This is profound and to an extent, unsettling.
Scientists, back in March, found the key to artificial life when they discovered they could create yeast from man-made DNA. In that experiment, the scientists replaced a third of the yeast DNA with artificially created chromosomes.
Using this plan, Boeke, a researcher at New York University, is directing an international team of 11 labs on four continents working to ‘rewrite’ the yeast genome. This study is part of a bold and controversial pursuit that was conceived during their previous work in March, aimed at creating custom-made DNA codes to be inserted into living cells to change how they function, or even provide a treatment for diseases. They hope, that it could someday also help create entirely new organisms.
The genetic code typically is made up of only four letters: A, C, G, and T; the chemical building blocks that correspond to these letters line up in DNA molecules and tell an organism how to build particular proteins.
The complete DNA code for the yeast genome, contains about 12 million letters. The team aims to add, delete or alter about a million of the DNA letters.
But before they can build anything, Boeke and his team
must first completely pull it apart. Even that is a project that requires his team of scientists to collaborate with countless others from Australia to China to Singapore and the United Kingdom.As they take the yeast’s DNA apart, they feed the genetic data into a computer. Then they ask the computer to make specific edits. Should those provide a useable result, they send the newly created strand elsewhere to be joined with others in an ever-lengthening chain of DNA. So far, this team is about one-third of the way through.
The research marks a significant step toward what might be possible with genetic engineering, and, within adequate ethical regulations, the scope of the study could lead to significant breakthroughs.
Although the team is currently limited to altering the genomes of simple organisms with less than a billion base pairs, Boeke hopes that one day he might be able to perform similar experiments on more complex organisms.
It is undeniable that the ability to construct a completely custom-made genome is almost incomprehensible- almost sounding like science fiction, that’s because, for now, it is. But much like so many advancements on the cutting edge, it is also tantalizingly close.
