(Credit:
JCVI)
Researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute have created the largest man-made DNA structure to date, putting them one step closer to producing a completely synthetic organism, according to the institute.
The work, published online by Dan Gibson, Ph.D. in the journal Science, raises hopes for benefits like new drugs and pollution scarfing micro-organisms while spooking some with visions of biological warfare and patent wielding corporations controlling all future forms of synthetic life.
The researchers chemically created DNA fragments in the lab then used homologous recombination (a process that cells use to repair damage to their chromosomes) in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to rapidly build the entire bacterial chromosome from large sub-assemblies, according to the press release. "This extraordinary accomplishment is a technological marvel that was only made possible because of the unique and accomplished JCVI team," said president and founder J. Craig Venter.
Venter dismisses concerns that what JCVI is really creating is the "microbesoft" of synthetic life. His team has long been concerned with the societal issues surrounding its work and has undergone"significant ethical review" by experts who founds no reason why work should cease "as long as the scientists involved continued to engage public discussion," according to the JCVI Web site.
Critics remain unimpressed. "Venter is claiming bragging rights to the world's longest length of synthetic DNA, but size isn't everything. The important question is not 'how long?' but 'how wise?'" said Jim Thomas in a bio-watchdog article castigating Venter.
"While synthetic biology is speeding ahead in the lab and in the marketplace, societal debate and regulatory oversight is stalled and there has been no meaningful or inclusive discussion on how to govern synthetic biology in a safe and just way. In the absence of democratic oversight profiteering industrialists are tinkering with the building blocks of life for their own private gain."
Next step would be to insert the synthetic DNA into living cells and hope it becomes the world's first artificially created, self-replicating organism.
SAN FRANCISCO--Synthetic Genomics is certainly teaching microbes some interesting tricks.
The company, which specializes in genetically manipulating microorganisms and creating new organisms to accomplish industrial tasks, has devised a fuel cell that can generate water or electricity from the stuff that goes down your drain, said founder J. Craig Venter at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.
J. Craig Venter
"We have biological fuel cells driven by bacteria that take human wastewater and make drinking water or electricity out of it," he said. "We've been designing a number of organisms to try to replace traditional processes."
Synthetic Genomics is also tinkering on a microorganism that can produce a new type of jet fuel. The fuel is similar to ethanol and butanol but it won't absorb water, and thus it, potentially, will be more potent than ethanol or butanol. Venter admits he's not a big fan of ethanol, an alcohol distilled from plant matter that can be used for fuel.
"We've given up on ethanol. It is great for drinking, but it is not a good fuel," he said. "There are so many better compounds."
Synthetic Genomics also has a team that is optimizing algae as a feedstock for biofuels. The company has identified one species in which nearly half of the organism's mass is lipid. That's one greasy bug. Several companies, such as LiveFuels, are trying to come up with a way to produce large amounts of algae to be used as a feedstock for biodiesel. Some companies are using naturally occurring species of algae, while others are genetically optimizing algae.
A slew of companies--Synthetic Genomics, Fundamental Applied Biology and Gevo--have emerged in recent years to try and commercialize synthetic biology. The term refers to harnessing metabolic processes for industrial use. Microbes, after all, are just little chemical factories. They take in sugars, wood, milk and other substances and turn it into beer, cheese or ingredients for medicines. (The next time you open an expensive Burgundy, remember for a moment that it's just a big bottle of digestive remains of single-celled animals.)
Most of these companies are focused on coming up with ways to process existing biofuels or make new types of petroleum substitutes, preferably out of relatively worthless feedstocks like sewage, wastewater or wood chips. BP and Synthetic Genomics have also kicked off research to see if microorganisms found in oil fields can be exploited to get more oil out of the ground.
Some companies replicate the natural processes and aim not to use microorganisms at all. Others are manipulating the genetic code of these creatures and are making new ones.
"Within this century, people will sit down at their computers and design new plants to do a specific task," Venter said.
Genetics pioneer Craig Venter took the stage at the Web 2.0 Summit with organizer Tim O'Reilly. What's a biologist doing at a Web 2.0 conference? Talking about how information and biology are converging (and have been for a while).
(Credit:
J. Craig Venter Institute)
Interesting tidbits: Venter's own DNA was sequenced as part of his research. It cost, he estimates, about $70 million. Today it costs only $300,000 to sequence a person's DNA, and the $100,000 benchmark is in sight. It's an information processing problem, he said. In other words, Moore's Law and genetics are tightly tied. It won't be long before your genome--and your likelihood to get various diseases, live long, be athletic, etc.--will be available in a standard medical test.
The implications for medicine, and its evil twin the insurance industry, are vast. Despite the privacy issues, Venter is in favor of transparency in genomics, so that, for example, you'll be able to "Google a date's DNA," as O'Reilly remarked. Scary? Sure. But "a good idea," Venter said. "Especially if you plan to have children."
In other news, apparently we are "weeks to months away" from growing a living, but completely synthetic bacteria in the lab. If you find this terrifying and fascinating, I recommend the novel, The Deus Machine by Pierre Oullette (Amazon link).
CORONADO, Calif.--The car of the future will apparently have more in common with a kitchen appliance than a lawn mower.
Car design in years to come?
(Credit: Cuisinart)"The future is going to be an automobile that looks like a two-ton Cuisinart," said Josh Wolfe, managing partner of Lux Capital, at the Future in Review conference Wednesday. Wolfe was part of a panel discussion entitled "The Future of Energy on the Nanoscale," in which panelists focused mostly on battery technologies and how those will evolve for cars and other devices.
The night before, researcher J. Craig Venter suggested that fuels derived from algae could provide a much more abundant source of energy than that black goo under the deserts of the Middle East. Venter has been analyzing samples of ocean water taken during a cruise of the Sargasso Sea, and he and his team think they can use gene-sequencing technology to create microbes that could provide a future source of fuel. "My goal is to replace the petrochemical industry by the next decade."
Wednesday's panelists steered clear of biology, preferring to work on finding new markets for their existing products. "The nanomaterials and nanoscience haven't hooked up with the market," said Keith Blakely, CEO of Nanodynamics, which is working on fuel cell technology*.
"Most important is the electrification of automobiles, this is the trend, more than biofuel or gas substitutes," Wolfe said.
The Future in Review agenda is filled with discussions on future energy sources and challenges, and more debates are sure to emerge on how best to reduce the world's dependence on oil and coal.
*UPDATED - Keith Blakely notes in the comments below that I misinterpreted the tense on his remarks, in that when the Future in Review conference first started, the market opportunities weren't there. But, as evidenced by the fact that companies like Nanodynamics exist, the situation has changed. Sorry, Keith.
- prev
- 1
- next
