Chemical synthesizer produces artificial DNA

Last week saw the announcement of artificial manmade DNA using a chemical synthesizer:

"This is the first synthetic cell that's been made," said Venter. "We call it synthetic because the cell is totally derived from a synthetic chromosome, made with four bottles of chemicals on a chemical synthesizer, starting with information in a computer."

But before consumers see any benefit several significant hurdles have to be solved. One of the biggest problems is that scientists are still searching for the specific genetic code to produce cheap drugs, biofuel and other products.

"We can write anything we want," said Frances Arnold, a synthetic biologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "The problem is that we don't know what to write."

It's alive! Artificial DNA controls life (Msnbc.com) (May 20, 2010)

One Danish startup company seeking to produce chemical synthesizers is Alcorlab