Released on - 5/25/2010 2:33:23 PM
It seems as if the final frontier has been breached! Man has actually started playing God. All these years, we could only dream of re-creating God's miracles. We could only hope to imitate Him by cloning mammals like Dolly the Sheep, by reproducing babies in petri dishes and so on. At best, we could create mirror images or we could repair what He had created.
A Reproducing Synthetic Cell
But today seems as if mankind can create! Yes, man has made a synthetic cell and as a result, a completely new species. First, hats off for creating this cell. But wait, there is more. This cell has survived and it has been able to reproduce itself! This means it could program itself to follow an artificial DNA sequence. This will lead to designer genomes for sure.
Big deal, huh? We can make designer babies, so what is this all about? Well, consider this scenario; you need knee replacement surgery or a heart transplant; after doctors have given you a new knee, heart, bones, limbs or cataracts, what happens? You keep aging, your body changes naturally but your artificial limbs don't. Your synthetic tissue remains static and a day arrives when your older, aging body might reject the younger, static tissue since it has become incompatible with it. Now, using these synthetic cells, there is a chance that the cells might be able to grow and reproduce along the lines that you want.
Say hello to designer genomes!
To Create Life Out of Life
A team at the J. Craig Venter Institute, led by Dr Craig Venter and now including Dan Gibson, has the ability to produce artificial organisms from scratch. It took 15 years and 30 million USD to create this new species, known as "JCVI-syn1.0" and it is the first of its kind.
It has been patented and watermarked in all sorts of ways. Using genes and proteins as alphabets, the team has encoded a line from James Joyce's famous novel, "To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life." The organism also has a website address and an email ID encoded inside it in.
A Reproducing Synthetic Cell
But today seems as if mankind can create! Yes, man has made a synthetic cell and as a result, a completely new species. First, hats off for creating this cell. But wait, there is more. This cell has survived and it has been able to reproduce itself! This means it could program itself to follow an artificial DNA sequence. This will lead to designer genomes for sure.
Big deal, huh? We can make designer babies, so what is this all about? Well, consider this scenario; you need knee replacement surgery or a heart transplant; after doctors have given you a new knee, heart, bones, limbs or cataracts, what happens? You keep aging, your body changes naturally but your artificial limbs don't. Your synthetic tissue remains static and a day arrives when your older, aging body might reject the younger, static tissue since it has become incompatible with it. Now, using these synthetic cells, there is a chance that the cells might be able to grow and reproduce along the lines that you want.
Say hello to designer genomes!
To Create Life Out of Life
A team at the J. Craig Venter Institute, led by Dr Craig Venter and now including Dan Gibson, has the ability to produce artificial organisms from scratch. It took 15 years and 30 million USD to create this new species, known as "JCVI-syn1.0" and it is the first of its kind.
It has been patented and watermarked in all sorts of ways. Using genes and proteins as alphabets, the team has encoded a line from James Joyce's famous novel, "To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life." The organism also has a website address and an email ID encoded inside it in.
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