In the interest of potentially actually keeping this alive, and with the intent of not posting so many things on my Facebook profile …
Researchers Take Step Toward Synthetic Life
I actually have to agree with Professor Church, as he’s quoted in the article: “Right now, all they’ve done is shown they can buy a bunch of DNA and put it together,” said George M. Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School. [Professor Church was a faculty adviser of mine over the summer, for the International Genetically Engineered Machines competition, and the official sponsor of my independent research this past semester]. Surely this is a step in the right direction, but I don’t think it’s that break-through – just tons of protocols for sequence/genome elongation, all attempted to minimize error with such a large construct. I think some of the iGEM projects are a bit more intriguing, though most have not gone to completion or utilized the appropriate controls (I mean … for 10 weeks and undergraduate-driven research, it tends to be quite good).
synthetic life
In the interest of potentially actually keeping this alive, and with the intent of not posting so many things on my Facebook profile …
Researchers Take Step Toward Synthetic Life
I actually have to agree with Professor Church, as he’s quoted in the article: “Right now, all they’ve done is shown they can buy a bunch of DNA and put it together,” said George M. Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School. [Professor Church was a faculty adviser of mine over the summer, for the International Genetically Engineered Machines competition, and the official sponsor of my independent research this past semester]. Surely this is a step in the right direction, but I don’t think it’s that break-through – just tons of protocols for sequence/genome elongation, all attempted to minimize error with such a large construct. I think some of the iGEM projects are a bit more intriguing, though most have not gone to completion or utilized the appropriate controls (I mean … for 10 weeks and undergraduate-driven research, it tends to be quite good).