by Andrea Kalfoglou
A little less than a month ago, J. Craig Venter, told the Guardian that he was very close to announcing that he and his scientific research team have created the first artificial life form (we’re still waiting). His team has already created the world’s first synthetic chromosome. Venter stayed quiet about the synthetic bacterium, developed from Mycoplasma genitalium, until the patent application made its way through the US bureaucracy and became public in May. A Canadian bioethics institute ETC Group picked up on the patent application and publicly called for Venter to withdraw it.
In response, Dr. Venter told the Guardian he thought this landmark would be “a very important philosophical step in the history of our species. We are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it. That gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated before.”
His goal is to improve the environment by creating a clean, sustainable biofuel. Venter is very aware of the ethical, legal, and social implications of his research. On October 17th, the J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, MD, released a report reviewing these issues that was funded by the Sloan Foundation.
You can watch Venter talk about his work to catalog all the microbial species in the oceans and a bit about synthetic DNA and his vision for improving the environment in a lecture he gave in 2005. It was made available this April through TED.
You would think that sailing around the world on a yacht collecting unknown species, developing synthetic chromosomes and maybe even a new life form would have been enough for one person, but Venter also just published his autobiography with his vision for the future. He’s launching his book tour today.
Andrea Kalfoglou is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County