TEDxNASA@SilconValley - Craig Venter - Synthetic Life

Here's some recent TEDx goodness, this time it's Craig Venter talking about synthetic DNA - and artificial life. Here is the article abstract from the project that created the first self-replicating artificial cell (you can read the whole article online for free - gotta love open access):

Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome


Daniel G. Gibson, John I. Glass, Carole Lartigue, Vladimir N. Noskov, .... J. Craig Venter


*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jcventer@jcvi.org


ABSTRACT


We report the design, synthesis, and assembly of the 1.08–mega–base pair Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 genome starting from digitized genome sequence information and its transplantation into a M. capricolum recipient cell to create new M. mycoides cells that are controlled only by the synthetic chromosome. The only DNA in the cells is the designed synthetic DNA sequence, including “watermark” sequences and other designed gene deletions and polymorphisms, and mutations acquired during the building process. The new cells have expected phenotypic properties and are capable of continuous self-replication.

Published Online May 20 2010
Science, 2 July 2010:
Vol. 329 no. 5987 pp. 52-56
DOI: 10.1126/science.1190719

You can read the Guardian UK article about it here.

And below is the TEDx Talk.

Synthetic Life.J. Craig Venter is a biologist who has led teams responsible for sequencing the first draft human genome, the first diploid human genome, and construction of the first self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell. He is founder and president of the J. Craig Venter Institute and founder and CEO of Synthetic Genomics, Inc.