Can Man Pose a Challenge to God?
US scientists have developed the first cell controlled by a synthetic genome, in a breakthrough which may lead to creating bacteria to clean up environmental problems.
"We call it synthetic because the cell is totally derived from a synthetic chromosome, made with four bottles of chemicals on a chemical synthesiser, starting with information in a computer.said lead researcher Craig Venter."
Now the method could be used to design bacteria specifically to help produce biofuels or to clean up environmental hazards. "This becomes a very powerful tool for trying to design what we want biology to do. We have a wide range of applications (in mind)," said Venter.
Venter’s team announced in 2008 that it had chemically synthesised a bacterial genome, and transplanted the genome of one bacterium to another to recreate the complete genome of the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium. The announcement builds on the team’s earlier work. Potential applications include producing algae to clean up carbon dioxide.