Rather than attacking typical plant or animal cells, the bacteriophage uses bacteria as its host for replication. Highly specialised, the bacteriophage lands on a specific part of a specific bacteria, and just like a syringe with legs, injects its genetic material (which is stored in that big bulb on top).

It only takes minutes for viral mRNA to convince bacterial ribosomes to makes its own proteins, transforming the bacteria into a virus factory that, in some circumstances, will literally burst with its own product.

For those who believe that a benevolent supreme being created life, it would be only natural to believe that the bacteriophage was spawned from a equally powerful source of evil. They are among the most common organisms on Earth.

Of course, Man has long re-imagined the bacteriophage as a tool for everything from antibiotic alternatives (see what’s called phage therapy, a century old idea) to FDA-approved food sprays. While it’s easy to consider nanobots as the future of Man’s biological domination, sometimes using the machines that nature has already left lying around is the better bet.

Especially when they’re this badass.

[Image 1, 2, 3, 4]

This week, Gizmodo is exploring the enhanced human future in a segment we call This Cyborg Life. It’s about what happens when we treat our body less as a sacred object and more as what it is: Nature’s ultimate machine.

Services like 23andMe (proponents of the above-mentioned “spit parties”) and Navigenics both examine specific snippets of your genome for known severe genetic conditions like diabetes, bipolar disorder and certain types of cancers (as well as goofier stuff like freckling and “food preference”).

Meanwhile, a boutique genome mapping company named Knome maps not just snippets of DNA but your entire genome, using a blood sample. When it’s ready, they sit you down with a doctor to explain their findings.

This thoroughness comes at a cost, of course. Knome’s service will run you the price of a Porsche, while their competitors bill up to only a thousand dollars, often less. And while we can technically map the entire genome, we certainly can’t understand everything we see.

Ari Kiirikki, a VP at Knome, decodes the future of genomics in this brief Q&A:

Where’s genomics now?

The first human genome, completed in 2003, took 13 years and nearly $US3 billion to decode. Today, we can sequence and interpret an entire human genome in a matter of weeks for less than $US70,000 (our current price is $US68,000). New software and other analytical tools have put decades of accumulated scientific research at our fingertips, enabling us to analyse an individual’s DNA in order to identify risk for thousands of diseases and other inherited traits and conditions.

What will we be doing in five years?

Within five years, the cost of sequencing an entire human genome is expected to plummet below $US1000, which will dramatically increase the demand for genetic sequence interpretation. The resulting increase in raw data will enable scientists to make new and important discoveries linking our DNA to health and disease, thereby further increasing the clinical utility of DNA analysis. This will enable us to finally deliver on the promise of personalised medicine by allowing scientists to begin the development medicines and individualised “cocktails” of therapeutics tailored to individual genetic profiles.

In 10?

Ten years from now, sequencing a human genome will cost less than $US100. Within the decade, scientists are likely to have unravelled precisely how DNA interacts with our environment to impact our risk for developing disease. Expect DNA sequencing to become a regular part of your annual check-up along with the introduction of new therapeutics that can be prescribed to help delay or completely avoid getting specific diseases that you may be predisposed to.

And now we’re stretching it, what about 20?

Every medicine you take will be tailored specifically to your genome. Every newborn child will be sequenced at birth, enabling future generations to use their DNA to guide the management of their health over their entire lifetime. Perhaps most amazingly, your DNA will be fully integrated into your everyday life. Genetics will move beyond the clinic, into a broad range of consumer products — snacks, vitamins, mouthwash, skin creams, dating services — all optimised for your unique genetic profile.

I can’t speak for everyone here, but I could certainly go for a stick of gum that, instead of being labelled “grape” or “spearmint”, simply stated, “You’ll enjoy DNA-certified flavour, fatty.”

[Image: Human chromosomes "painted" by fluorescent dyes to detect abnormal exchange of genetic material frequently present in cancer. Chromosome paints also serve as valuable resources for other clinical and research applications.

Human Genome Program, US Department of Energy, Human Genome Program Report, 1997.]

Researchers aren’t entirely sure just how the whole process works, but they have observed the resulting damage of nanoparticles signalling a hit on DNA. They suspect that the events might go differently in situations other than a lab mode and that the interaction could be used to deliver medicine or target cancer cells. Or further nanoparticle deaths.

