Bacteria but not as we know it
Friday 21 May 2010
In response to the recent announcement in Science that Dr Craig Venter and his team at the J Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) have developed a bacterial cell controlled by a chemically synthesised genome, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council (MRC), offers the following comment:
Sir Leszek says: “The Medical Research Council commends Dr Venter’s achievement. To create a synthetic genome and then successfully combine it with an existing cell that can then divide is a major technical triumph. This announcement holds up as a landmark in our ability to manipulate cells and offers great potential for the future; we are thrilled to see that the world is excited by the opportunities biological research can offer. It is vital, however, that we understand what has been accomplished here: by creating a synthetic genome, Dr Venter’s work is comparable to writing original software for a computer, but the process of creating ‘synthetic life’ or the ‘hardware’ of a cell remains a much greater challenge.”
The original report can be found on the Science website.
