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).
Pursuing synthetic life
From today’s NYT:
Pursuing Synthetic Life ..
“Drew Endy, an assistant professor in the biological engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his colleagues are putting together a registry of standardized biological parts, which they call BioBrick parts.”
All iGEM teams are scored partially (and to a good amount) on their contributions to the BioBrick registry. That’s the funny thing about iGEM – the competition (iGEM coordinators, at MIT) doesn’t provide cash prizes, nor do they provide any real form of financial aid (in contrast, we have to pay to register and compete). We give them parts, we pay them, they hold the competition once a year. Sounds like a too-good deal: is it sustainable? Why are teams continuing to sign up? [Are you arguing "prestige"? ... I don't really think so. Who, outside of iGEMers, knows who won this year? Last year? Two years ago?]
That said, I do love the iGEM competition. … from an economist’s perspective, the costs and benefits don’t seem to align. I’m not sure how sustainable it is, essentially …