Second Life, or Not?

June 8, 2007 | Source: ScienceNOW Daily News

An activist group is raising a ruckus about what it says may be the first effort to patent an entirely synthetic free-living organism. It says the patent application, filed by maverick genome sequencer Craig Venter’s institute on an idea that has likely not yet been achieved, would tie up new technology and could aid bioterrorists. But others say there’s nothing new or surprising about the patenting effort.

The work involves a simple bacterium called Mycoplasma genitalium that Venter’s eponymous institute in Rockville, Maryland, has been tinkering with for years. Now, they want to synthesize this “minimal genome” from scratch, get it working inside a cell, then add genes that would enable the bug to crank out hydrogen or ethanol to produce cheap energy