• Question: What is your opinion on artificial cells?

    Asked by anon-195816 to Reka, Laura, Judith, Gemma, Freya, Emma on 16 Jan 2019.
    • Photo: Reka Nagy

      Reka Nagy answered on 16 Jan 2019:

      Depends on the cells you’re asking about – what I think of when I read ‘artificial cells’ are the synthetic cells made by Craig Venter and his company (you can read more about it here https://www.nature.com/news/minimal-cell-raises-stakes-in-race-to-harness-synthetic-life-1.19633 )

      In a nutshell: they created a ‘minimal genome’ containing a small subset of essential genes, by stitching together chemically-made DNA. They then inserted this DNA into a bacterium ‘husk’ that had been emptied of its own DNA thereby creating an organism that did not originate from any living thing on earth.

      Claims that they had ‘created life’ were a bit exaggerated though – they still used existing DNA as template, and an existing bacterium as a host. But the fact that they did it proves what could possibly done in the future in the field of synthetic biology, and it’s pretty cool!

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