Why Should We Care About Synthetic DNA?

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This is a continuation from this week's article; "When Man Has Power To Create Life....".

From Faith Science;

On May 20, 2010, Science Express published the research article “Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome” by research scientists of the J. Craig Venter Institute. The next day, Elizabeth Pennisi explained its significance in Science Magazine with her article “Synthetic Genome Brings New Life to Bacterium.” This kindled a worldwide media firestorm and people’s imagination ran wild. If the results could be confirmed, the possibilities were endless.

The Financial Times headline read, “Scientists Create Synthetic Life Form with a Computer and Four Bottles of Chemicals.” The New York Times released, “Synthetic Bacterial Genome Takes Over a Cell, Researchers Report.” The Wall Street Journal stated, “Scientists Create Synthetic Organism.” The Economist in London read, “And Man Made Life: The First Artificial Organism and its Consequences.” A headline in the German newspaper DIE ZEIT read, “Humans can now Play Creators.”

The German Academy of Science and Engineering published the following list of applications for synthetic biology in 2009:

1. The chemical enzymatic synthesis of nucleic acid and complete genomes. The specific modification and optimization of gene sequences has the potential to lead to gene-therapy products and DNA vaccines.

2. The construction of cells with a minimal genome. This genetic platform, which is reduced to the essential life functions, can be used as a “chassis” for establishing new functions.

3. The synthesis of protocells, i.e. artificial systems constructed according to biological and physical principles, which can serve as models for living cells.

4. The production of biomolecules using genetic engineering approaches to bring together complete metabolic reaction pathways according to modular design principle.

5. The design of regulatory circuits with sensitive sensory functions to control cellular and industrial process chains or networks.

6. The use of modified cellular machines in orthogonal systems. This might enable the production of polymer compounds from chemical constituents according to the drawing-board principle. Orthogonality refers to the possibility of combining independent components and is an important construction principle in the technological and computer sciences.

“Engineers of Life:” Nanowerk Nanotechnology News Email Digest, June 15, 2010

Sometimes, the position of the church on many of these issues is so far to the right that we are completely left out of the discussion. Everybody else gets to state their case while we remain outside the loop, clueless to what’s going on. Anybody who is completely one sided tends to become irrelevant. Synthetic life does not disprove God, so the atheist position is irrelevant and all synthetic biologists are not guaranteed a place in hell, so that religious, fanatic position is also irrelevant.

The fact is that the science behind this is real, and the truth is that the scriptures which point toward it are also real. This is why I believe it’s time to take this discussion to a more balanced position. In synthetic biology, faith and the scientific method collide to form “faith science.” Gather the facts from the research and the truth from the Scriptures; then develop an informed position.

He who answers a matter before he hears the facts—it is folly and shame to him.
Proverbs 18:13 amp