@ngaylinn Not a #Geneticist but I’d say:
o if you start from a stem cell, in theory its complete behaviour once matured can be defined by its DNA
o once mature… I don’t know if you could replace the entire DNA, and the cell would already have expressed all the proteins that its previous genome encoded so it would be differentiated. But I think the proteins that read and turn DNA into RNA then proteins are the same for all cells right? So it might at least partially work? Haven’t heard of this though.
o you can definitely insert some new DNA into a cell’s existing DNA - that’s how #Optogenetics work for example. And this works for already differentiated neurons. But it only adds a small functionality - doesn’t completely change the way the cell works.
Please, if someone knows better, don’t hesitate to correct me!
Edit: re-added formatting because my #IceCubes app removed it all