By Staff Writer –

The creation of the synthetic cell was only a matter of time. We had been anticipating genomic pioneer J. Craig Venter’s announcement of the first self-replicating, synthetic cell for a while. It took the Venter team 15 years to complete this breakthrough.

The synthetic cell is quite a mouthful, as it is called Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0.  In a story in Science, news of Venter’s long awaited dream has come true. At the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, the scientists created the synthetic cell from common bacteria, a DNA synthesizer, a computer, and four chemicals, reports The Guardian.

“If you purchase a computer at a store, it doesn’t do anything unless you install an operating system on it,” said Hamilton Smith, JCVI’s director of synthetic biology and bioenergy. “We’re in effect designing the software and installing it into a cytoplasm. The cell then does what we have designed it to do.” [Smart Planet]

Don’t worry about thethe new organism just yet, it’s merely a proof of concept. The New York Times reports:

“My worry is that some people are going to draw the conclusion that they have created a new life form,” said Jim Collins, a bioengineer at Boston University. “What they have created is an organism with a synthesized natural genome. But it doesn’t represent the creation of life from scratch or the creation of a new life form,” he said.

While many applications of the designer genomes remains possible (in the future), this does make us reconsider what we consider “life”.

Image via Smart Planet

J. Craig Venter announced the first synthetic cell is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Staff Writer – Boonsri Dickinson (@boonspoon)

This afternoon, I spoke to Achaogen’s CEO Kevin Judice about superbugs. Once a bacterial infection develops resistance to common antibiotic treatments, the bacteria can spread through populations uncontrollably. And what’s worse, superbugs can live anywhere — they can be found in hospital rooms and in our bodies.

If drugs aren’t developed fast enough to kill these constantly emerging superbugs, we could be living in conditions before there were antibiotics. Currently, Judice is working on drugs to treat the superbugs before they get out of control. The best part of his job, he says, is knowing he has developed a drug that has saved someone’s life.

I also interviewed Acucela’s CEO, Dr. Ryo Kubota, about macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in older people. Currently, there are no treatments for the dry form of age-related MD, but Acucela has a pill that can treat the disease. Today, the company announced the start of Phase II clinical trial for the drug.

Stay tuned. I’ll post the video interviews in the next few days.

Are Drugs To Treat Superbugs and Macular Degeneration Coming Soon? is a post from: TechStartups.com