This Synthetic DNA Factory Is Building New Forms of Life

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In this DNA factory, organism engineers are using robots and automation to build completely new forms of life.

Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston company specializing in “engineering custom organisms,” aims to reinvent manufacturing, agriculture, biodesign, and more.

Biologists, software engineers, and automated robots are working side by side to accelerate the speed of nature by taking synthetic DNA, remixing it, and programming microbes, turning custom organisms into mini-factories that could one day pump out new foods, fuels, and medicines.

While there are possibly numerous positive and exciting outcomes from this research, like engineering gut bacteria to produce drugs inside the human body on demand or building self-fertilizing plants, the threat of potential DNA sequences harnessing a pathological function still exists.

That's why Ginkgo Bioworks is developing a malware software to effectively stomp out the global threat of biological weapons, ensuring that synthetic biology can't be used for evil.

Learn more about synthetic DNA and this biological assembly line on this episode of Focal Point.

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This looks straight like the Umbrella Corporation's hive.

pohlondrej

... says "Oozing amoeba" ...shows "Twitching paramecia".. :O

jmanfiji

I'm more concerned about the implications of corporations having patents on life. Monsanto's fuckery in this realm is proof that greed overcomes ethics. When they bioengineered a new strain of seed, and then tried to destroy the naturally occuring origin seeds, so that they could monopolize the patent on their new strain, that's when you have to start questioning the legality of such ownership.

WestOfEarth

"yeah, oooo, aaah ! That's how it always starts but then there's running and screaming ..."
-Jeff Goldblum line in The Lost World, Jurassic Park

allenpage

"...put into a database that has..been designed by our software engineers." inspires a whole lot of confidence. *Cough Theranos*

kobbyg

What did one DNA say to the other DNA?

“Do these genes make me look fat?”

sebastianelytron

I dont know if this is super exciting or absolutely terrifying.

adamhunter

One of the other applications of Syn Bio, is redesigning or rewriting the code for pre-historic or extinct animals including large mammals such as Mammoth, and restoring them back to life, which is more appropriately referred to as 'resurrection biology' or 'De-extinction'. Synthetic Biologists claim to rebuild perfect copies of the Great Auk, the Tasmanian Tiger, maybe even Neanderthals. In our lab, we are studying and trying to do the same.

Exciting or terrifying? :-/

arindamsarkar

When I heard about this ten years ago my first thought was: Perfect way to frame people. They can synthesize your DNA that can be planted and it will hold up in a court of law. Technology has outpaced our own understanding and it will cause some major problems. It is very cool though and such a nicely presented video. Thanks

flaplaya

One of my concerns is that a synthetic micro-organism will get out of the lab, and then have devastating unintended consequences. This is the nature of technological advancement. When humans first discovered how to use fire, this meant that a single person could now burn down the forest, either by accident or deliberately. And this is exactly what happened on many occasions. Though, the consequences with biotechnology could be much larger and affect the entire planet.

EugeneKhutoryansky

This lab secrectly own by Umbrella Corporation.
Get ready.

nguyenminhchau

This is a real horror story. The scariest thing I've ever heard.

janetlang

Their work stations look so cluttered. They need to watch Jordan Petterson and clean their rooms before creating new organisms and playing Jurassic Park.
Man in less than a century we will have synthetic humans. Crazy technology. Amaizing.

Galbex

0:56

We have literally reached a point in our scientific development where "Organism Engineer" is an actual job.
This is both exciting and terrifying at the same time.

CoriSparx

Think about how foundational this is for settling new planets like Mars. Here we're learning how to build the biology needed for arbitrary constraints. Very cool!

Mithon