Living cell created from custom-made DNA

Imagine having a host cell, emptying its nucleus and replacing it with re-engineered DNA - removing unwanted genes and adding wanted ones among millions others of them so that you can shape the characteristics of that new cell and succeed in making it to replicate. Well that's what happened last week says Craig Venter, a genome pioneer.

The last such milestone was the creation of Dolly the sheep back in 1996 through cloning. This time instead of using the whole genome of a cell, they just customised it using computer-aided genetic engineering.

This great achievement opens new avenues in creating new living organisms which never existed in nature before which can be used to accomplish very specific tasks much harder for machines to do. Craig Venter gave examples such as fuel-producing bacteria, algae that can consume higher levels of carbon dioxide, or more efficient ways of cleaning polluted water.

Of course, in order to take full benefit of such technology mankind should be comfortable once again in the creating & killing of new species of living organisms.

Although there is still no creation of life from scratch, this is more like altering the software that run on the hardware of life, making it do things that no living organisms can do up to now.

Needless to say, such a technique represent a great threat if it falls in wrong hands or even if just a mistake or human error happens. Therefore as in 1996 government regulations needs to be put in place ASAP.

And now the question that remains is: What does it take to create life from scratch? Maybe it's just plain impossible to create life from scratch since when a baby is conceived, he is always conceived from living parents i.e. it takes two already living cells in order to create a new living one.

Or maybe it's possible and that it takes some variables that are still unknown to mankind. But Im still convinced that there should be a way how it all started, may it be from asteroids or whatever, it can surely be reproduced successfully in a lab à la LHC