Building life from scrap in the lab (Image: Thomas Deerinck/NCMIR/SPL)
Waiting for Synthia – that has been the script for enthusiasts of synthetic life for the past two years, ever since genomics pioneer Craig Venter promised to unveil a living bacterial cell carrying a genome made from scratch in the lab. 2010 is the year for him to deliver.
Synthia is the popular name for a species containing a lab-built set of genetic instructions that are close to the minimum necessary to support bacterial life – based on the DNA of a microbe called Mycoplasma genitalium.
When Venter announced the creation…
