Assembling bits of lab-made DNA, researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Maryland say they have — for the first time ever — built the full genetic structure of a living organism from scratch.
The announcement was greeted with both elation and fear.
As Globe reporter Carolyn Abraham wrote in her article: Lab-made genome gives new life to ethics debate
"The feat marks a historic and controversial milestone in the fledgling field known as synthetic biology.
A team of 17 researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) has created the largest man-made DNA structure by synthesizing and assembling the 582,970 base pair genome of a bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium JCVI-1.0. (Credit: www.jcvi.org)
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"It uses chunks of synthetic DNA like Lego blocks, with an aim to create life forms that can be genetically programmed to perform useful tasks.
"Its proponents envision making micro-organisms that gobble up pollution, produce hard-to-make drugs, pump out clean energy, or, at the whimsical end, flowers designed to bloom on your birthday."
Ms. Abraham also wrote that "bioethicists and some scientists allege that the researchers have applied for such broad patents on their human-made genome that, if granted, they might give the group a monopoly on the making of all synthetic life forms — which some believe will fuel the next industrial revolution."
The idea that lab-made DNA can be assembled to create new life forms is fascinating and a bit frightening.
What is the next step? How far are we from a breakthrough in the lab to something we can use in our daily lives?
Ms. Abraham joined us online to take your questions on her article and on the issues it raises.
Carolyn Abraham has been the medical reporter at The Globe and Mail since 1998.
She has written extensively on developments in genetics, stem cell research and neuroscience, focusing on the science as well as the social and ethical issues they raise.
She is a four-time winner of the Canadian Science Writers Association national award for medical reporting and has twice won the Edward Goff Penny Memorial Prize from the Canadian Daily Newspaper Association for investigative work and feature writing.
Ms. Abraham is the author of the internationally published Possessing Genius: The Bizarre Odyssey of Einstein's Brain (2001), winner of the Canadian Science Writers national book award and a finalist for the Governor General's Award in non-fiction.
She was born in England, and is a graduate of the journalism program at Carleton Unviersity, where she also specialized in political science.
Before joining The Globe, she was a feature writer for Southam News and a Queen's Park correspondent for The Ottawa Citizen.
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Christine Diemert, globeandmail.com: Carolyn, thanks for joining us today. The subject of synthetic creation is broad and sweeping and we've got a number of questions and comments for you to tackle. But before we begin, one of the things you wrote in your story last week caught my eye: "With advances in computer technology, making bits of DNA from scratch has become relatively easy and cheap in recent years. Even amateurs can type up genetic code with keystrokes, e-mail it to a commercial lab that spits it out as chemical dots on a glass sheet, synthesizes it, tucks it into a bacteria for transport and returns a live version to the customer."
Does this happen now and in what way?
Carolyn Abraham: Hello Christine and thanks for having me.
For the last several years, research groups, corporate scientists and students alike, have been able to "make" stretches of DNA from scratch. As described in the article, at least half a dozen companies exist that essentially take orders from customers to produce "base pairs" — which are nucleotides, or the chemical units that make up DNA. The companies, of which Blue Heron is the best known, synthesize these DNA stretches and send them back out to customers, and the price has been dropping steadily over the last several years, from $20 per base pair in 2000/2001 to less than a dollar today. Making DNA has become a regular part of university-student science fairs, and in one case I know, an expert has even fielded "how to" questions from a teenager in Grade 10.
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