US scientist Dr Craig Venter of the J Craig Venter Institute in Maryland and California claimed yesterday to have succeeded in developing the first sythetic living cell which is controlled entirely by synthetic DNA by constructing the “genetic software” of a bacterium and transplanting it into a host cell. The resulting microbes look and behaviour was then “dictated” by the synthetic DNA.
The advance which was published in Science, has been proclaimed as a scientific landmark comparable to the splitting of the atom or the development of silicon chips, but critics are lining up to denounce the potential dangers posed by the creation of brand new synthetic organisms such as the creation of new and dangerous diseases and some feel that the potential benefits of this technology are a vastly over-hyped.
The more optimistic scientists hope that this new techology could lead to bacterial cells being designed to produce medicines, fuels and may possibly help the world to resolve climate change issues by absorbing greenhouse gases.
The breakthrough occured by creating a synthetic bacterial genome and transplanting this genome into a normal living bacterium, to create the “synthetic cell”. In truth only the genome is truly synthetic having been created in a synthesis machine.