In 2010 John Craig Venter and his colleagues reported a creation of the first bacterial cell containing a completely synthesized genome. It was a 1.08-mega-base pair Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 genome and it became the very first citizen of synthetic biology.
The discovery of the structure of DNA is known as one of the greatest discoveries in human history. It changed our perspective on human life forever, nevertheless one part of this magnificent story was left untold.
There is a new era rising in molecular biology and it began with CRISPR technology (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), which is a genetic modification tool based on bacterial immune system. Gene drives is another interesting mechanism to use for altering genes but in contrast with CRISPR/Cas system it can only function in sexually reproducing species, leaving viruses and bacteria out of the picture.
From the Human Genome Project and ENCODE, to projects that involve sequencing of millions of human genomes and were announced by the US Obama Administration and Companies such as Craig Venter’s Human Longevity Inc., 23andMe and the Chinese BGI.
The only way to confirm heteropaternal superfecundation in human twins is genetic testing.
Short Coffee Break Conversation about the Future of Sequencing
Meet Fang Chen, BGI – Beijing Genomics Institute, the world’s largest genomics organization.
Recently there’s been a lot of excitement building up within the molecular biology community about sequencing long reads, and by “long reads” I mean reads of several kb in length…