Rockville, MD – Artificial life will be created within four months, a controversial scientist has predicted. Craig Venter, who led a private project to sequence the human genome, told The Times that his team had cleared a critical hurdle to creating man-made organisms in a laboratory.
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“Assuming we don’t make any errors, I think it should work and we should have the first synthetic species by the end of the year,” he said.
Dr Venter, who has been chasing his goal for a decade, is already working on projects to use synthetic biology to create bacteria that transform coal into cleaner natural gas, and algae that soak up carbon dioxide and turn it into hydrocarbon fuels. Other potential applications include new ways of manufacturing medicines and vaccines.
Dr Venter’s prediction came after scientists at his J. Craig Venter Institute, in Rockville, Maryland, announced that they had developed a new method of transplanting DNA into bacteria, promising to solve a problem that has held up the artificial life project for two years.
The team took the first step in 2007 by implanting the genome of a bacterium, Mycoplasma mycoides, into cells belonging to a close relative, Mycoplasma capricolum. This transformed the host bacteria into Mycoplasma mycoides.
Last January the team built a bacterium’s entire genetic code from scratch. The next step was to transfer this synthetic genome into a host cell, using the 2007 transplant technique, to “reboot” it with genetic instructions written by humans. This has failed so far because the synthetic genome will not work when it is transplanted into host cells.
The new research, published in Science, has identified the probable reason for this failure and developed a new approach that should address it.
Natural bacterial genomes, such as the one that was successfully transplanted, are chemically modified by a process called methylation. When they are inserted into other cells this process appears to protect them against chemicals called restriction enzymes, which defend against viruses.
The synthetic genome, however, is not methylated, as it has to be grown in yeast, which does not provide the necessary chemical modifications, thus leaving it open to attack by the restriction enzymes.
In the new study, the Venter team grew the natural M. mycoides genome in yeast, under similar conditions to the synthetic genome, so that it had no methylation. These genomes failed to take when they were transplanted into host cells.
The team then remethylated the M. mycoides genome in the laboratory before placing it into the host cell. This time the transplants worked and the cells were rebooted as M. mycoides.
The success suggests that methylating the synthetic genome before transfer should allow it to take over host cells and reboot them with its DNA. Experiments in this have now begun.
Methylation should protect the synthetic genome against the host cells’ defences, much as drugs that suppress the immune system protect transplanted organs against rejection.
Hamilton Smith, a Nobel laureate who is another leader of the research, said: “I believe this work has important implications in better understanding the fundamentals of biology to enable the final stages of our work in creating and booting up a synthetic genome. This is possibly one of the most important new findings in the field of synthetic genomics.”
Dr Venter said the research was particularly important because it opened the door to altering algae and bacteria to perform useful functions.
“This could be one of the most powerful tools in biology,” he said.
There is some amazing research going on in the U.S. but especially in EY that b’yirtzah ha’shem will make artificial life a reality within the decade. such an outcome would have incredibel potential to extend human life, cure disease and relieve suffering. We should pray for the success of these scientific research efforts.
Will they be selling parts? If yes, I’ll put together a person or two….
I don’t go for this business of playing around with genes. Hashem created the world perfect, yet man thinks he can make it even more perfect which is of course not possible, and the end result is usually disasterous. Man should not be playing around with nature.
Actually, we have arguably already created life. We can make some virii from off-the-shelf parts and a sequenced genetic code. There’s spirited debate over whether they are actually alive worthy of Shammai vs. Hillel.
In any case, ready or not, here it comes. Let us hope that our ethics are up to the task and that the decisions do not rest solely in the hands of the priests of the Almighty Dollar.
For those ehrleche yidden who will immediately kvetch that man should not “play god” and only hasehm should be allowed to create life, I remind you that it is the same ebeshter who gives scientists the chachma to achieve such brilliant steps forward. If you have any doubts, read the writings of Horav Moshe Tendler, shlita, one of the gadolim of our generation and a world class biological researcher and ethicist.
The Maharal beat him to it.
I would love to see a piece of skin man made, let alone a human being.
Every single cell and molecule that makes up a man is never going to be possible to reproduce. Each and every thing is a miracle, and is a creation that cannot be duplicated. What a waste of time! Worse than man going to the moon!
with obama-care you will not be entitled to take advantage of this technology anyways – because it will not fit in his health s-care plan – it will be too costly
HKB”H gave us the seichel to investigate the natural world and to solve problems. We have been able to solve many of the world’s problems with Hashem’s help. and we will solve more. You don’t like fooling around with genes? What do you eat? Virtually all strians of plants and animals have been genetically manipulated, even if only by selective breeding.
As far as the “creation” of artificial life–here is where Hebrew is a superior language to English. As a scientist, I can say that I “found” (matzati)I “did” asiti), I discovered (giliti).
We do not say in Hebrew “I created”. In modern Hebrew, just as in biblical Hebrew, “to create” (livro) belongs only to HKB”H and is only used when referencing Ma’aseh Hashem.
Hebrew may be word-poor, but the ideas are there when we need them.
i think that should this be successful it would be a tremendous tool, the problem is that unless im mistaken, and i hope i am, this tool could be used as tremendously for bad as it could for good, it could help with numerous diseases and bring so many other wonderful gifts, on the other hand, if the technique, which is not being hidden as far as i can tell, falls into the hands of people with less then proper scruples, it could, ch”v be used to create custom made deadly bacteria and other such biological weapons. so if this works, i simply pray that mankind should use this tool ethically
tihiyeh mitalmidei shel aharon
gavi