Geneticist Creates Artificial Life

In January 2009 PSFK wrote about controversial geneticist Craig Venter, who along with James Watson, was honored with the Double Helix Award from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for their world-first work decoding their complete genetic information.  Working out of the California and Maryland-based J. Craig Venter Institute, Dr Venter and his team have successfully created a living cell containing synthetically-engineered DNA.

On the world first, Dr Venter stated;

This is an important step, we think, both scientifically and philosophically. It’s certainly changed my views of the definitions of life and how life works. This is the first synthetic cell that’s been made and we call it synthetic because the cell is totally derived from a synthetic (gene-bearing) chromosome, made with four bottles of chemicals on a chemical synthesiser, starting with information in a computer.

The news first broke yesterday in Science Journal, with the genetic breakthrough paving the way for ‘designer’ microbes created in a lab to perform specific tasks.

J. Craig Venter Institute

[via The Australian]