I really want to do whole-body clonal work. Our bodies and genes are machines, yet we still haven't put them to work. We're plastering over the breaks with crude tools that feel like modern day bloodletting. The blast radius in the transduction pathways is huge and imprecise.
I've written extensively about this topic on HN. Give me a minute and I'll dig up some references.
Edit:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35321368
Actual cancer treatments are moving forward at a good pace. Immunotherapies are a good example. Cancer treatment is an example of medical research working well.
Not to mention issue of patient being weakened by, say, organ failure, to even survive such procedure.
You didn't "write extensively", you put science fiction plots ideas that have already been done a dozen times into comments.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that execution might be a bigger factor than ideas here.
I originally posted a follow-up message, but I revealed to much of the path gradient to build this and so I deleted it. There are so many low-hanging fruit markets, but I have to hold my tongue. It needs the right leadership and angle of attack.
I bet my reputation that none of this is science fiction, though, and I can't wait to prove you wrong about everything you doubt me on. Give me ten years on this one. I'll show you.
The Hollywood thread you keep doubting me on is going to be extremely obvious in about six months. I really want to see you eat your hat on that one. I'm sleeping on the floor every night to make it happen, and we're getting there.