Synthetic Biology News Roundup

The J. Craig Venter Institute is on a synthetic biology roll. Researchers there announced last summer that they had removed the original genome of a living cell and replaced it with a new one, effectively changing the species of the cell. Last week they announced assembly of the first synthetic genome, taking the next major step towards creating synthetic life. The lab-made genome is virtually identical to that of bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium. They hope, however, to eventually design their own genomes, swap them into living cells, and grow bugs with industrially valuable applications like the ability to metabolize raw materials into fuels or capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Those applications were the focus of much of the mainstream press attention after last week’s announcement.

Reuters’s coverage concentrated exclusively on fuel and tied the story to an earlier announcement by General Motors that it had partnered with bioenergy company Coskata, a developer of industrial biotechnologies that employ cellular metabolisms. The Wall Street Journal likewise briefly mentioned producing clean fuels and sequestering carbon.

The BBC focused on the same potential uses of synthetic organisms while incorporating perspectives of scientists and ethicists. Hamilton Smith, a researcher who was part of the Science study, said the research team prefers the word “synthetic” rather than “artificial.” He explained: “With synthetic life, we’re re-designing the cell chromosomes; we’re not creating a whole new artificial life system.” Drew Endy of the Department of Biological Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was not directly involved in the research, said he is optimistic about being able to “routinely design and construct the genomes of any bacteria or single celled eukaryote” within five years. Simon Woods, a bioethicist at the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre at the University of Newcastle, UK, worried that scientists were acting in the complete absence of formal government regulations.

National Human Genome Research Institute director Francis Collins, as reported in Wired Science, called the new study a “methodological tour-de-force,” but cautioned that industrial applications will have to wait years while biologists learn more about what functions specific genes actually perform.

Other news reports raised questions about possible risks of synthetic biological research and even challenged Venter’s intentions.

Rick Weiss in the Washington Post framed the story as a debate between people like Venter who emphasize the benefits of the research, like biofuel production, and critics who emphasize the risks, like biological weapons and unintended environmental damage. In the same article, Harvard Medical School geneticist George Church criticized Venter for conspicuously ignoring or downplaying economic issues, such as the actual financial cost of performing the procedure, which Venter did not disclose.

The New York Times mentioned the same risks as the Post article: human pathogens and ecosystem destruction. In the Times, Jeremy Minshull, chief executive of DNA 2.0, a company that supplied some the nucleic acids used by the research team, was quoted surmising about Venter’s intention: “To some extent, it’s something that was driven by ‘I want to be the first person to do it.’” Also, Jim Thomas, a program manager at the ETC Group, a technology-focused NGO based in Canada, echoed Simon Woods by expressing concern for both the lack of regulation for synthetic biology research and Venter’s broad patent applications covering the Institute’s genetic work. The ETC Group is calling for a moratorium on synthetic biology research so stakeholders can debate its ethical, legal, and social ramifications.

Leo Hickman in Guardian Unlimited invoked Frankenstein, popular science fiction, and the fear of “playing God” to endorse the proposed ban on synthetic biology. The Creation Museum went a step further and claimed that the creation of synthetic life is simply not possible.

Tags: synbio, synthetic life

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