Hacking Human Beings - Drug company launches global hunt for 'superhumans'

Hacking humans…

A drug maker has enlisted the help of the general public to track down people with extraordinary characteristics whose genetic make-up could form the basis of new medicines.

UCB, a Belgian pharmaceutical company, has launched a competition to find and describe individuals, families or communities who possess rare characteristics such as low sensitivity to pain or the ability to heal from injury quickly.
It hopes that the submissions will identify groups who have previously gone unnoticed by medical researchers and that the genetic basis of their abilities can be used to develop new drugs.

Know any superheroes? They can give their genetic material and possibly earn a good finders fee!

A ten-year-old Pakistani street performer's ability to cut himself with knives and walk on burning coals without experiencing pain caught the attention of researchers in 2006. Scientists have since discovered that he and a handful of other people in the region lack a particular protein on the surface of their nerves and hope to replicate this trait to treat severe pain.
A new osteoporosis drug, currently in late stage clinical trials, is based on the study of an Afrikaner community in South Africa with exceptionally strong and dense bones.

The best submission will be awarded $10,000 (£6,020), and extra bonus awards of at least $1,000 will go to entrants judged to have provided an "especially interesting or relevant entry".

www.telegraph.co.uk...



I'm surprised there hasn't been more interest in these kinds of medical advances. Since nearly all the remote areas and old school cures have been collected, their analogues synthesized and either tossed in the bin or marketed as a new cure, instead this opens up a whole new forest to clear cut… er.. people to swab?

Natural immunities and genetic advantages are prevalent among thousands of people, and if they can be exploited and turned into therapeutics there are a handful of conditions I can see being treated.

reply to post by boncho


Interesting topic and the point you make makes me wonder as well.

and if they can be exploited and turned into therapeutics there are a handful of conditions I can see being treated.

Specifically the exploited part. What is the value of a genetic marker such as the example you gave of the people who felt no pain? When some drug or genetic therapy is marketed would the people who provided this specific DNA information for this miracle be rewarded by getting a percentage of each shot or pill? Or would this be like what normally happens and the poor Pakistani kid gets a couple thousand bucks for a kidney?

FWIW my superpower is being able to pick non-winning lottery numbers. Proven fact 99.99% reproducible ability.

reply to post by boncho


I may just have to submit myself, for my my amazing superhuman-like devilish good looks, of course.
Bah, they'd probably be more interested in my double jointed thumbs.. And Is humanity really ready for the power and responsibility that comes with double jointed thumbs? I don't think so.

Pfft, Inferior thumb>


If they really want to get the ball rolling they should get in touch with some of those people from that show, (I think it's called) "superhuman"?
That would be interesting.

Where does One Hide?

They wish they could hack Humans, and always failed! Yet they Are Looking 4 something! Why Now?

Peace

reply to post by boncho


Color me skeptical but it sounds like an open audition for mainstream eugenics... While reading the OP I kept seeing swastikas flash in my head...

reply to post by boncho


Glad I kept my Batman suit - quickly Robin to the Bat-mobile!

reply to post by boncho


I could probably submit.

I very very rarely get sick. I mean I can't even remember the last time. I help out with a care home facility that is filled with sick people too. Flu season? Not for me.

I thought the aims of the human genome project were of this nature...to advance medicines.Why the "hunt" for individuals? Don't we know all about our DNA by now and what turns on what and what turns off what? It's like they are implying there's people out there with wildly different dna then the norm

Maybe it's just some of the words in the article throwing up alarm bells for me..."global hunt"... with a cash reward for turning in a ""submission" gee that sounds inviting. Why do I get this image flashing in my head once You're "found"



hell I'll be the first to admit I never get sick, I've never broken a bone(even though I should have)I heal incredibly quick compared to anyone I know when I do injure myself.I have an abnormal tolerance to pain..Never get fat.. I've been in three car accidents that "experts" such as police said I should not have walked away from but have with only just scratches...I hate to say it but I'm all for helping My fellow man but I'll be damned if I just hand it over to a private company...I've already donated to the gene pool by fathering 3 kids... Hopefully I'm not the only one that feels this way...

Bassago
reply to post by boncho

 

FWIW my superpower is being able to pick non-winning lottery numbers. Proven fact 99.99% reproducible ability.

edit on 091pm2323pm72014 by Bassago because: (no reason given)

You have to give them you Lottery superpower. That would be priceless.....!

reply to post by boncho


I would sign up, if I thought that this was for the better of people. But there's got to be a hidden agenda to this - brings to mind super soldiers such as those in G.I. Joe, where they are immune to pain & able to flush out poison with their own bodies. Or, if they are looking for "psychic" type superpowers, then the plasmids from Bioshock seem like a likely reality.

