EPIGENETICS
An impressive testimony from an inspiring researcher
The following is a significant testimony from an inspiring researcher, Bruce Lipton, an expert in cell biology at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, who laid the groundwork for research and study of a new science called epigenetics, which explains the link between genes and the environment.
"Between the 1970s and 1980s, I was serving as a full member of the University of Wisconsin Medical School. My academic work was primarily in muscular dystrophy research using cloned stem cell cultures. Cloned cells are created by inoculating a single stem cell into a culture mass and allowing it to divide multiple times to produce thousands of genetically identical cells. To my surprise, I found that by changing some of the components of the texture of the culture dish or changing the composition of the incubator's atmospheric gases, I could profoundly alter the fate of my cultured cells. For example, I broke the stem cell culture into three parts, each exposed to different environmental conditions. In one of the textures the cells formed muscle, in another they formed bone, and in the mass that remained the cells formed adipose tissue. Since in culture I had seeded genetically identical stem cells, it was clear that the different fate of the cells was under the control of the culture medium and NOT the genes.
My bosses considered my studies "heretical", since they were considering the digmatist idea of gene control. I realised that modern science was somewhat like a religion. These studies, showing that cells were not "controlled" by genes, emphasized the power of food over nature in influencing our lives. Although research has established that genes do not control life, textbooks and the media still refer to a core of genes as the brain cell, feeding the erroneous and outdated belief that genes control biology. Twenty years ago, we recognized that the nucleus was not the brain, that it was functionally equivalent to the gonads of the cell, participating strictly in cell reproduction. Moreover, experiments in which the cell nucleus is removed have shown that cells can live and express complex behaviours for another two months without any genes.
Emboldened by the challenges of colleagues who didn't believe me, I refocused my research on identifying the mechanisms by which environmental information controls behaviour and genetics. Eventually my search revealed that the cells' 'skin', the cell membrane, was responsible for reading and reacting to environmental conditions. Certain sudden, twist-like movements in the membrane were contained in protein receptors, the cell's equivalent of the eyes, ears and nose, that read environmental signals, and protein effectors that activated cell functions or gene reads. Membrane "sudden movements" are molecular units of perception used in regulating cell biology. The membrane, more precisely the 'mem-brain', is the cellular equivalent of the brain.
Understanding the structure and functioning of the membrane would be key to understanding the nature of life. In 1985, I was reviewing the architecture and molecular behavior of the cell membrane as an environmental processor of information. In other words, I was writing down a series of descriptive sentences using terms I had never used before. I stopped and revised what I had just written: "The cell membrane is a liquid, semiconducting crystal with gates and channels."
As a cell biologist, I had never used this expression, yet they seemed familiar. Where had I heard it? On the corner of my desk, I spotted my first computer, a smiley-faced Macintosh, and next to it a book I'd read called Understanding Your Microprocessor. On the third page of the Introduction, there was the definition of a computer "chip," "...a crystal semiconductor with gates and channels."
I froze. The next sequence of thoughts probably happened in millionths of seconds, but it felt like hours to me. First I thought, "What a coincidence ... the cell membrane and a computer "chip" have the same definition!" And then, after a few more millionths of a second that appeared to me as hours, it struck me, "It wasn't just a coincidence! The molecular architecture and behavior of the computer chip is essentially identical (similar) to the membrane of a cell!" The membrane is not analogous to the chip; the membrane is similar to the chip. That is, the membrane is "not like a chip", the membrane is effectively a chip.
The cell membrane is a carbon-based cellular equivalent of a silicon-based computer chip. Each cell is a programmable chip, with a hard conductive centre (the nucleus) containing software (genes). As with conventional silicon-based computers, cellular data is entered through a keyboard - made up of thousands of protein receptor membranes tuned to different environmental signals. These are converted into cell behaviour by the membrane protein effector.
About 10 years ago, the new science of epigenetics was developed to describe the molecular mechanisms by which environmental signals dynamically control gene activity. Most importantly, epigenetic mechanisms can generate over 30,000 different protein variations from each gene design. Contrary to the belief that genes are hardwired programs, epigenetics reveals that gene programs can be rewritten enabling cells to adapt to dynamic environments. Epigenetic science demonstrates that the cell nucleus is a read-write hard disk, in which gene software is programmed by the membrane's reaction to environmental perceptions.
Since cells respond to environmental signals, why aren't we human "clones" exposed to the same environment? The answer, no two humans are biologically identical. Your body will reject a tissue or graft from anyone else by recognising foreign cells as not its own. In the same way, your cells will be rejected by any other recipient for the same reason.
Where does an individual's identity lie? The cells of every body have a unique set of membrane proteins on their outer surface. Medicine identifies the existence of a subset of these receptors as self-receptors, i.e. "self-recipients." When self-receptors are removed from a cell it becomes a generic cell, transplantable into any body without rejection. Transferring one person's set of self-receptors to another person's cell will also transfer "ownership" of that cell.
Where does our identity come from? Apparently, it is a unique "signal" from the field read by our self-receivers. Importantly, this communication is two-way. The signals don't just come into the cell, as the awareness of the experience is sent back to the field and changes the source. The invisible moving forces described by quantum biophysics that activate self-receptors are the same as those known as spirit.
Interestingly, the signals that define the self are still in the environment-even if the cells die and are not there to be read.
For an individual like me who, until this revelation, did not believe in spirituality, understanding the nature of the membrane shook my life. It was a crucial transformative moment for me to discover that I am not a biochemical robot, but a spiritually controlled community of programmable cells that now collaborate with other 'communities' of cells to create a new being."