Scientists may invent synthetic life within 5 years

THE RECENT researches in the synthetic life creation indicate that we are getting close to the threshold of a 'second genesis'. Scientists are on track to develop synthetic life 'within five years', claimed US researchers recently. If it happens, it will be an achievement that would be one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of all time.

Scientists seem sure that a second genesis wouldn't just broaden our view of life but the alternative life forms could supply biotechnologists with fresh molecules and new functions that they could apply to practical problems.

Labs are closing in on a 'second genesis' - a synthetic, made-to-order living system could produce everything from new drugs to biofuels and greenhouse gas absorbers, a recent research report said.

The finishing line could be in sight after geneticists Professor George Church and Dr Michael Jewett, of Harvard Medical School, informed a synthetic biology conference in Hong Kong recently that they had synthetically created part of a cell, called a ribosome, New Scientist reported. The breakthrough offers hope that they could develop an entire cell.

Craig Venter, however, begs to differ. “I keep trying to make it clear - we're not creating life from scratch,” he claimed. Venter's team at the J Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, plans to remove the genome from an existing bacterial cell and replace it with one of their own design. If successful, this will indeed result in a novel life form, but it is a far cry from the ultimate goal of a second genesis, as Venter would be the first to admit.

It is also reported that some other teams, seek to redesign a living system from first principles. If successful, they would provide an entirely new form of life unlike any that exists today, an achievement comparable to finding alien life on other planets - but one which would raise novel ethical and safety issues, producing synthetic life would be an achievement comparable to finding alien life on other planets.