While they sort out the details, I’m just gonna stick to being a bit scared that I’ll get a package of fish if I upset any nanoparticles anyway.[Pop Sci]

Over 68 scientists worldwide are participating in the Genome 10K Project, the results of which would not only bring understanding of changes in species but also “allow predictions of how certain species might respond to climate change, pollution, new diseases and competitors.” There’s great potential to discover more about genetics with this project, but I have a sneaking suspicion that at least one of those scientists is in it for the DNA scavenger hunt through zoos. [Genome 10K via Pop Sci]

AU: Helys doesn’t extend this (silly) service to Australia. Not yet anyway…_-EH

French DNA laboratory Helys can do it for you. It works like this: Pay $US147 and they will send you a DNA sampling kit. Send them back your DNA, choose a preferred tonal range, and they will make your genetic print into pixel form. Two weeks later, you will receive a 320×480 pixel picture in your email.

Of course, what Helys is not telling you is that this is all part of a secret plan by the French government to have a record of all our DNA. And with it, they will create a mutant cheese that will kill everyone in the planet who is not French or drinks Vichy water. I warned you. Don’t come back later whining about it when your arteries explode because of the killer mutant cheese. [Helys via CNET]

IBM’s early stage research combines the DNA double helix and, unsurprisingly, nanotechnology to build frameworks for theoretically smaller and less expensive microchips.

“This is the first demonstration of using biological molecules to help with processing in the semiconductor industry,” said IBM research manager Spike Narayan. “Basically, this is telling us that biological structures like DNA actually offer some very reproducible, repetitive kinds of patterns that we can actually leverage in semiconductor processes,” he said.

But like I said, ten years out of more before the same genetic building blocks found in all of us are also powering the supercomputers of the future. [Reuters]

Dr. Stephen Quake and his team used a “commercially available, refrigerator-sized instrument called the Helicos Biosciences SMS Heliscope” to sequence Quake’s genome.

This machine, also known as a single molecule sequencer, is incredible. Instead of needing to generate thousands upon thousands of copies of a person’s DNA, it chops the fundamental units of DNA, the bases, into short strands, slaps them onto a specially treated glass plate, and proceeds to read the sequences.

After these steps are completed, a series of computers will assemble all the DNA strands into a genome while comparing it to previously compiled genomes. According to an algorithm used by the team, this sequencing process results in genomes which are about 95 per cent complete. (This is on par with previous sequencing technology).

While Quake’s research is important in what it represents: genome sequencing could become something used by regular health care providers to diagnose genetic predispositions to diseases (or maybe just figure out if someone’s genetic code “contains a form of a gene that has sometimes been associated with increased disagreeability”), it also does something curious: it shows a far larger decrease in cost than Moore’s law alone would suggest. The combination of better processing with a far better algorithm resulted in this dramatic progress over the past eight years and we can’t wait to see how the implementation of improved algorithms will continue to affect this trend. [Business Wire]

Photo by Helicos

According to Professor Anatoli Broushkov, their “set of tests and the results prove that simple organisms like fruit flies and mice live longer after being vaccinated with the ancient bacterium extract.” Not only that, but the bacterium DNA super-vaccine actually increases mental alertness, physical capability, and sexual activity for both male and female mice. The females actually have had babies at an older age than usual: “Some elderly mice demonstrated a growth of physical, mental and sexual activity, while some females even had babies aged at the human equivalent of 70,” said scientist Vera Samsonova.

The bacterium was found still living in the Siberian permafrost, next to frozen the mammoths and woolly rhinos, which the Japanese and Russian scientific teams are exploring in an effort to clone them back into life. Finding an unknown ancient bacteria still living in the permafrost came as a surprise to the Russian scientists, who were blown away by the preliminary analysis of the DNA and their lab experiments.

The team, however, is not claiming an immortality potion yet: They are aiming at extending life at least ten years if everything goes well. The results are so good that it is already attracting the interest of investors.

The only thing that has me thinking here is that these bacterium were found next to extinct prehistoric animals. But hey, I’m all for injecting myself ancient DNA that can either increase my virility and extend my life. Or make me grow huge tusks and plenty of hair. In both cases, it’s a win. [Daily Mail]

The technique, spearheaded by Bo Albinsson at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, encodes DNA in a way that, when mixed with light-receptive molecules called chromophores, self-engineer themselves into a natural photo-sensitive wire that can accurately transmit light–similar to those found in some algaes. The technique may also someday be used for artificial photosynthesis systems that may power next-gen solar cells. [New Scientist, Image: DNA visualized in a cDNA microarray from Wiki Commons]