Presenting the simplest life form on Earth, with an engineered genome of just 473 genes synthesized from base chemicals in the digital biological converter (DBC).
Congratulations to Ham Smith, Craig Venter, Clyde Hutchison, Dan Gibson and the collaborative teams across Synthetic Genomics (aka SGI, where Juan Enriquez, Barry Schuler, Martine Rothblatt and I serve on the board) and the Venter Institute on the debut of syn3.0.
I have been tracking this project with fascination for most of its 20 year history, nine of them at SGI. What an epic quest it has been! The dedication of the core team is incredible. While progress has been steady, with today’s publication in Science, the world can wish you a hearty:
C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S !!!
Some press summaries:
http://gizmodo.com/mad-scientists-created-synthetic-bacteria-with-only-473-1766686722
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6280/aad6253.figures-only
http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2016/03/24/bio-maverick-craig-venter-hacks-bacteria-to-have-tiniest-possible-genetic-code/#35a501a41e9b
http://www.syntheticgenomics.com/news20160324.html
and more of my Craig Venter photos:
https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=44124348109%40N01&view_all=1&text=venter
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