[Eug]

Welcome to the up and coming field of synthetic biology. Computer analogies included for all the Mac geeks here.

Scientists create first artificial cell - The Globe and Mail

Scientists announced a bold step Friday in the enduring quest to create artificial life. They've produced a living cell powered by man-made DNA.

Is it really an artificial life form?

The inventors call it the world's first synthetic cell, although this initial step is more a re-creation of existing life — changing one simple type of bacterium into another — than a built-from-scratch kind.

“This is transforming life totally from one species into another by changing the software,” Dr. Venter said, using a computer analogy to explain the DNA's role.

The researchers picked two species of Mycoplasma, simple germs that contain a single chromosome and lack the cell walls that form barriers in other bacteria. First, they chemically synthesized the genome of M. mycoides, that goat germ, twice as large as the germ genome they'd previously built.

Then they transplanted it into a living cell from a different Mycoplasma species, albeit a fairly close cousin.

At first, nothing happened. The team scrambled to find out why, creating a genetic version of a computer proofreading program to spell-check the DNA fragments they'd pieced together. The result: They found that a typo in the genetic code, in one of the synthetic genome's million chemical base pairs, was rendering the man-made DNA inactive, delaying the project three months to find and restore that bit.

“It shows you how accurate it has to be, one letter out of a million,” Dr. Venter said.

That fixed, the transplant worked. The recipient cell started out with synthetic DNA and its original cytoplasm, but the new genome “booted up” that cell to start producing only proteins that normally would be found in the copied goat germ. It reproduced into a small colony of germs in a lab dish. The researchers had tagged the synthetic DNA to be able to tell it apart, and confirmed that those new ones really looked and behaved like M. mycoides, not the recipient cell.

[LegendaryPinkOx]

Originally Posted by Eug 

“This is transforming life totally from one species into another by changing the software,” Dr. Venter Venture said, using a computer analogy to explain the DNA's role."

Fixed.

[Eug]

BTW, her name is Synthia.

Her .....s are blue. NSFW?

 

P.S. There is a Synthia Venter on Facebook. I wonder what she thinks of all of this.

[imitchellg5]

Boy, they're already giving it pet names. It's the end of the world, folks.

[is not]

"The lack of humility before nature that's being displayed here, uh... staggers me."

[The Final Dakar]

We're all gonna die!!!!

[ceAvision]

Let hope they don't patent this new method of bio engineering and inhibit scientific innovation.

[hyteckit]

Can they grow human body parts that won't be rejected?

Major money.

Boobs, hair transplants, skin grafts, heart, kidney, and so forth.

[ort888]

Apparently this is the reward I get for years of screwing with superscience. In short, I pissed in God's eye... and He blinked...

[Rumor]

Good. I could use a new liver.