Some modest reflections on mice. Specifically, these mice.

It all started this morning around 10. Sparsh, Mario, Jessica, and I were all running around San Elijo Lagoon and it was getting fucking hot. Great for Labor Day tourists at the beach, but not me. I was starting to feel my back cramp up and my muscles tighten and I could tell I was slowing down. Aerobic metabolism is “a method by which living organisms metabolise fats or sugars with the aid of Oxygen in order to generate energy.” It’s an extraordinarily efficient process, but unfortunately the oxygen in our muscles eventually runs out and our bodies switch to anaerobic metabolism, also called glycosis. During glycosis - especially once your glucose (sugar) reserves are up - you begin to slow down, your muscles start to hurt, you cramp up.

This was me on the last couple miles of our run today. I was struggling.

Our friendly, modest mice up there, however are not. Just up the road from me at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies Randall Johnson genetically engineered lab mice so that they do not switch from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism. The result? Super mice that never tire:

Instead of improving times by fractions of a second that athletes strive for, the genetically enhanced marathon mice ran twice as far and nearly twice as long as naturally bred rodents.

The engineered mice ran 1,800 meters before quitting and stayed on the treadmill an hour longer than the natural mice, which were able to stay running for 90 minutes and travel 900 meters.

Here’s the thing though. After the mice were done running their 1,80o miles, they felt great, but their bodies were fucked.

The gains in the UCSD study were temporary and came at a price, however. After four days of exercise tests, the genetically engineered mice endured much more muscle damage than normal mice, and they could no longer run or swim as much as their unaltered counterparts.

So that’s the price you pay. You become a super athlete … and you end up damaging your muscles. Worth it? Probably not. But will athletes do it to break world records, to extend the extremes? Of course. Already, coaches, athletes, and trainers are contacting the researchers asking if they can be test subjects.

Anaerobic metabolism and the release of lactic acid are part of the evolutionary reason that human beings are not as muscular as gorillas nor as fast as leopards. Frankly, we tire out. But this recent research gives us the opportunity to overcome that obstacle. By changing our genetic makeup, we can perfect our species. Super athletes, super cognitive abilities, unlimited memory retrieval, a libido the size of Lithuania and Sting-like sexual endurance.

Basically, everyone could be like Moreno, Abogado, and me.

Assist or Enhance

The biggest question facing us this century, if not this millenium, is going to be: Do we want to focus our research and development on efforts to assist humans and our environment or to enhance humans and our environment. The decision will be far reaching.

By assist I mean products that make it easier being us. Eye glasses and contact lenses are examples or products that assist us in reading better or seeing at all. Many people these days, however, are getting laser surgery instead to alter their bodies to perform better. A third option, not yet available, would be to genetically enhance your child so that he/she (you get to choose) is guaranteed not to have any eye problems at all.

This is what my sister, dad, and I were talking about during breakfast on Sunday. All the usual what-ifs were brought up: well, what if you could save your child from having muscular dystrophy? Wouldn’t you do that? I said I don’t know.

And I don’t. I mean, what if there is an even more important evolutionary reason as to how genetic diseases entered our genome any why they remain?

But the greater question is do we want to take the next step from creating products that assist us to creating ourselves? And if so, then where do we stop? Preventing genetic diseases seems the noble cause. But why not preventing poor eye sight? Why not enhancing human eyesight?

That’s where most draw the line. At what is called Genetic Enhancement.

Genetic enhancement brings up a lot of questions. It’s time we started talking about them.

Two great resources are:

• The Human Genome Project Information site on Genetic Diseases
• The President’s Council on Bioethics Beyond Therapy page