In May, a meeting for the Genome Project-write (GP-write) was held in New York City, New York. GP-write’s mission is to synthesize all 23 chromosomes in the human genome and transfer these “designer” genetic codes into cells used for therapeutic drugs and for fuel. Supporters of GP-write state that the project is focused on the synthesis and assembly of large amounts of DNA as opposed to using it to create designer babies. Project members believe that the only way science can understand the complexity of the human genome is by writing it from scratch. The project is expected to create numerous opportunities for the development of new technologies and software for the design and synthesis of DNA.

Among the genomes that have already been synthesized by scientists are the genomes for poliovirus, mycoplasma genitalium, mycoplasma mycoides, Escherichia coli and yeast. Synthesizing the human genome is no small task—a human genome entails over 3 billion bases in total across 23 paired chromosomes, with the smallest chromosome containing 46.7 million bases and the largest chromosome containing 249 million bases. The estimated time to complete synthesis of a human genome is approximately 10 years. As of now, it is unclear how GP-write will be funded.

Source: Chemical & Engineering News