About synthetic biology – first-hand
"From reading to writing the genetic code"
Creator of the first synthetic cell Craig Venter
he spoke about the prospects of applying his workAlexandra Borisova, Newspaper.
However, he believes that the time has not yet come to use genome sequencing in routine healthcare.
These days, a conference of the American Chemical Society is being held in San Diego, bringing together about 11 thousand chemical researchers around the world. The most interesting topics, as usual, lie at the junction of sciences – chemistry, biology, materials science, physics. Plenary reports were devoted to regenerative medicine technologies for the elderly and injured, the creation of synthetic blood vessels, the possibilities of chemistry in criminology, as well as the prospects of hydrogen production for alternative energy using nuclear power plants. Craig Venter, the creator of the first synthetic cell, who is known not only for outstanding scientific discoveries, but also for plans to commercialize genomics and even attempted suicide during the Vietnam War, also made a plenary report.
In San Diego, Venter delivered a review report "From reading to writing the genetic code", in which he set guidelines for the direction of work using a synthetic cell.
He expressed confidence that the artificial genetic code will open up new types of fuels, highly effective medicines, products, sources of drinking water and much more to people of the XXI century.
Venter was also one of the leaders of the race to decode the human genome. His private research project Celera Genomics was neck and neck with the state Human Genome Project. As a result, when 23 thousand human genomes were deciphered, two research teams made peace and in 2001 simultaneously made publications.
"Genomics is a very rapidly developing field, and my research groups are paving the way from reading the genetic code – sequencing the genome of bacteria, humans, plants and other organisms – to writing it and creating synthetic cells for various applications. Already now we can create synthetic bacterial cells from scratch, which we plan to adapt for the efficient production of vaccines, medicines and biofuels," Venter said.
Craig Venter's works belong to the new field of "synthetic biology", which combines chemistry, medicine, genomics, and a number of other traditional scientific disciplines. Synthetic biology emerged from genetic engineering, which has now become quite familiar: you can insert one or two new genes into the genome of a plant or a bacterium.
These genes can, for example, "teach" tomatoes to ripen without becoming soft, or "force" bacteria to produce artificial human insulin for diabetic patients.
Synthetic biology aims at more – to create an entire genome, reprogram entire organisms, or even create new ones.
A report on the creation of the first fully synthetic bacterial cell in 2010 was published in the authoritative scientific journal Science by a group of scientists from the non-profit Craig Venter Institute. With the help of a well-developed computer algorithm, scientists managed to create a fully synthetic chromosome with a genome.
When it was embedded in a bacterial cell devoid of genetic material, it began to function according to the laws prescribed by the new genome, to divide and multiply.
To create practical commercial applications of the synthetic genome, Venter created a separate company Synthetic Genomics Inc. (SGI). One of her ambitious goals is to create microalgae that will capture atmospheric carbon dioxide much more efficiently than existing in nature. In turn, microalgae are considered the most promising source of biofuels.
Another important task is to modify the genome of bacteria to create effective and harmless vaccines against new strains of influenza within hours, not months, as is happening today. The creation of such a technology would be able to defeat the main advantage of the flu virus – its amazing variability. The human body, having been ill, becomes immune to one strain, but the very next year it is attacked by a completely new strain, before which immunity is powerless.
Doctors are starting to race against the epidemic, trying to create a new vaccine. Venter hopes to overtake the flu by learning how to create a vaccine in a few hours.
Another major genetic project of the Venter Institute is the study of the human microbiome. This term means decoding the genome of billions of bacteria living in the human body, as well as studying their role in maintaining our health and the development of diseases.
At the same time, Venter doubts the accuracy of the devices for routine genome sequencing, which can provide this service in any hospital. He believes that it will take years until the complete sequencing of the human genome becomes sufficiently accurate and fast to find its place in conventional healthcare.
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26.03.2012