Scientists in a race to create artificial life forms

Several teams of scientists have been working away at creating new life forms from artificial DNA. In Maryland, for example, one group has stitched together a chromosome and expects to transplant it into a cell next year, where it can direct the cell's activity. The swift advance toward creating new life forms in the lab has raised a host of questions around the pioneering companies likely to control the patents on the process as well as determining exactly what the possibilities are in a world where a scientist will be able to write a genetic program on their computer and then convert that into DNA. This is a far cry from the kind of minor genetic alterations that have become common in biotechnology. In this world, a genetic 'platform' can be used to create custom-designed DNA to create a host of new products.

- check out the report from the Washington Post

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