Dr.

Craig Venter

God in the Making!

GRK Murty
On May 20th, the Science journal made a momentous announcement:
Craig Venter, Hamilton Smith, and their colleagues had created a living
creature. Venter did play God! For, he, like Viswamitra’s ‘pratisrishti’,
by creating an unprecedented creature, extinguished “the argument
that life requires a special force or power to exist.”

Their synthesizing of the genome of the bacteria, Mycoplasma

mycoides, by first synthesizing short stretches of DNA, each of about
1,080 chemical letters in length from four bottles of chemicals and a
chemical synthesizer, and then stitching them together in three stages
to produce DNA assemblies of first 10,000 and then 1 lakh letters,
followed by full bacterial genome of one million chemical letters, and
then activating this chemically synthesized genome by transplanting it
into a recipient cell of another, of course, related bacteria—
Mycoplasma capricolum—in which the restriction enzyme gene that is
known to destroy the incoming synthetic genome is inactivated a priori,
which, once ‘booted up’ started replicating M mycoides JCVI-syn1.0
cells, is indeed incredible and, no doubt, one of the most important
scientific achievements in the history of mankind.
Sir Ian Wilmut, Director of Edinburgh University’s regenerative
medicine center, said, “In time this new research may make it possible
to extend the range of purposes for which we are able to breed
organisms, dramatically and in ways that we cannot yet imagine.” The
ongoing dramatic genome sequencing revolution has indeed raised
public expectation of new cures for old diseases to a level that is at
times alarming. Over it, aided by the ever expanding power of
computers, research in biology is all set to evolve into the heady world
of systems biology.

Venter himself claims to be currently working on the design of new cells

which can capture carbon dioxide and fix the carbon into new fuel
molecules, and new biologically derived sources of plastic and
chemicals. His team is said to be also working toward using their
synthetic DNA tools to build synthetic segments of every known flu
virus so that they can build new vaccines in less than 24 hours. They are
also said to be exploring the scope for designing new synthetic
pathways to make antibiotic compounds that are currently too complex
to make.

With such extensive research under progress in synthetic biology—

research into stem cells, cystic fibrosis gene, genes responsible for
depression, schizophrenia, and compulsive criminality, etc.—we are
sure to witness spectacular developments. All this therefore calls for
strengthening of the support systems for promoting ‘multidirectional
translation’, and it is in this context that ‘Translational research’—the
process by which the fruits of biological research enter the realm of
clinical practice—is assuming greater significance and urgency.

This newfound scientific research thus throws open new and profitable
avenues of investment for the businesses. ‘Biotechnology’, which
encompasses all the areas of molecular and cell biology, has immense
potential today for ‘translation’ in fields as diverse as agriculture and
medicine. Such translation obviously calls for huge investments both in
terms of capital and matching human resources. All along, such
research and education have been pursued by government agencies.
But any attempt at achieving a purposeful level of such ‘translation’
calls for wide collaboration among various agencies. And Indian
corporates have a greater role to play in this endeavor, for the benefits
from the promise of modern biology are overwhelming. They cannot be
passive to such investment opportunities.

At the same time, we cannot afford to be ignorant of the fact that

Venter’s new technology “could also be used for negative purposes,”
such as creating germs for bioterrorism. This so-called dual
technologies therefore need to be pursued ethically and tackled
carefully with constant review, perhaps, more at the global-level.