There is a rising debate on the prospect of peak evolution for the human race. I have been asked time and time again by both teachers and external mentors: Have humans reached our peak for evolution? A new research study not only takes this question and answers it, but also provides insight on how scientists are working towards speeding up the evolutionary process.

Directed evolution is when you reengineer biomolecules to find new ones that perform more beneficial functions. This is not a new concept, but the addition of having live cells do majority of the work increases the pace and decreases the amount of energy needed to perform the task.

Irvine researchers took a specially engineered DNA replication system and put it in yeast. The system specifically selected certain parts to replicate, so when the yeast started to replicate, we saw a fast, but stable mutative process with the genes.

How are they measuring success? By observing a method of counting evolutionary cycles and the effects each cycle has on the cell. Previous attempts were only able to observe a limited number of cycles due to the way of testing deteriorating over time. The new method of letting the cells naturally sit and carry itself out lets it continually cycle and evolve.

The work will be used to continuously evolve disease-fighting antibodies and enzymes for drug synthesis. This will allow the antibodies to evolve alongside the very drugs that rely on evolution to attack the human body.