Bioethics Council Hears Pleas for More Oversight of Synthetic Biology

July 12, 2010

The impetus for the meeting was a May report in Science in which researchers from the J. Craig Venter Institute synthesized the genome of a bacterium, added it to another bacterial cell, and got the cell to replicate using the new DNA. The startling feat prompted President Barack Obama to ask his newly formed bioethics commission to examine the implications of the Venter study and other kinds of synthetic biology, such as creating biological circuits by putting components together in a cell. Obama asked for a report in just 6 months. (ScienceInsider)