Synthetic Life Accomplished!!

[bugmenоt]

IMO the most interesting part is that the DNA was synthetically put together AND the resulting bacteria can replicate themselves. There could come the time when it's considered immoral for parents to give birth to a child without "improving" the DNA.
"It's in your hands, Mr. and Mrs. XX. Your child will have to face several disadvantages if you don't let us do certain changes. Can you stand behind this?"

Wrong technology, the one you're looking for is gene therapy.

I don't think so. Isn't gene therapy applied when there's already a fetus or even a born human? What I meant is to change the DNA of an insemiated egg before it starts to multiply.

[Vene]

IMO the most interesting part is that the DNA was synthetically put together AND the resulting bacteria can replicate themselves. There could come the time when it's considered immoral for parents to give birth to a child without "improving" the DNA.
"It's in your hands, Mr. and Mrs. XX. Your child will have to face several disadvantages if you don't let us do certain changes. Can you stand behind this?"

Wrong technology, the one you're looking for is gene therapy.

I don't think so. Isn't gene therapy applied when there's already a fetus or even a born human? What I meant is to change the DNA of an insemiated egg before it starts to multiply.

That's still the same technology as gene therapy, using a virus to deliver some packet of DNA.

[Kai]

Except of course that this thing is genetically identical to the original, except for non coding watermarks.  This is a proof of concept that from scratch DNA is possible, they didn't actually write any of the code.

Why reinvent the wheel?

[Vene]

Except of course that this thing is genetically identical to the original, except for non coding watermarks.  This is a proof of concept that from scratch DNA is possible, they didn't actually write any of the code.

Why reinvent the wheel?

I'd rather see them make genes from scratch to do processes for us. To pull a possibility out of my ass, like an enzyme that can produce hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide and water. I have no clue if that specific example is one that is worth pursuing, but what's the point in engineering a different way to make a polymerase, actin, or a replacement for a g-protein?

[Kai]

Except of course that this thing is genetically identical to the original, except for non coding watermarks.  This is a proof of concept that from scratch DNA is possible, they didn't actually write any of the code.

Why reinvent the wheel?

I'd rather see them make genes from scratch to do processes for us. To pull a possibility out of my ass, like an enzyme that can produce hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide and water. I have no clue if that specific example is one that is worth pursuing, but what's the point in engineering a different way to make a polymerase, actin, or a replacement for a g-protein?

Well, if you can create a genome basepair by basepair and include "watermark" sequence, then you can certainly put anything you want in there.

This is a step in the right direction, because now we can put in whatever sequence we want and literally start working to build protein coding genes that result in various shapes. The shape is the important thing, as I'm sure you know.

Lots of interesting things in the future. We live in interesting times.


IMO, the next step is to create a living cell from scratch. We can do the genome, but what about the organelles? The cell membrane?

[Vene]

IMO, the next step is to create a living cell from scratch. We can do the genome, but what about the organelles? The cell membrane?

Yes please, I so want to see that. Not to mention that I so want to do that.

[Remington]

IMO, the next step is to create a living cell from scratch. We can do the genome, but what about the organelles? The cell membrane?

Best selling toy of 2020: The Easy-Gene Oven?

[Brotep]

Neat, but I find the prospect of copyrighted organisms somewhat annoying outside of science fiction.

[Requia ☣]

Except of course that this thing is genetically identical to the original, except for non coding watermarks.  This is a proof of concept that from scratch DNA is possible, they didn't actually write any of the code.

Why reinvent the wheel?

It's just what I think of when I hear 'synthetic life'.  This is really really cool, I just don't see it as synthetic life, its synthetic DNA, but more 'natural' than even crossbreeding two species that never would have met in nature (like a mule, some crops etc).

Not that it won't lead to lots of perversions of nature in the near future, which I totally support.

[Brotep]

It's just what I think of when I hear 'synthetic life'.  This is really really cool, I just don't see it as synthetic life, its synthetic DNA, but more 'natural' than even crossbreeding two species that never would have met in nature (like a mule, some crops etc).

Yeah...I think creating truly synthetic (i.e., not DNA-based) life would be much harder. At least in this project the problems were clearly defined.

In a sense I will be trying to do what they didn't, as I will be dicking around with artificial life simulations again soon.

Rebuilding a genome from scratch is pretty cool, though. I mean, taking apart and reassembling a watch is neat. Doing the same with a bacterium is damned impressive.

Not that it won't lead to lots of perversions of nature in the near future, which I totally support.

[Kai]

Neat, but I find the prospect of copyrighted organisms somewhat annoying outside of science fiction.

Except of course that this thing is genetically identical to the original, except for non coding watermarks.  This is a proof of concept that from scratch DNA is possible, they didn't actually write any of the code.

Why reinvent the wheel?

It's just what I think of when I hear 'synthetic life'.  This is really really cool, I just don't see it as synthetic life, its synthetic DNA, but more 'natural' than even crossbreeding two species that never would have met in nature (like a mule, some crops etc).

Not that it won't lead to lots of perversions of nature in the near future, which I totally support.

The only thing that can imitate life is life. It's impossible to replace parts of a living cell with anything else. A membrane needs to have hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties and be a bilayer compatible with protein inserts so it has semi-permiability. There is really no replacement for phospholipids in that sense.

[Brotep]

The only thing that can imitate life is life. It's impossible to replace parts of a living cell with anything else. A membrane needs to have hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties and be a bilayer compatible with protein inserts so it has semi-permiability. There is really no replacement for phospholipids in that sense.

Maybe so...Assuming that it will be made up of matter and living in our universe and not, say, a bit of code in the world of a computer simulation.

[Vene]

The only thing that can imitate life is life. It's impossible to replace parts of a living cell with anything else. A membrane needs to have hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties and be a bilayer compatible with protein inserts so it has semi-permiability. There is really no replacement for phospholipids in that sense.

Maybe so...Assuming that it will be made up of matter and living in our universe and not, say, a bit of code in the world of a computer simulation.

How would a bit of code be alive? Life has a scientific definition, it would have to meet those requirements.

1) Reproduction
2) Metabolism
3) Growth
4) Response to external stimuli

I can see a piece of code being able to reproduce, I can see it responding to external commands and other bits of software, I'm not sure how it would growth, but I'm highly skeptical of it being able to metabolize.

[Jasper]

Well, when code incorporates new information it could be said to grow.

[Vene]

Well, when code incorporates new information it could be said to grow.

I could accept that one.

Oh, and a thought. I'd like to see this done with a eukaryote. Not just for the nuclear DNA, but for the mitochondrial DNA. But, since Venter's goal is to go further and create fully synthetic life, I doubt this is the next thing he'll work on. I think it's much more likely he'll work on making synthetic versions of other cellular systems for prokaryotes.