The Prairie Pooch Hole
Pooch Dog says you should keep up with "synthetic biology." Might sound boring. But, think about the two words... biology=life
synthetic=made by man...
Which translates to...
Life, Made By Man!
That's where we're heading little by little. Now, read on...
IT IS one of the fundamental principles of life. DNA makes RNA, and each three-letter "codon" of RNA is an instruction to include one of 20 different amino acids in a protein chain.Not for much longer. Last week, Farren Isaacs from Harvard University announced that he was close to "recoding" the genome of Escherichia coli so that a DNA codon that usually signals the end of a protein chain now sits unused and waiting to be reassigned to a different amino acid - perhaps one that doesn't even exist yet.Meanwhile, Jason Chin at the University of Cambridge has modified ribosomes - the cellular factories that assemble proteins - to make them incorporate useful laboratory-crafted amino acids into proteins. Eventually he hopes to use bacterial cells to create entirely new proteins, plastics or biofuels.This is the cutting edge of synthetic biology, a rapidly expanding field in which researchers are rewriting the basic operating instructions of living cells. It opens up myriad possibilities for biotechnology in decades to come. For example, it may be possible to create antibiotic molecules that defeat the defences of resistant strains of bacteria, or new biofuels that would be churned out by bacteria rather than by eating into our food supply.These techniques go far further than traditional genetic modification, and regulators are starting to cast a wary eye over them. GM usually involves transferring a single gene from one existing organism into another, and because there is little control over whether the gene will be expressed it is hard to tell how much protein will be made - if any.Using synthetic biology, it becomes possible to custom-build packages of DNA that incorporate multiple genes and regulatory sequences that work together as a multi-step chemical factory. For example, Jay Keasling at the University of California, Berkeley, is using a yeast with 12 synthetic genes to churn out quantities of a precursor to the malaria drug artemisinin. "Within two to three years one 50,000-litre chemical reactor could produce all the drug that is needed in the world," says Keasling, who presented his results at the Royal Society in London last week.
IT IS one of the fundamental principles of life. DNA makes RNA, and each three-letter "codon" of RNA is an instruction to include one of 20 different amino acids in a protein chain.Not for much longer. Last week, Farren Isaacs from Harvard University announced that he was close to "recoding" the genome of Escherichia coli so that a DNA codon that usually signals the end of a protein chain now sits unused and waiting to be reassigned to a different amino acid - perhaps one that doesn't even exist yet.Meanwhile, Jason Chin at the University of Cambridge has modified ribosomes - the cellular factories that assemble proteins - to make them incorporate useful laboratory-crafted amino acids into proteins. Eventually he hopes to use bacterial cells to create entirely new proteins, plastics or biofuels.This is the cutting edge of synthetic biology, a rapidly expanding field in which researchers are rewriting the basic operating instructions of living cells. It opens up myriad possibilities for biotechnology in decades to come. For example, it may be possible to create antibiotic molecules that defeat the defences of resistant strains of bacteria, or new biofuels that would be churned out by bacteria rather than by eating into our food supply.These techniques go far further than traditional genetic modification, and regulators are starting to cast a wary eye over them. GM usually involves transferring a single gene from one existing organism into another, and because there is little control over whether the gene will be expressed it is hard to tell how much protein will be made - if any.Using synthetic biology, it becomes possible to custom-build packages of DNA that incorporate multiple genes and regulatory sequences that work together as a multi-step chemical factory. For example, Jay Keasling at the University of California, Berkeley, is using a yeast with 12 synthetic genes to churn out quantities of a precursor to the malaria drug artemisinin. "Within two to three years one 50,000-litre chemical reactor could produce all the drug that is needed in the world," says Keasling, who presented his results at the Royal Society in London last week.
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