The U.S. scientist who cracked the human genome is poised to create the world’s first man-made species, a synthetic microbe that could lead to an endless supply of biofuel. Craig Venter has applied for a patent at more than 100 national offices to make a bacterium from laboratory-made DNA. It is part of an effort to create designer bugs to manufacture hydrogen and biofuels, as well as absorb carbon dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases. DNA contains the instructions to make the proteins that build and run an organism. The J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, is applying for worldwide patents on what it refers to as Mycoplasma laboratorium based on DNA assembled by scientists. When asked whether the world’s first synthetic bug was thriving in a test tube, Dr Venter said: ‘We are getting close.’ The Venter Institute’s US Patent application claims exclusive ownership of a set of essential genes and a synthetic ‘free-living organism that can grow and replicate’ that is made using those genes. To create the synthetic organism his team is making snippets of DNA, known as oligonucleotides or ‘oligos’, of up to 100 letters of DNA. To build […]