American geneticists created an autonomous cell with fewer genomes than any previous body, which expands the possibilities of creating synthetic life, announced Thursday in the journal Science.
it is “building a simpler than any existing cell,” says biochemist and microbiologist Clyde Hutchison.
Clyde Hutchison, along with geneticist Craig Venter, they led the research at the center research that bears his name, Craig Venter Institute in Maryland (USA.).
the new bacterial cell containing only the genes necessary to sustain life in its simplest form.
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medical applications of this finding are countless, as it opens the possibility of creating new chemical or pharmaceutical products in the long run, he said microbiologist.
“we hope to be able to design new cells that never before have occurred, we can build whatever we want,” says professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina.
for now, however, scientists focus on “learning to design genomes themselves” and applications will come later, said the researcher.
Clyde Hutchison and Craig Venter for over two decades researching the genome and synthetic life.
the creation of life synthetic form is different from the so-called “artificial life” as it takes elements that already existed and “simply unites synthetically” , said Hutchison. With this publication, Venter, who created the first synthetic genome, updated its discovery in 2010, when he created the first bacterial synthetic cell capable of self-multiply.
So, it was proved that a computer could design a genome, which in turn could build chemically in a laboratory and then be transplanted.
with this finding, first opened the possibility to eventually create an artificial kind, with all the ethical burden that implies.
Groups of conservative scientists and the Vatican itself then called for “caution” to the new discovery.
Since 2010, get a cell with a lower number of genes became the main target of geneticists. Now they have succeeded
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