J. Craig Venter Institute

Life, uh, finds a way.

James Somers writes about biologists who are discovering the true nature of cells—and learning to build their own.

Scientists report that they have built a living 'minimal cell' with a genome stripped down to its barest essentials -- and a computer model of the cell that mirrors its behavior. By refining and testing their model, the scientists say they are developing a system for predicting how changes to the genomes, living conditions or physical characteristics of live cells will alter how they function.

MIT scientists have uncovered ancient systems with potential to expand the genome editing toolbox. These tandem interspaced guide RNA (TIGR) systems use RNA to guide them to specific sites on DNA.

The human microbiome has been linked to digestion, depression, and more. How might space travel change it?

Researchers from the University of Illinois developed GPU-accelerated software to simulate a cell that metabolizes and grows like a living cell.

Human artificial chromosomes (HACs) capable of working within human cells could power advanced gene therapies, including those addressing some cancers, along with many laboratory applications, though serious technical obstacles have hindered their development. Now a team led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has made a significant breakthrough in this field that…

Researchers have created a swimming synthetic bacterium from the actively swimming crustacean pathogen Spiroplasma eriocheiris and a non-motile synthetic bacterium.

Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) used tools of genetics research akin to those used in genealogical research to evaluate the diversity of marine life off the California coast.

In a new paper, nearly 130 authors from institutions around the world describe their groundbreaking collaborative work, 'Defining the risk of SARS-CoV-2 variants on immune protection.'

Top scientists from leading academic centers are banding together to answer a key question about the root cause of long COVID - whether fragments of the coronavirus persist in the tissues of some individuals.

A 3D digital model of a "minimal cell" leads scientists closer to understanding the barest requirements for life.

Article URL: https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/842843733 Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30078815 Points: 1 # Comments: 0

Breakthroughs in synthetic biology could create mirror versions of natural molecules, with devastating consequences for life on Earth

For over a decade, scientists have made extraordinary progress on the long-held dream of fabricating an entire cell from nonliving molecules and materials.

Humans are feeding the invisible world of ocean microbes a punishing diet of pollutants, boosting the impact of climate change and hastening the destruction of life as we know it

Evolutionary biologist Jay T. Lennon's research team has been studying a synthetically constructed minimal cell that has been stripped of all but its essential genes. The team found that the streamlined cell can evolve just as fast as a normal cell—demonstrating the capacity for organisms to adapt, even with an unnatural genome that would seemingly provide little flexibility.

Artificially synthesizing genomes has broad prospects in fields such as medical research and developing industrial strains. From the synthesis of the artificial life JCVI-syn1.0 by Craig Venter's team in 2010, to the rewriting and synthesis of the prokaryotic E. coli genome, and to the Sc2.0 project's artificial synthesis of the yeast genome, researchers are constantly advancing in the depth and breadth of genome…

Creating synthetic life could be easily within our grasp soon based on a comparison with the evolution of computer chips. Computer programming and gene synthesis appear to share little in common. But according to an expert, leaps forward in technology in the former make him optimistic that wide scale gene manufacture is achievable.

A look at antibodies in patients soon after they were infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 showed key differences between those whose cases remained mild and those who later developed severe symptoms.