PARIS - New biofuel molecule therapeutics, diagnostics will be created by synthetic biology, according to the pioneers of this technique engineering worries because it blurs the boundary between the living and the artificial.
The goal is "to do chemistry in micro-organisms," said Vincent Schächter, Director of Research and Development at Total Gas New Energy.
"The technology arrives, we can program chemistry with extreme precision," the geneticist Philippe Marlière, co-founder of Global Bioenergy.
A bacterium has genes responsible for producing some 3,000 different enzymes.How to manipulate them to make them produce something other than what they produce naturally?
As engineers define the circuits of production of a chemical plant, synthetic biology aims to transform bacteria or other microorganisms in plants, creating the desired products.
Drugs such as artemisinin against malaria or hydrocortisone, are already benefiting from these techniques, as well as a diagnostic tool for monitoring of patients with AIDS and hepatitis.
Biofuels, it is "making diesel from sugar through synthetic biology" instead of using plant oil "too expensive," said Vincent Schächter at a conference held Thursday at College de France by Le Monde and the monthly La Recherche.
With a largely modified E.coli, Global Bioenergy, established in 2008 in Evry, has developed a process to use sugar from forestry waste, straw or sugar beet molasses to produce new biofuels.
Antibiotics, bacteria detect minute levels of arsenic in water, microorganisms capable of degrading toxic: many projects counting on sophisticated techniques of manipulation of living.
To create a genetically modified organism, we use genes and biological processes that exist in the living world, in the case of synthetic biology, the changes may involve dozens of genes at once, or even go beyond this that exists in nature.
Are there any risks?Some researchers downplay the impact of their "crafts" by ensuring that "it does not happen at the ankles" of what nature created, says Philippe Marlière.
According to him, "invent, innovate in the living is a lot easier than you think."However, the creation of "artificial biological objects" is a "major challenge" prevent them interact with the natural living.
"Are we capable of creating organizations that do not affect biodiversity, to create a second tree of life that will not affect the first?" Asked Mr Marlière.
Several techniques xenobiology (alien life forms) are proposed to create a "Tower of Babel" preventing any exchange between living natural and "artificial biological objects."
Two sugars, ribose and deoxyribose, the skeleton differentiate molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the living world.Another type of sugar could be used to create "nucleic acid supernatural," the geneticist.
Another avenue explored: expand the "alphabet" of four basic molecules or nucleotides that underlie the genetic code of life.
Beyond the potential risks, "synthetic biology blurs the line between what is on one side the natural living and what is machine," more generally concerned about the philosopher Alexei Grinbaum.
The goal is "to do chemistry in micro-organisms," said Vincent Schächter, Director of Research and Development at Total Gas New Energy.
"The technology arrives, we can program chemistry with extreme precision," the geneticist Philippe Marlière, co-founder of Global Bioenergy.
A bacterium has genes responsible for producing some 3,000 different enzymes.How to manipulate them to make them produce something other than what they produce naturally?
As engineers define the circuits of production of a chemical plant, synthetic biology aims to transform bacteria or other microorganisms in plants, creating the desired products.
Drugs such as artemisinin against malaria or hydrocortisone, are already benefiting from these techniques, as well as a diagnostic tool for monitoring of patients with AIDS and hepatitis.
Biofuels, it is "making diesel from sugar through synthetic biology" instead of using plant oil "too expensive," said Vincent Schächter at a conference held Thursday at College de France by Le Monde and the monthly La Recherche.
With a largely modified E.coli, Global Bioenergy, established in 2008 in Evry, has developed a process to use sugar from forestry waste, straw or sugar beet molasses to produce new biofuels.
Antibiotics, bacteria detect minute levels of arsenic in water, microorganisms capable of degrading toxic: many projects counting on sophisticated techniques of manipulation of living.
To create a genetically modified organism, we use genes and biological processes that exist in the living world, in the case of synthetic biology, the changes may involve dozens of genes at once, or even go beyond this that exists in nature.
Are there any risks?Some researchers downplay the impact of their "crafts" by ensuring that "it does not happen at the ankles" of what nature created, says Philippe Marlière.
According to him, "invent, innovate in the living is a lot easier than you think."However, the creation of "artificial biological objects" is a "major challenge" prevent them interact with the natural living.
"Are we capable of creating organizations that do not affect biodiversity, to create a second tree of life that will not affect the first?" Asked Mr Marlière.
Several techniques xenobiology (alien life forms) are proposed to create a "Tower of Babel" preventing any exchange between living natural and "artificial biological objects."
Two sugars, ribose and deoxyribose, the skeleton differentiate molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the living world.Another type of sugar could be used to create "nucleic acid supernatural," the geneticist.
Another avenue explored: expand the "alphabet" of four basic molecules or nucleotides that underlie the genetic code of life.
Beyond the potential risks, "synthetic biology blurs the line between what is on one side the natural living and what is machine," more generally concerned about the philosopher Alexei Grinbaum.
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