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Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first synthetic living cell.
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The advance, published in Science, has been hailed as a scientific landmark, but critics (“Synthia is Alive and Breeding: Panacea or Pandora’s Box?” from the ETC Group) say there are dangers posed by synthetic organisms. The researchers hope eventually to design bacterial cells that will produce medicines and fuels and even absorb greenhouse gases.

The team was led by Dr Craig Venter of the J Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in Maryland and California. He and his colleagues had previously made a synthetic bacterial genome, and transplanted the genome of one bacterium into another.

Now, the scientists have put both methods together, to create what they call a “synthetic cell”, although only its genome is truly synthetic. Dr Venter likened the advance to making new software for the cell.

Read the entire article on BBC. Read “Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome” in Science (PDF). The press release is found here.

Also see “Life after the synthetic cell” in Nature (PDF) and “Scientists Bring Back Artificial Life — and Our Fear of Frankenstein” in Huffington Post.