Month: September 2022

HUMAN-DIRECTED EVOLUTION. "Molecular technologies are now adding a further layer to this information flow. For the first time in 3.7 billion years, the Central Dogma has acquired an additional step, to include digital storage of biological information." https://lnkd.in/eKjEK6c View in LinkedIn

CRAG VENTER TED talk on his synthetic cell. "Craig Venter and team make a historic announcement: they've created the first fully functioning, reproducing cell controlled by synthetic DNA. He explains how they did it and why the achievement marks the beginning of a new era for science." https://lnkd.in/dezjjjG View in LinkedIn

GENOME TRANSPLANTATION. "In 2007 Venter transplanted the genome of one Mycoplasma bacterium into another." https://lnkd.in/e9ZJKP5 View in LinkedIn

MINIMAL GENOME. "Venter and his colleagues also synthesized a trimmed down, artificial version of Mycoplasma's DNA, a project known as the Minimal Genome Project. Attempts to implant the synthetic DNA all failed, until now." https://lnkd.in/e9ZJKP5 View in LinkedIn

SYNTHETIC LIFE RACE. "‘Minimal’ cell raises stakes in race to harness synthetic life. Genomics entrepreneur Craig Venter has created a synthetic cell that contains the smallest genome of any known, independent organism. Functioning with 473 genes, the cell is a milestone in his team’s 20-year quest to reduce life to its bare essentials and, by extension, to design life from scratch." http://www.nature.com/news/minimal-cell-raises-stakes-in-race-to-harness-synthetic-life-1.19633 View in LinkedIn

SYNTHETIC SPECIES. "Unlike the first synthetic cells made in 2010, in which Venter’s team at the J. Craig Venter Institute in La Jolla, California, copied an existing bacterial genome and transplanted it into another cell, the genome of the minimal cells is like nothing in nature. Venter says that the cell, which is described in a paper released on 24 March in Science, constitutes a brand new, artificial species." http://www.nature.com/news/minimal-cell-raises-stakes-in-race-to-harness-synthetic-life-1.19633 View in LinkedIn

FLABBERGASTING UNKNOWN. "With nearly all of its nutrients supplied through growth media, syn3.0’s essential genes tend to be those involved in cellular chores such as making proteins, copying DNA and building cellular membranes. Astoundingly, Venter says that his team could not identify the function of 149 of the genes in syn3.0’s genome, many of which are found in other life forms, including humans. “We don’t know about a third of essential life, and we’re trying to sort that out now,” he says." http://www.nature.com/news/minimal-cell-raises-stakes-in-race-to-harness-synthetic-life-1.19633 View in LinkedIn

WORKING IN THE DARK. "Even Venter acknowledges that syn3.0’s genome, although new, was designed by trial and error, rather than being based on a fundamental understanding of how to build a functioning genome." http://www.nature.com/news/minimal-cell-raises-stakes-in-race-to-harness-synthetic-life-1.19633 View in LinkedIn

ARTIFICIAL GENOME TRANSPLANTATION. Craig Venter created synthetic DNA on a computer and booted up a disabled cell sack. "Using the tools of synthetic biology, scientists from the J. Craig Venter Institute installed a completely artificial genome inside a host cell without DNA. Like the bolt of lightening that awakened Frankenstein, the new genome invigorated the host cell, which began to grow and reproduce, albeit with a few problems." https://lnkd.in/e9ZJKP5 View in LinkedIn

HISTORIC MOMENT. "Scientists report the first successful implantation of fully synthetic genome. The manmade genome was more than one million base pairs long." https://lnkd.in/e9ZJKP5 View in LinkedIn