DNA synthesis breakthrough achieved
Published: January 13, 2005
Scientists in Houston and Boston have made an unexpectedly sudden advance on redesigning genes and programming cells to make pharmaceuticals.
Dr. George M. Church of the Harvard Medical School and Dr. Xiaolian Gao of the University of Houston, in an article in last week’s issue of the journal Nature, described how they had been able to synthesize long molecules of DNA.
The pair used a new technique to synthesize a DNA molecule 14,500 chemical units in length that contained a string of 21 genes used by a harmless laboratory bacterium.
“This has the potential for a revolutionary impact in the ease of synthesis of large DNA molecules,” said Dr. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University with an interest in bioterrorism.
“This will permit efficient and rapid synthesis of any select agent virus genome in very short order.”
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