www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

The scientist who cracked the human genome now hopes to exploit the
properties of DNA to solve the world's pending energy crisis, November 2005
by Michael Kanellos.

J. Craig Venter, who gained worldwide fame in 2000 when he mapped the
human genetic code, is behind a new start-up called Synthetic Genomics,
which plans to create new types of organisms that, ideally, would produce
hydrogen, secrete nonpolluting heating oil or be able to break down
greenhouse gases.

The initial focus will be on creating "biofactories" for hydrogen and
ethanol, two fuels seen as playing an increasing role in powering cars in
the future. Hydrogen also holds promise for heating homes and putting juice
into electronic devices.

The raw genetic material for these synthetic micro-organisms will come from
a diverse set of genes from a variety of species, according to the company.
While many of the genes will come from some of the aquatic micro-organisms
that Venter and his colleagues discovered during extensive ocean voyages in
the last two years, the company will also experiment with genes from large
mammals such as dogs.

"Rapid advances in high throughput DNA sequencing and synthesis, as well as
high performance computing and bioinformatics, now enable us to synthesize
novel photosynthetic and metabolic pathways," Venter said in a statement
earlier this year. "We are in an era of rapid advances in science and are
beginning the transition from being able to not only read genetic code, but
are now moving to the early stages of being able to write code."

A small but growing number of researchers are examining ways to tap the
power of biology. At Stanford University, for instance, professor James
Swartz has been conducting experiments on a soil micro-organism that uses
energy absorbed from light to split water molecules, a chemical reaction
that produces hydrogen. Typically, organisms that derive energy from the
sun--look no farther than the oak tree or the grass in your
backyard--exploit that energy to grow.

J. Craig Venter In Cambridge, Mass., GreenFuel Technologies has created
"bioreactors" filled with algae. The algae are fed with sunlight, water and
carbon-carrying emissions from power plants. The algae are then harvested
and turned into biodiesel fuel.

Engineering organisms for the benefit of humanity creates obvious risks.
Both Stanford and Synthetic Genomics have said they are aware of the
potential ethical and environmental issues of their work and will take
actions to prevent unwanted consequences. Lab-created species could escape
into the wild and unpredictably alter the local habitat. Efforts to clone
animals--and talk of cloning humans--have provoked fierce debate in recent
years among scientists, government agencies and the general public.

But genetic engineering has its adherents too. Jay Keasling, a professor at
the University of California, Berkeley, is working on synthetic microbes
that could one day produce antimalarial drugs in volume and inexpensively,
and thus potentially help stem one of the world's most devastating diseases.
He has received grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Naturally occurring microbes have been widely used by people since time
immemorial to create everyday products such as cheese and beer.

The genetic approach to biofuels could eliminate one of the more prominent
difficulties facing biomass energy, which typically involves burning plant
matter or alcohol derived from plants. Namely, it takes more energy to make
biofuels than the process provides. Even backers of ethanol, a mixture of
gasoline and plant alcohol, have said that one needs to add in the value of
other byproducts created in the ethanol process to come out ahead.

The metabolic processes of living organisms can be quite efficient. An oak
tree, some scientists have noted, can convert more sunlight into energy than
can silicon solar panels.

Launched quietly in June, Synthetic Genomics emerged out of Venter's voyage
around the globe in the Sorcerer II, his combination of luxury yacht and
floating laboratory. The trip, which took place in 2003 and 2004, gave
Venter an opportunity to examine a fairly wide variety of little-understood
or heretofore unknown micro-organisms.

A test voyage of the Sorcerer II in the Sargasso Sea off Bermuda in early
2003 led to the discovery of 1,800 new species and 1.2 million new genes.

Synthetic Genomics certainly comes stocked with brain power. Venter's fellow
co-founders are Hamilton Smith, who won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Medicine,
and Juan Enriquez, the founding director of Harvard Business School's Life
Sciences Project. Smith and Venter also founded Celera Genomics, which later
became part of pharmaceuticals developer Applera.

Previous Next The company will also work with the J. Craig Venter Institute,
a 200-person nonprofit research organization. Collectively, Venter and the
scientific organizations associated with him have sequenced the DNA of
nearly 300 organisms, including the fruit fly, mouse, rat and dog.

Draper Fisher Jurvetson, one of the more active Silicon Valley venture
capital firms in alternative energy and so-clean technologies, is an
investor. The firm also has investments in GreenFuel, solar specialists
Konarka and in EnerNoc, which has developed a system to reduce energy
consumption in office buildings.

[news.com.com]

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