Venter creates synthetic genome in one step

And we thought artificial life was in the distant future… J. Craig Venter and his institute has successfully manufactured the first synthetic yeast organism, in one step!

The key? "Co-transformation of 25 different pieces at once" writes lead author Daniel Gibson, a JCVI scientist, in the advance issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

“Thus, large DNA molecules can be assembled much more rapidly from synthetic or naturally occurring sub-fragments than with any other system described previously.”

J. Craig Venter Institute has dedicated its efforts to creating a synthetic organism, and this new finding is one step closer to that goal. Synthetic Genomics, founded by Venter, is reportedly using the new method to come up with biofuels and other biochemicals using synthetic biology.