8/13/2019 Bio Factories

1/2

8-WORLD'S NEXT FUEL SOURCE COULD BE DESIGNER ORGANISMSBy Michael Kanellos07-November 2005 via CheckbiotechSource:http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&doc_id=11592&start=21&control=200&page_start=1&page_nr=101&pg=1

The scientist who cracked the human genome now hopes to exploit the properties of DNA tosolve the world's pending energy crisis.

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 oforganisms that, ideally, would produce hydrogen, secrete nonpolluting heating oil or be able tobreak down greenhouse gases.

The initial focus will be on creating "biofactories" for hydrogen and ethanol, two fuels seen asplaying an increasing role in powering cars in the future. Hydrogen also holds promise for heatinghomes 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 comefrom some of the aquatic micro-organisms that Venter and his colleagues discovered duringextensive ocean voyages in the last two years, the company will also experiment with genes fromlarge mammals such as dogs.

"Rapid advances in high throughput DNA sequencing and synthesis, as well as high performancecomputing and bioinformatics, now enable us to synthesize novel photosynthetic and metabolicpathways," Venter said in a statement earlier this year. "We are in an era of rapid advances inscience and are beginning the transition from being able to not only read genetic code, but arenow 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. AtStanford 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 chemicalreaction that produces hydrogen. Typically, organisms that derive energy from the sun--look nofarther 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" filledwith algae. The algae are fed with sunlight, water and carbon-carrying emissions from powerplants. The algae are then harvested and turned into biodiesel fuel.

Engineering organisms for the benefit of humanity creates obvious risks. Both Stanford andSynthetic Genomics have said they are aware of the potential ethical and environmental issues oftheir work and will take actions to prevent unwanted consequences. Lab-created species couldescape into the wild and unpredictably alter the local habitat. Efforts to clone animals--and talk ofcloning 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 ofCalifornia, Berkeley, is working on synthetic microbes that could one day produce antimalarialdrugs in volume and inexpensively, and thus potentially help stem one of the world's mostdevastating 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 createeveryday products such as cheese and beer.

8/13/2019 Bio Factories

2/2

The genetic approach to biofuels could eliminate one of the more prominent difficulties facingbiomass 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 ofethanol, a mixture of gasoline and plant alcohol, have said that one needs to add in the value ofother byproducts created in the ethanol process to come out ahead.

The metabolic processes of living organisms can be quite efficient. An oak tree, some scientistshave 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 globein the Sorcerer II, his combination of luxury yacht and floating laboratory. The trip, which tookplace 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 thediscovery of 1,800 new species and 1.2 million new genes.

Synthetic Genomics certainly comes stocked with brain power. Venter's fellow co-founders areHamilton Smith, who won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Medicine, and Juan Enriquez, the foundingdirector 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-personnonprofit research organization. Collectively, Venter and the scientific organizations associatedwith him have sequenced the DNA of nearly 300 organisms, including the fruit fly, mouse, rat anddog.

Draper Fisher Jurvetson, one of the more active Silicon Valley venture capital firms in alternativeenergy 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 energyconsumption in office buildings.