Scientists Create Artificial Life

Who said that Biology and Computer Science have nothing in common? Craig Venter, the biologist who led the effort to map the human genome, has reported that the first cell controlled entirely by man-made genetic instructions had been produced.

With four bottles of chemicals and a computer, Dr. Venter’s team coded the organism’s DNA and injected the man-made “software” into a host bacterium. Technically, life wasn’t created from scratch. The team used a “god-made” bacterium as a host and by “installing” the artificially coded DNA, rebooted the organism. “The resulting microbe then looked and behaved like the species “dictated” by the synthetic DNA”, says BBC News.

This organism doesn’t have any purpose at all. It is just a proof of concept, a prototype. In the future, DNA will be coded to instruct organisms to do specific tasks, such us capturing CO2 from the environment, fight tumorous cells, and things that are still beyond our imagination. It’s a scientific revolution and might be a paradigm changer as well.

Voices of concern have raised since the announcement was made. Dr Helen Wallace from Genewatch UK, an organisation that monitors developments in genetic technologies, told BBC News that synthetic bacteria could be dangerous. ”If you release new organisms into the environment, you can do more harm than good,” she said. ”By releasing them into areas of pollution, (with the aim of cleaning it up), you’re actually releasing a new kind of pollution. We don’t know how these organisms will behave in the environment.”

Julian Savulescu, Professor of Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford, said when interviewed for Times: “Venter is creaking open the most profound door in humanity’s history, potentially peeking into its destiny. He is going towards the role of a god: creating artificial life that could never have existed naturally. The potential is in the far future, but real and significant. But the risks are also unparalleled.”

As with every ground breaking discovery in genetics, the potential benefits can be as big as the potential risks (bioterrorism, uncontrolled spread of a harmful organism, unforeseen mutations). It will all depend on how well this research is regulated, how responsibly it is deployed; and in which hands it lands.

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Image credit, Law in Quebec

Article by Fernando

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