Genetic Engineering - the Home Game

Just as a common hardware/software platform helped the computer world achieve critical mass and heralded the PC revolution, technological advances and the creation of a standard platform could begin the next boom market... Synthetic biology.

Scientists in Maryland have already built the world's first entirely handcrafted chromosome -- a large looping strand of DNA made from scratch in a laboratory, containing all the instructions a microbe needs to live and reproduce. They plan to transplant it into a cell next year where it will take over the cell and begin to reproduce itself. Of course, the idea is that novel microorganisms can be created the produce things like fuel from waste products or vaccines. This is a wonderful idea. However, it would not be much of a stretch to imagine that DNA could be written that has more "less desirable" attributes.

It could be entirely possible within a few years for someone to create whatever they wish just by writing some genetic code. This code is then transformed into DNA via a DNA synthesizer (yes Virginia, this device does exist) much the same way a job is sent to a laser printer. The synthesized DNA would then be transferred to a host cell and voila! Freshly minted artificially sequenced life form.

There is already some commercialization of this type of technology. LS9 Inc., a company California has used synthetic DNA in E. coli bacteria to produce a fuel alternative by feeding the E. coli a mixture of corn syrup and sugar cane. The bacteria are efficient enough that LS9 estimates that they should be able to sell the fuel for $1.25 per gallon.

DuPont also uses a genetically modified E. coli to produce the chemical 1,3 propanediol (PDO). PDO is used to create high-tech fabrics (The CEO wears a pinstripe suit made from the fabric). This process is set to become the first $1 billion non-pharmaceutical bio tech product .

Once standardized techniques are developed for DNA transfer, it will become just about as easy to hack an organism as it is to hack a computer. Even with all of the laws etc that regulate computer technology, it is still easy enough for any miscreant with a little tech savvy to wreak havoc in cyberspace. Synthetic biology ups the ante significantly. It will become fairly easy to write genetic code, synthesize the DNA and then implant it into an organism for replication and watch with glee as the newly created organism does whatever it has been programmed to do. Which could be anything from bio-fuel to bio-weapons and everything in between. The possibility for bio-error is even greater than that of bio-terror.

Even if one does not posses a DNA synthesizer, it is possible to order genetic sequences through the mail and then paste them together. The genetic codes of some viruses are fairly simple; ranging from around 3,000 DNA letters long to more than a million. The polio virus genome has 7,741 letters, influenza virus has 13,500 letters, Ebola has 19,000 and smallpox has 185,000.

In 2002, Eckard Wimmer at the State University of New York demonstrated that is was possible to make polio virus from scratch by building its genome from short lengths of DNA. The DNA sequence for polio was available on the web and was used as a template for hundreds of strands of DNA with about 70 letters each. His team assembled the DNA strands to recreate the full sequence and then used it as a template for a mirror image sequence in RNA, the genetic material used by the virus. These RNA strands were then added to human cells which accepted the new sequence and began to produce copies of the virus. Remember that the polio virus has been officially "eradicated". The 1918 influenza strain is among the group of viruses that have subsequently been built from scratch. A used DNA synthesizer can be purchased over the Internet for under $10000. The possibilities will be endless.


DNA Synthesizer (New)

Here is a link to an interesting report from someone on the forefront of this emerging technology: http://www.jcvi.org/cms/research/projects/syngen-options