Synthetic human genome

The human genome was proposed to be rewritten "from scratch"

Alexander Ershov, N+1

An international group of scientists, which included the famous biologist George Church, proposed a project to create a synthetic human genome. The project will be a logical continuation of the international initiative to read the human genome, which was successfully completed in 2004. The new project, according to its ideologists, will have to become a locomotive for the creation of new technologies for medicine and bioengineering. The team outlines the general idea of the project in a short article in Science (Boeke et al., The Genome Project–Write).

The article, in which the essence of the project is outlined only in general terms, was the result of two conferences held in London and New York at the end of last year and May of this year. The main technical goal that the authors set for the project is to reduce the cost of creating and researching "large" genomes in cell lines – 10,000 times in 10 years. We are talking about genomes ranging in size from 0.1 to 100 billion base pairs. For comparison, the genome of E. coli is about 5 million base pairs, human – about 3.3 billion base pairs. The sizes of the two currently existing fully synthetic and at the same time functional genomes are 1079 and 531 thousand base pairs. These are the JCVI-syn1.0 and JCVI-syn3.0 genomes created by the Craig Venter Institute – natural and synthetic mycoplasma genomes, respectively (we recently wrote about this work).

As an immediate goal, the authors are going to raise $ 100 million for the development of the initiative in 2016. With this money, it is planned to create a common "roadmap" of the project, consider its ethical and social consequences and launch several pilot studies.

As examples of the first projects, the article discusses
(i) the creation of large genomic loci where, in addition to genes, non-coding DNA will be presented (the role of which is still often poorly understood),
(ii) synthesis of individual synthetic chromosomes for insertion into the animal genome in order to simulate human diseases and grow organs for transplantation,
(iii) creation of special "ultra-reliable" cell lines.

In the latter case, the authors of the article cite several more specific ideas: for example, the creation of a line resistant to virus infection by changing the genetic code (a similar technology has already been used by Church's group to create GMOs that cannot survive outside the laboratory). The genome of "ultra-reliable" lines is also proposed to be cleared of potentially dangerous and/or harmful fragments: prion genes, selfish mobile elements. On the basis of these lines, it is possible to make stem cells with a synthetic genome that will not be able to turn into sex cells and, thus, the ethical question of creating "synthetic people" will disappear.

The increase in the speed of reading (red) and synthesis (yellow) of DNA in comparison with Moore's law

The authors admit that with existing technologies, the human genome synthesis project will cost more than was once spent on reading the genome. However, as in the latter case, the development of technology can significantly reduce this cost, which is what the authors of the article hope for.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  03.06.2016