astralavista

A month ago, this blog had a piece on Steven Benner, biologist from the University of Florida, and one of the pioneers in the field of synthetic biology.
Benner is seeking to build in his university lab brand new life, or as he put it, "artificial biochemical systems that reproduce the complex behavior of living systems, including their genetics, inheritance, and evolution." He said:"The ultimate goal of a program in synthetic biology is to develop chemical systems capable of self-reproduction and Darwinian-like evolution."
Yet now it looks that Benner might be a little late from the gate.
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal ran a fascinating story about J. Craig Venter, the innovative biologist who tied the U.S. government in decoding the human genome in 2000.
Now Venter has launched a new company, called Synthetic Genomics Inc., whose goal is, he told the Journal, the creation of the first "human-made species." The company, which is funded by $30 million from "several weathly private investors," as well as, interestingly, a $12 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, will first attempt to create a "made-to-order" bacterium by assembling genes like pieces of software code into a "man-made genome [that] would be installed inside a bacterium whose own genes have been removed."
Venter says that such frankenstein bacteria could start new ways of industrial production of drugs, chemicals, and energy, like ethanol.
Venter believes, the Journal says, that by creating such lifeforms he "may come closer to understanding what life is and how scientists can manipulate it for the benefit of human kind."
Venter told the paper: "This is the step we have all been talking about. We're moving
from reading the genetic code to writing it."


Illustration by L.J. Lapre