Artificial life to be created this year?
Dr Craig Venter led the team of researchers
Genome smuggling could hold the key to creating synthetic life forms, it has been claimed.
According to biologist Dr Craig Venter and his team, they have devised a way to smuggle an "alien" genome into unwitting bacterial cells, allowing them to create an entirely new form of bacteria and taking them closer to being able to create novel microorganisms with entirely synthetic genomes.
After several attempts, the researchers found that the most reliable transplant solution was to hijack the recipient cell's recognition enzymes and stop them from working.
Having already shown during previous studies that genomes can be built from scratch, the next step in Dr Venter's research, which is detailed in the journal Science, will be to insert a lab-built genome into a bacterial cell to create a new living organism.
Such technology could help in the future by allowing scientists to modify the DNA of living organisms to create environmentally-friendly biofuels or remove carbon from the atmosphere.
In an interview with the Times, Dr Venter said that if the team does not make any errors then the first synthetic species could be created before the end of the year.
Dr Venter created the Institute for Genomic Research in 1992 and is currently president of the J Craig Venter Institute , a not-for-profit research centre which studies genomics and its societal implications.
He was named on the Time 100 list of most influential people in the world last year.
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