From Reading to Writing a Genome
June 28, 2016 | Terry Sharrer
“HGP Write” is the name of an idea more than a project in progress. Recently, a number of synthetic biologists met in Cambridge, MA to discuss the possibility of “writing” wholly synthetic genomes, including, in theory, a human genome. With present synthesis capacity running at adding one base pair to an oligo every three minutes, it would take a single machine running 24/7 for 17,123.3 years to assemble a complete human genome. But sooner rather than later, it may well be possible to synthesize DNA sequences of plants, animals, and microorganisms that would have economic value. Actually, that idea occurred to French biologist Stephane Leduc in 1912, when he coined the term “synthetic biology.” MORE
Image Credit: Gen9 Laboratory, Cambridge MA