HoldsUp

George Church

Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology

George Church, PhD, is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and of health sciences and technology at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His work centers on genetics, gene editing technology, and synthetic biology, and he contributed to the Human Genome Project. His published research spans topics including genome editing design, DNA synthesis, spatial transcriptomics, synthetic cellular circuits, genetic recoding, and adult genomic sequencing.

53 claims checked on air: 3 context 3 overstated 38 supported 9 unverified

What they said on air - unverified

2 citing their own research

0:05:20unverifiedvery lowGeorge Church, PhD: Rewriting Genomes to Eradicate Disease a

Repetitive sequences make up approximately half of the fruit fly genome.

"And some of the corner cutting was to not worry too much about the repetitive sequences, which in the case of the fruit fly was about half the genome" (said at 0:05:20)

No published record matching the claim that repetitive sequences make up approximately half of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) genome was located; this does not prove the claim false.

0:05:31unverifiedvery lowGeorge Church, PhD: Rewriting Genomes to Eradicate Disease a

Protein-coding regions constitute roughly 1% of the human genome.

"And at one point they were going to just do the coding regions, which was 1%." (said at 0:05:31)

No published record matching the claim that protein-coding regions constitute roughly 1% of the human genome was located; this does not prove the claim false.

0:38:57unverifiedvery lowGeorge Church, PhD: Rewriting Genomes to Eradicate Disease a

Around 2009, single-stranded DNA-annealing proteins (SSAPs / Lambda Red) were used to create libraries of billions of edited cells in a single day by one person.

"Another one that dates back two decades before CRISPR is SSAPs, or Lambda Red, as it's sometimes called. It's a way of getting precise editing, and that's what we actually used around 2009 to make libraries of billions of edited cells in a day by a single person." (said at 0:38:57)

No published record matching the claim regarding the use of single-stranded DNA-annealing proteins (SSAPs / Lambda Red) in 2009 to create libraries of billions of edited cells in a single day by one person was located; this does not prove the claim false.

0:47:55unverifiedvery lowGeorge Church, PhD: Rewriting Genomes to Eradicate Disease a

DNA molecular recording systems in living cells have been demonstrated at multiplex scales ranging from 60 to 24,000 edits.

"because it's a very compact recording device of the physiological states of every cell in the body. And we've shown this works sort of on the scale of 60 to 24,000, and that's probably our first effort at making a million edits will be in the form of these molecular flight recorders." (said at 0:47:55)

No published record matching the claim that DNA molecular recording systems in living cells have been demonstrated at multiplex scales ranging from 60 to 24,000 edits was located; this does not prove the claim false.

1:08:37unverifiedvery lowGeorge Church, PhD: Rewriting Genomes to Eradicate Disease a

Transplantation of engineered human brain organoids that resist demyelination restored function in a rodent model of dementing disease.

"we showed restoration of a dementing disease in rodents by putting human organoids, brain organoids that contain—that remyelinate and are protected against the demyelinating mechanism" (said at 1:08:37)

No published record matching the claim that transplantation of engineered human brain organoids that resist demyelination restored function in a rodent model of a dementing disease was located; this does not prove the claim false.

1:17:03unverifiedvery lowGeorge Church, PhD: Rewriting Genomes to Eradicate Disease a

A 2016 US congressional rider prevents the FDA from accepting investigational new drug applications for clinical trials involving germline modifications.

"a 2016 rider says we can't even allow allow the FDA to accept these nominations for for clinical trials." (said at 1:17:03)

No published record matching the claim regarding a 2016 congressional appropriations rider preventing the FDA from accepting clinical trial applications for heritable germline modification was located; this does not prove the claim false.

1:42:58unverifiedvery lowGeorge Church, PhD: Rewriting Genomes to Eradicate Disease a

There are approximately 3,500 mosquito species, of which only about half a dozen major species transmit human malaria.

"Now there's a limited number of mosquitoes that carry, um, malaria, maybe half dozen major ones out of 3,500 species of mosquito." (said at 1:42:58)

No published record matching the claim that there are approximately 3,500 mosquito species with only about half a dozen major species transmitting human malaria was located; this does not prove the claim false.

1:56:40unverifiedvery lowGeorge Church, PhD: Rewriting Genomes to Eradicate Disease a

George Church and colleagues encoded an entire book into DNA and generated approximately 70 billion copies.

"the book was encoded into DNA... So so I wrote did the book, made, you know, 70 70 billion copies" (said at 1:56:40)

No published record matching the claim that George Church and colleagues encoded an entire book into DNA and generated approximately 70 billion copies was located; this does not prove the claim false.

1:59:00unverifiedvery lowGeorge Church, PhD: Rewriting Genomes to Eradicate Disease a

Researchers have recorded 2 terabytes of physiological data in vivo within one-billionth the mass of a mouse.

"we recorded, um, um, 2 terabytes of information in a mouse in one-billionth the mass of the mouse. So it's the one of the world's smallest recording devices: a billionth of a mouse can encode 2 terabytes." (said at 1:59:00)

No published record matching the claim that researchers recorded 2 terabytes of physiological data in vivo within one-billionth the mass of a mouse was located; this does not prove the claim false. While molecular and DNA recording systems (such as CRISPR-based DNA tape recorders) have been developed to log lineage and cellular events in living systems, published demonstrations operate on orders of magnitude far smaller than multiple terabytes of decoded physiological data.

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