Virus synthesised in a fortnight

November 17, 2003 | Source: NewScientist.com news service

Craig Venter’s team has developed a new technique to build a living organism from scratch, synthesizing the complete genome of a small virus in just 14 days.

The ultimate aim of the project, funded by the US Department of Energy, is to create microbes with special properties, such as the ability to sequester carbon dioxide or consume toxic waste.

The speed of the technique means it could also help accelerate any research in which large sections of DNA are used, for example gene therapy.

But the method also makes it much simpler to manufacture a deadly virus for use as a bioweapon.