Researchers in Cambridge have re-engineered the genetic code of microbes to create a synthetic cell with capabilities unlike anything in nature, opening up the possibility of new materials for everything from plastics to antibiotics.
The knowledge of how to manipulate and edit the DNA at the heart of all genetic processes is established, but until now it has not been possible to alter the 3bn-year-old code through which DNA instructs cells to form the chains of amino acids that make up the working molecules of life.
“This is potentially a revolution in biology,” said Jason Chin, project leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology.