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PROGRAMMING LIFE. "In five years time, we will be programming bacterial cells in the computer and compiling and storing its program into these new cells so they can readily execute them.” https://lnkd.in/dSKGWDR View in LinkedIn

SYNTHETIC BUGS. "All the key barriers to the artificial synthesis of viruses and bacteria have been overcome. Einstein's revolutionary theories helped unravel the secrets of the cosmos. They also led to the atom bomb." http://www.cfr.org/united-states/biologys-brave-new-world/p31894 View in LinkedIn

REWRITING LIFE. "But the implications of being able to engineer cells go deeper, according to Enriquez. “This isn’t just about economic growth, this is also about where we are going as a human species,” he said. Humans will no longer merely adapt to or adopt the environment, but “begin to understand how life is written, how life is coded, how life is copied, and how you can rewrite life.” http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/03/26/making-living-matter-programmable/ View in LinkedIn

MANIPULATION OF LIFE. "Juan Enriquez, a self-described “curiosity expert” and co-founder of the company Synthetic Genomics, compared the digital revolution spawned by thinking of information as a string of ones and zeros to the coming synthetic biology revolution, premised on thinking about life as a mix of interchangeable parts – genes and gene networks – that can be learned and manipulated like any language." http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/03/26/making-living-matter-programmable/ View in LinkedIn

THE FUTURE IS PROGRAMMABLE CELLS. "Thirty years ago, the future lay in programming computers. Today, it’s programming cells. That was the message of panelists at “Programming Life: the revolutionary potential of synthetic biology.” https://lnkd.in/dTQVWrg View in LinkedIn

REDEFINING NATURE. "The potential of text, and of code that is currently built of text, is expanding in this era of the physical and the biological, where nature itself is being rethought and redefined." https://lnkd.in/dCVHq5S View in LinkedIn

MUTATION TOLERANCE ENHANCED. "While the impact of viral recombination in evolution remain somewhat obscure, it is clear that these processes can also repair mutated genomes by purging mutations even in cells infected at low multiplicity. Thus, these “repairs” maintain viral fitness, and they may serve to increase the mutational tolerance of viral populations." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042682215001580 View in LinkedIn

INCREASED DIVERSITY. "Many RNA viruses undergo recombination or reassortment during replication. In cells infected at high multiplicity, for example, this exchange of genetic information can increase genetic diversity by combining previously unique mutations into the same genome." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042682215001580 View in LinkedIn

COMPLEMENTATION. "The efficiency of purifying (or negative) selection is the product of effective population size and the average mutational fitness effect(s). In large populations, strong selection will quickly purge mutants with lower fitness. Larger population sizes may also result in higher multiplicities of infection, where a given cell supports replication of at least two different genomes. Here, genetic complementation can increase the robustness of the viral population." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042682215001580 View in LinkedIn

POPULATION SHIELD. "Most mutations have deleterious effects on viral fitness. Tolerance to mutational load determines the nature and extent of genetic diversity that can be maintained in the population. Thus, viral population diversity results from both the generation of mutations and the tolerance to them; these two factors together drive adaptation and virus evolution." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042682215001580 View in LinkedIn