Synthetic Biology
The Synthetic Surge
08/11/11 13:44 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Researchers at the University of Nottingham in the UK are leading an international team of synthetic biologists in a project that aims to try to create a "reprogrammable cell that can act as the in vivo cell equivalent to a computer's operating system. Clay Dillow in Popular Science wrote that amongst other things, "customized living cells could be tailored to clean up environmental disasters, scrub unwanted carbon from the air, pull pollutants from drinking water, attack pathogens inside the human body, (and) protect food sources from agricultural pests." S. Pelech comments that the use of such terminology such as the creation of "cellular software that would let researchers alter living cells without changing their hardware" and that this would produce a "reprogrammable cell that can act as the in vivo cell equivalent to a computer's operating system" reveals a lack of basic understanding cell biology and what is actually meant by "synthetic biology". Read More...
Stop That!
14/03/12 17:52 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Elizabeth Pennisi in ScienceInsider reported that a group of 111 watchdog and other organizations are calling for a moratorium on synthetic biology research until there is more oversight and governmental regulation. The group released a report that calls for more regulation with specific recommendations for "managing new biological techniques for building and remaking organisms for research and commercial uses." S. Pelech comments that humanity has been performing selective breeding of plants and animals for our purposes for over 10,000 years, and synthetic biology is just another advancement in our ability to modify other organisms or ourselves in an intelligent way. Recommendations related to ethics considerations that encompass religious concerns are likely to severely handicap adoption of synthetic biology research projects in the US. Read More...
The Next Big Frontier?
16/03/12 13:43 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Andrew Hessel from Singularity University in the Huffington Post's Science blog called for a second Human Genome Project in which a complete 3 billion basepair human genome is synthesized, correctly organized into 23 chromosomes, and packaged into a nucleus to become functional when microinjected into a cultured cell. S. Pelech offers a number of reasons why the concept of chemically synthesizing a complete human genome at this time is just plain silly. Read More...
Why Craig Venter Isn't Actually God
28/05/10 12:50 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Many bloggers have been critical of the hype that Craig Venter has generated with the successful transplantation of a synthetic genome into a bacteria. S. Pelech feels that this achievement from Dr. Venter and his team is monumental, even if it is incremental, and that Dr. Venter has been entirely frank and reasonable about the accomplishment and its implications in public interviews. Read More...