Work has begun on a controversial project to create the building blocks of human life from scratch, in what is believed to be a world first.
The research has been taboo until now due to concerns that it could lead to designer babies or unforeseen changes for future generations, reports
But now, the world’s largest medical charity, the Wellcome Trust, has given an initial £10m to get the project off the ground and says it has the potential to do more good than harm by speeding up treatments for many incurable diseases.
Dr Julian Sale, of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, which is part of the project, told BBC News that the research was the next giant leap in biology.
“The sky is the limit. We are looking at therapies that will improve people’s lives as they age, that will lead to healthier aging with less disease as they age,” he added.
“We are looking to use this approach to generate disease-resistant cells that we can use to repopulate damaged organs, for example in the liver and heart, and even in the immune system,” Sale said.
But critics fear the research opens the door to unscrupulous researchers seeking to create improved or modified humans.
Dr. Pat Thomas, director of the campaign group Beyond GM, said: “We like to think that all scientists are there to do good, but science can be repurposed for harm and for war.”
Details of the project were given to BBC News on the 25th anniversary of the completion of the Human Genome Project, which mapped the molecules in human DNA and was also largely funded by Wellcome.
Every cell in our bodies contains a molecule called DNA which carries the genetic information it needs. DNA is made up of just four much smaller building blocks referred to as A, G, C and T, which are repeated over and over in different combinations. Amazingly, it contains all the genetic information that makes us physically who we are.
The Human Genome Project enabled scientists to read all of human genes like a barcode. New work being launched, called the Synthetic Human Genome Project, potentially takes this a giant step further – it will allow researchers not just to read a DNA molecule, but to create parts of it – perhaps one day the whole thing – molecule by molecule from scratch.
The scientists’ first goal is to develop ways to build ever larger blocks of human DNA, to the point where they have synthetically constructed a human chromosome. These contain the genes that govern our development, repair and maintenance.
These can then be studied and experimented with to learn more about how genes and DNA regulate our bodies.
Many diseases occur when these genes go wrong, so the research could lead to better treatments, according to Professor Matthew Hurles, director of the Wellcome Sanger Institute which sequenced most of the Human Genome.
“Building DNA from scratch allows us to test how DNA really works and test new theories, because at present we can only do that by changing DNA to DNA that already exists in living systems,” he added.
The project’s work will be limited to test tubes and containers, and there will be no attempt to create synthetic life. But the technology will give researchers unprecedented control over human life systems.
And while the project is looking for medical benefits, there is nothing to stop unscrupulous scientists from misusing the technology.
They could, for example, try to create biological weapons, enhanced humans or even creatures that have human DNA, according to Professor Bill Earnshaw, a highly respected geneticist at the University of Edinburgh who designed a method for creating artificial human chromosomes.
“The genie is out of the bottle. We may have a number of restrictions now, but if an organisation with access to the right machinery decides to start synthesizing something, I don’t think we can stop it,” he told BBC News.
