Synthetic Genome Brings New Life to Bacterium
- By: tabukov@subio
- Date: 2010-05-21 08:41:35
For 15 years, J. Craig Venter has chased a dream: to build a genome from scratch and use it to make synthetic life. Now, he and his team at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in Rockville, Maryland, and San Diego, California, say they have realized that dream. In this week's Science Express (www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/science.1190719), they describe the stepwise creation of a bacterial chromosome and the successful transfer of it into a bacterium, where it replaced the native DNA. Powered by the synthetic genome, that microbial cell began replicating and making a new set of proteins.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/328/5981/958?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/21-May-2010/10.1126/science.328.5981.958
White House Tackles 'Synthetic Life' Ethics
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The White House has wasted no time in addressing yesterday's news that scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute have succeeded in creating a synthetic life form that can replicate itself, and has tasked its bioethics team with looking into the potential issues that may surround such technology.
http://www.genomeweb.com//node/941292?hq_e=el&hq_m=723490&hq_l=1&hq_v=98ac932396