Part 1. Human-based foods.

in a not necessarily unethical, but unsettling series. I present to you the lastest ways to consume human DNA.

1. Gelatin.

Gelatin is hydrolyzed collagen. Perhaps you have some lotions that ‘firm your collagen’ or have seen ladies’ magazines that give collagen firming techniques for sagging skin. Collagen is the name for a kind of proteins that make up your connective tissue; if you hydrolyze it- add heat and water to split the protein molecule- it becomes food! Jello, gummy bears, pill capsules and anything else in need of a bit of firming up.

Traditionally, gelatin is not made from human sources, which is excellent, because traditional gelatin is made by boiling sources of connective tisse (bones, skin and hide). Gelatin from diseased animal tissues can spread mad cow disease and cause immune reactions, and produces a very inconsistent and therefore inconvenient product for food manufacturers. Enter recombinant human DNA gelatin.

Fortunately, this is NOT a blog post about a cannibal who created human based gelatin with the traditional skin and bone recipe,  rather, some Chinese scientists at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology using created gelatin from some human cells using this recipe and some human cells.

I have oversimplified the process for you below:

Step one. identify the gene in a human cell that can be used to make gelatin.

Step two. cut your gene out of human DNA so that it has ‘sticky ends’ with a known DNA sequence

Step three. stick it into the DNA of a yeast cell (in this case they used Pichia, but just as easily could have used the better know vectors e. coli or s. cerveciae. Pichia tends to produce higher yeilds of proteins,  but is not quite so hardy as e.coli. whichever they choose it is more or less the same process)

Step four. give the yeast lots of food and a nice environment to duplicate.

Step five. Pick the yeast that did a really good job duplicating your gelatin gene.

Step six. DNA to RNA to Protein in your hard working yeast

We have hijacked the yeast’s cellular machinery to duplicate a gene that we like, and then stick the amino acids together form a protein. No humans are harmed, no animals are harmed, and the product is higher quality.

I assume a basic level of discomfort with the idea of human DNA based gelatin- I would like to explore a few issues that come come to my mind.

Human DNA in our food.  Is my initial aversion rational in this case? We are already happy consumers of many foods derived from “icky” sources that are indistinguishable at a molecular level. It worthwhile to look at the entire process, and the environmental or economic costs of production, and the source and weigh it against an ícky´ instinct. How human is a single gene removed from a cell?

I refer you to Stephen Colbert  in this 2009 clip on lab grown meat,

The laboratory setting may be unsettling, but we are already inextricably committed to laboratory produced foods. Artificial flavors and sugar, preservatives, any pre-made or processed food goes through a laboratory. The laboratory is not a novelty.

The ethics of eating and health are not simple. A human based gelatin, or lab grown meats may make you squeamish- but it could cut out the factory farm system in the creation of an important food, we could cut down on industrial farm land and water use, lab grown foods do not use herbicides or pesticides. Issues of natural foods versus ethically produced foods, versus environmentally friendly foods are not dichotomous, and the science and origins of what we are consuming more difficult to understand.

P.S. If this can be done with human DNA, it can also be done with uncontaminated cow or pig DNA; this would have been the less creepy path.

Incorrectly Cited Sources :

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf200778r?tokenDomain=presspac&tokenAccess=presspac&forwardService=showFullText&journalCode=jafcau

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-1051-GELATIN.aspx?activeIngredientId=1051&activeIngredientName=GELATIN

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110713101952.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelatin