I'm back from Borrego, and never saw Split Mountain
I don’t
exactly what to think of this development. Apparently bio-scientists have been striving
for years to devise a way to produce proteins without the use of cells. They call this “cell free protein synthesis”
(CFPS). Apparently the old fashioned way
– kidnap a bacterium (usually E. coli), jigger its DNA to produce the protein
you want, feed it nutrient and put it to work, - is too slow and
expensive. Now people at Cal Poly, San
Louis Obispo, have devised a means of creating the stuff in a test tube, quick
and dirty. The method is explained by
the usual incomprehensible fancy, colored diagram.
Being able
to access experimental and/or therapeutic proteins easily and inexpensively no
doubt is a significant boon to medical science.
I am a bit worried by their claim that the method is so simple that it
can be utilized in a high school chem lab, though. It CFPS had been available in 1949, no doubt
my friends and I would have made something to turn all the girls’
hair green. But I guess that kids
nowadays are way too sophisticated for anything like that.
I note with
grinding jaws that this work was done by scientists at Cal Poly, SLO. For ever since I can remember I have been
aware that my university, WWU, rates near the top of “Western Regional
Universities”. In fact it usually comes
in second – topped only by Cal Poly. I’m
afraid the gap remains huge.
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