Synthia is alive. For the first time, scientists have managed to re-create the DNA of a bacteria, and insert it into a cell. Led by 63 year old Craig Ventor, billionaire genius, showman, and possibly the world's greatest scientific provocateur, a private team of scientists mapped the genes of a bacterium. With the aid of a computer, they then assembled a completely artificial DNA sequence. Ventor stated
We announced the first cell that is totally controlled by a synthetic chromosome, that we designed in a computer based on an existing chromosome.We built it from four bottles of chemicals.. that's over a million base pairs [of chromosomes]. We assembled that and transplanted it into a recipient cell and that new chromosome started being read by the machinery in the cell, producing new proteins, and totally transformed that cell into a new species coded by the synthetic chromosome.So it's the first living self-replicating cell that we have on the planet whose DNA was made chemically and designed in the computer.So it has no genetic ancestors. Its parent is a computer.
Basically, he says, it is simply software, just computer language, that has been placed into a living cell and has become alive itself.
Ventor's vision for these new artificial bugs would include microbes that would efficiently sequester CO2 to be used as biofuels, mopping up oil spills and toxic chemicals, designing microbes to live on other planets, and creating cures for some diseases and genetic ailments. Now that the scientist, whose J Craig Venter Institute has labs in California and Maryland, has proved the concept, the path is open for him to alter the 'recipe' to create any sort of organism he chooses.
Next on his agenda is the creation of a cell totally from scratch, without using any bits of living material. This would finally disprove the notion of a "life force" or "vital spark", and would relegate all life to the status of being just a collection of molecules arranged in a way to provide for self replication. The debate about viruses and bacteria, viruses being a form of crystalline machine-like structures and bacteria more closely fitting our self perceived version of what life is might be finally hashed out. We could also genetically engineer bacteria that would short circuit all the known viruses in the world.
With all the potential for good, comes the potential for unseen or unintended consequences. Or even the deliberate. Professor Julian Savulescu, an Oxford University ethicist, said:
Venter is creaking open the most profound door in humanity's history, potentially peeking into its destiny. He is not merely copying life artificially or modifying it by genetic engineering. He is going towards the role of God: Creating artificial life that could never have existed.This could be used in the future to make the most powerful bioweapons imaginable. The challenge is to eat the fruit without the worm.
He said the creation of the first designer bug was a step towards 'the creation of living beings with capacities and a nature that could never have naturally evolved'. The risks were 'unparalleled',' he added.