Scientists create tiniest life form yet, not sure what it is
New York: For years, DNA and computer operating systems served as clichés for each other: DNA is the “operating software” of living cells in the same way that system software is the “DNA” of a computer. “These cells would be a very, very useful chassis for many industrial applications, from medicine to biochemicals, biofuels, nutrition, and agriculture,” said Dan Gibson, a top scientist at both Venter’s research institute and his company, Synthetic Genomics Inc. The most surprising result of their work—and perhaps the most sobering one for the rest of the field: The team still doesn’t understand what 31% of the essential genes do in even the simplest organism, to say nothing of a human genome. It’s a development Venter called “very humbling.’’ “We are probably at the 1% level in understanding the human genome,” said Clyde Hutchison III, a distinguished professor at the Venter Institute. Despite Venter’s new accomplishment, there are several reasons why it may not instantaneously transform synthetic biology, cautioned George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School.
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