This will be huge, if true: A genetically modified bacterium that outcompetes bacteria causing tooth decay (Hacker News discussion):
Lantern Bioworks says they have a cure for tooth decay. Their product is a genetically modified bacterium which infects your mouth, outcompetes all the tooth-decay-causing bacteria, and doesn’t cause tooth decay itself. If it works, it could make cavities a thing of the past…
The prices:
5: What’s the plan to sell Lumina?
- Phase 1: (January 2024) Sell to biohackers in Prospera for $20,000.
- Phase 2: (2025??) Sell to ordinary people in the US for a few hundred dollars.
It’s worth noting that the FDA has thwarted this product in this past:
The FDA demanded a study of 100 subjects, all of whom had to be “age 18-30, with removable dentures, living alone and far from school zones”. Hillman wasn’t sure there even were 100 young people with dentures, but the FDA wouldn’t budge from requiring this impossible trial. Hillman gave up and switched to other projects […]
So yeah, 2025 seems very optimistic to me, but I’d be very happy to be proven wrong. There’s further cause to take this with a huge grain (hell, maybe a silo of) salt, in that there appear to be some knowledgeable commenters in the HN discussion who are calling bullshit on this, for example:
This story has been around for far too long and evidence is unbelievably weak, and the claims border on fraudulent.
The claim that this strain outcompetes the same S mutans from occupying the same niche cannot be true unless this strain is also capable of creating and tolerating environments with low pH. By definition if it creates acid to the same degree it will also cause cavities.
Single applications are insufficient to cause any persistent colonization. Even multiple daily applications of oral probiotics don’t lead to colonization. […]
S mutans is not the only species that causes cavities. […]
But still, exciting! I’m also looking forward to seeing more results of genetic engineering, as I believe that has at minimum as much potential to change the world as AI.
As an aside, this is the first time I’m hearing about Prospera:
Prospera [is] a libertarian charter city in Honduras. Prospera allows the sale of any biotech product under an informed consent rule: as long as the company is open about risks and the patient signs a waiver saying they were informed, people can do what they want.
Appears to be quite problematic in general: Foreign Investors Are Building a ‘Hong Kong of the Caribbean’ on a Remote Honduran Island, though I guess you’d already expect little good from a place categorized as a “libertarian charter city”…