When US genomics pioneer Craig Venter claimed last week to have created the first self-replicating synthetic cell, the public reaction ranged from giddy acclaim to profound unease. Many people were not quite sure what to think. The step from “wow!” to “woah!” is a very short one these days.
Dr Venter described his achievement as the creation of life “totally derived from a synthetic chromosome, made with four bottles of chemicals on a chemical synthesiser”. Both the announcement and the accompanying patent claims envisaged many long-term benefits, including biofuels, vaccines and drugs, organisms that can “eat” oil slicks, and new ways of producing food and clean drinking water.
Yet the true significance is far from clear. In a BBC interview, the Nobel prize-winning geneticist Paul Nurse cast doubt on whether this particular advance will add much to current capabilities, pointing out that we already have powerful means to engineer organisms.