young age. Anyhow, though not exactly meat fruit from trees, but according to Nikkei Asian Review, Wagyu beef maybe coming to supermarkets from petri dishes, instead of pastures.

In December of last year, one of the most popular wagyu brands from Gunma prefecture in Eastern Japan, Toriyama had teamed up with Silicone Valley food tech Just, Inc to develop cultured meat using wagyu cells. “Wagyu” is the key term here, and if it tastes and melts like wagyu, is safe to eat, and cheaper, hey, it could even be considered Vegan? Of course price, and perfect Wagyu goodness to the palette will be key for this transpacific collaboration.