Top Stories of 2008: Synthetic Genome

One of the top science stories of 2008 from Discover magazine:
#41: A Synthetic Genome Is Built From Scratch

This is one of the top Science news in 2008. Scientists at JCVI synthesize the genome of Mycoplasma genitalium using E. coli and then yeast. Of course, there’s a long way to go from DNA to a functional organism. From transcription to translation, modification or mutations take place to give unexpected results. The researchers have also taken measures to make sure that this synthetic genome can’t survive outside the lab (Adding their names and “JCVI” in the genetic code was pretty cool). While controversial, this development can tell us a lot about a cell on the molecular level in future research.