Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 27 July 2017

Scientists build DNA from scratch to alter life’s blueprint

By MALCOLM RITTER The cutting edge for rede- change might let them re-
AP Science Writer signing a genome, though, arrange the order of genes,
NEW YORK (AP) — At Jef is yeast. Its genome is big- which might reveal strate-
Boeke’s lab, you can whiff ger and more complex gies to make yeast grow
an odor that seems out of than the viral and bacterial better, says NYU researcher
place, as if they were bak- codes altered so far. But it’s Leslie Mitchell.
ing bread here. well-understood and yeast Once the changes are
But he and his colleagues will readily swap man- made, the new sequence
are cooking up something made DNA for its own. used as a blueprint. It is
else altogether: yeast that Still, rewriting the yeast ge- sent to a company that
works with chunks of man- nome is a huge job. builds chunks of DNA con-
made DNA. It’s like a chain with 12 mil- taining the new sequence.
Scientists have long been lion chemical links, known Then these short chunks are
able to make specific by the letters, A, C, G and joined together in the lab
changes in the DNA code. T. That’s less than one- to build ever longer strands.
Now, they’re taking the In this Tuesday, April 25, 2017 photo, NYU School of Medicine hundredth the size of the The project has so far re-
of
Biochemistry
Molecular
and
Department
Professor
more radical step of start- Pharmacology Jef D. Boeke speaks during an interview in his human genome, which ported building about one-
ing over, and building re- office at the Alexandria Center for Life Sciences in New York, has 3.2 billion links. But third of the yeast genome.
designed life forms from where researchers are attempting to create completely man- it’s still such a big job that Boeke hopes the rest of the
scratch. Boeke, a research- made, custom-built DNA. Boeke’s lab and scientists construction will be done
er at New York University, Associated Press in the United States, Aus- by the end of the year.
directs an international might make yeast efficient- people who believe creat- tralia, China, Singapore, But he says it will take lon-
team of 11 labs on four ly produce new biofuels, ing life from scratch would and the United Kingdom ger to test the new DNA
continents working to “re- Boeke says. give humans unwarranted are splitting up the work. and fix problems, and to
write” the yeast genome, Some scientists look further power, she said. By the time the new yeast finally combine the various
following a detailed plan into the future and see “It is not only a science genome is completed, re- chunks into a complete
they published in March. things like trees that purify project,” Zoloth said in an searchers will have added, synthetic genome.
Their work is part of a bold water supplies and plants email. “It is an ethical and deleted or altered about a Last year, Boeke and others
and controversial pursuit that detect explosives moral and theological pro- million DNA letters. announced a separate ef-
aimed at creating custom- at airports and shopping posal of significant propor- Boeke compares a ge- fort, what is now called Ge-
made DNA codes to be malls. tions.” nome to a book with many nome Project-write or GP-
inserted into living cells to Also on the horizon is rede- Rewritten DNA has already chapters, and researchers write . It is chiefly focused on
change how they function, signing human DNA. That’s been put to work in virus- are coming out with a new cutting the cost of building
or even provide a treat- not to make genetically es and bacteria. Austra- edition, with chapters that and testing large genomes,
ment for diseases. It could altered people, scientists lian scientists recently an- allow the book to do some- including human ones, by
also someday help give stress. Instead, the synthet- nounced that they’d built thing it couldn’t do before. more than 1,000-fold within
scientists the profound and ic DNA would be put into the genome of the Zika To redesign a particular 10 years. The project is still
unsettling ability to create cells, to make them better virus in a lab, for example, stretch of yeast DNA, scien- seeking funding.
entirely new organisms. at pumping out pharma- to better understand it and tists begin with its sequence In the meantime, leaders
The genome is the en- ceutical proteins, for exam- get clues for new treat- of code letters — nature’s of GP-write have started
tire genetic code of a liv- ple, or perhaps to engineer ments. own recipe. They load that discussions of ethical, legal
ing thing. Learning how to stem cells as a safer source At Harvard University, Jef- sequence into a comput- and social issues. And they
make one from scratch, of lab-grown tissue and or- frey Way and Pamela Silver er, then tell the computer realize the idea of making
Boeke said, means “you gans for transplanting into are working toward devel- to make specific kinds of a human genome is a sen-
really can construct some- patients. oping a harmless strain of changes. For example one sitive one.q
thing that’s completely Some have found the idea salmonella to use as a vac-
new.” of remaking human DNA cine against food poison-
The research may reveal disconcerting, and scien- ing from salmonella and E.
basic, hidden rules that tists plan to get guidance coli, as well as the diarrhea-
govern the structure and from ethicists and the pub- causing disease called shi-
functioning of genomes. lic before they try it. gella.
But it also opens the door Still, redesigning DNA is A key goal is to prevent the
to life with new and use- alarming to some. Laurie strain from turning harm-
ful characteristics, like mi- Zoloth of Northwestern Uni- ful as a result of picking up
crobes or mammal cells versity, a bioethicist who’s DNA from other bacteria.
that are better than current been following the effort, That requires changing its
ones at pumping out medi- is concerned about mak- genome in 30,000 places.
cations in pharmaceutical ing organisms with “proper- “The only practical way to
factories, or new vaccines. ties we cannot fully know.” do that,” Way says, “is to
The right modifications And the work would disturb synthesize it from scratch.”