— Rob Carlson,University of Washington.
In 1973 it would take a whole year for a scientist to make eleven base pairs long DNA. Today Khorana’s monumental feat would take minutes and would cost around $200. In the same year that Khorana announced his functional artificial gene (1976),California-based start-up Genentech– the world’s first commercial biotech company – invented a faster, automated method of synthesising genes, and so the gene synthesis industry was born. Now we can send orders to dozens of oligo-sythesizing companies to synthesize our desired DNA sequence. Korea based Bioneer Corporation, for example,has the capacity to produce 20,000 oligos per day.
The world’s first synthetic biology conference convened in June 2004. Two months later, the University of California at Berkeley announced the establishment of the world’s first synthetic biology department. In 2005, three synthetic biology start-ups attracted over $43 million in venture capital.
According to one industry estimate, the current market for gene synthesis is only $30-$40 million per year. Although the United States is currently home to more gene foundries than any other country, the industry is rapidly moving offshore. Most gene synthesis companies produce lengths of DNA smaller than 3kbp at a time (3000 base pairs – a base pair makes one ‘rung’ of the DNA ‘ladder’), however some companies, such as Blue Heron, can synthesise up to 40kbp (40,000 base pairs) of DNA at one go. Some companies boast that there are no technical limits to the length of DNA they can produce (although most sequences are not error-free). GeneArt claims that it can produce a half-million base pairs of DNA per month.
According to engineering professor Drew Endy of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), “There is no technical barrier to synthesizing plants and animals, it will happen as soon as anyone pays for it.”
Today’s DNA synthesis techniques allow us to put a theoretical price on human life: building the entire enome of a human being – around 3 billion base pairs – could be done today by a bargain basement synthesis company for just over $2.5 billion dollars – well within the reach of several individuals on the planet. Drew Endy of MIT speculates that within 20 years human genomes will be synthesised from scratch.
In 1973 it would take a whole year for a scientist to make eleven base pairs long DNA. Today Khorana’s monumental feat would take minutes and would cost around $200. In the same year that Khorana announced his functional artificial gene (1976),California-based start-up Genentech– the world’s first commercial biotech company – invented a faster, automated method of synthesising genes, and so the gene synthesis industry was born. Now we can send orders to dozens of oligo-sythesizing companies to synthesize our desired DNA sequence. Korea based Bioneer Corporation, for example,has the capacity to produce 20,000 oligos per day.
The world’s first synthetic biology conference convened in June 2004. Two months later, the University of California at Berkeley announced the establishment of the world’s first synthetic biology department. In 2005, three synthetic biology start-ups attracted over $43 million in venture capital.
According to one industry estimate, the current market for gene synthesis is only $30-$40 million per year. Although the United States is currently home to more gene foundries than any other country, the industry is rapidly moving offshore. Most gene synthesis companies produce lengths of DNA smaller than 3kbp at a time (3000 base pairs – a base pair makes one ‘rung’ of the DNA ‘ladder’), however some companies, such as Blue Heron, can synthesise up to 40kbp (40,000 base pairs) of DNA at one go. Some companies boast that there are no technical limits to the length of DNA they can produce (although most sequences are not error-free). GeneArt claims that it can produce a half-million base pairs of DNA per month.
According to engineering professor Drew Endy of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), “There is no technical barrier to synthesizing plants and animals, it will happen as soon as anyone pays for it.”
Today’s DNA synthesis techniques allow us to put a theoretical price on human life: building the entire enome of a human being – around 3 billion base pairs – could be done today by a bargain basement synthesis company for just over $2.5 billion dollars – well within the reach of several individuals on the planet. Drew Endy of MIT speculates that within 20 years human genomes will be synthesised from scratch.
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