In my case, I don't get sick much - but when I do get sick, I seem to get over it quicker than most (years back, when I had to get my blood drawn, it was noted that I had a lower white cell count; if anything, wouldn't I get sick more often?). The other thing that I consider "superhuman" (in the context that most people don't normally do this), is that I overheat in winter. I've gone on hikes in temps like this, dressed in a hoodie and gloves. I've found that I can stay like this for extended periods (usually about 2 miles, sometimes more, sometimes less), and still be quite warm.

Last thing is that I do seem to meet the article, in that I've got a pretty good recovery from bumps & bruises. I've landed flat on my back from falling out of a tree, stepped on rusty nails (and had them stick into my skin), and took an arrow machete to the knee down to the bone. Probably should have been looked at by a doctor, but everything healed up.

-fossilera

Yet one more reason for me to stay far from so-called "civilization" .. at 70 I look years younger than I am .. always had high pain tolerance .. heal faster than normal and extremely rarely affected by medications ( most dont work on me ) or things that would drop most in their tracks barely phase me .. have no interest in being a lab rat for big pharma as their intentions are far less benevolent than they claim.
As to benefitting humanity pointless anything found would only go to the "elites" and / or be used to further oppress the rest of humanity ..

I swallowed a live smelt whole when I was a teen. Not many people can do that. That should qualify me as a super human idiot.

fossilera
reply to post by boncho

 

I would sign up, if I thought that this was for the better of people. But there's got to be a hidden agenda to this - brings to mind super soldiers such as those in G.I. Joe, where they are immune to pain & able to flush out poison with their own bodies. Or, if they are looking for "psychic" type superpowers, then the plasmids from Bioshock seem like a likely reality.

In my case, I don't get sick much - but when I do get sick, I seem to get over it quicker than most (years back, when I had to get my blood drawn, it was noted that I had a lower white cell count; if anything, wouldn't I get sick more often?). The other thing that I consider "superhuman" (in the context that most people don't normally do this), is that I overheat in winter. I've gone on hikes in temps like this, dressed in a hoodie and gloves. I've found that I can stay like this for extended periods (usually about 2 miles, sometimes more, sometimes less), and still be quite warm.

Last thing is that I do seem to meet the article, in that I've got a pretty good recovery from bumps & bruises. I've landed flat on my back from falling out of a tree, stepped on rusty nails (and had them stick into my skin), and took an arrow machete to the knee down to the bone. Probably should have been looked at by a doctor, but everything healed up.

-fossilera

That's bizarre. Down to even the cold thing, I have those same traits. So... do you chew through aluminum cans and staple yourself for fun, too?

Seriously, though, I'm curious about what else we have in common. Any skin anomalies or allergies? What about left/right/ambidextrous, etc?

I've never thought of it as anything other than quirky traits but your post made me have to ask.

reply to post by infoseeker26754


You say looking 4 something, I say looking for someone. I have a whole theory about this topic, but I haven't had my coffee yet. I will have to drop in later to read the rest of this thread and see if anyone hits the mark.

reply to post by DonVoigt


Be interesting to hear your theory. I am with you on this... Its a modern day witch-hunt for something.

reply to post by boncho


I see. Nice find, OP.

It seems this Eugenic thing just started. Superhuman will be produced, and the rest will be subjected to severe reproduction regulation or death.

Malthus in his glory.

Not sure this would end well for the ones found.

reply to post by boncho

Natural immunities and genetic advantages are prevalent among thousands of people, and if they can be exploited and turned into therapeutics there are a handful of conditions I can see being treated.

Was watching this in my own 'research' over past 10-odd years - seems same factors (proteins?) can manifest as polar opposites. Eg., same molecular thing in one person manifests as super-dense bones but in others causes super-fragile bones (glass bone disease); also seems flip side of immunity to pain is pain hypersensitivity (some cases where person doesn't feel pain from childhood through adulthood then suddenly hypersensitive to pain in middle age). ...Interesting that researchers coming out-front to public.


F&S

I can unscrew screws with my fingernails. I have a tongue that dissolves from certain foods. I can flex the muscles that would have been used to blink the third eyelid. I have scaly skin on my shins. Oh yeah when its 40°C outside I can walk on the
asphalt without getting burned.


Who wants scaly skin???????

Probably best to stay in the shadows..
get locked up in a lab... no thanks