synthetic biology

“As one of our founders stated, ‘this is the moon landing of synthetic biology,’ ” Colossal told Slate in a statement.

Instead, he added, the de-extinction team used new synthetic biology technology - snipping out pieces of DNA and inserting them into the genetic code of a living animal that has its entire biological blueprint in tact, in this case a grey wolf.

Venter replicated the DNA of a bacterium in 2008 and in 2010 announced the creation of a self-replicating synthetic genome, or DNA, in a bacterium taken from a different species, spurring a bioethics investigation of the developing field of synthetic biology by then-President Obama that identified limited risks.

This flexibility is crucial for developing nanoscale robotic systems that can perform tasks in synthetic biology, nanomedicine and materials science.

He co-led the study with Rosa Martinez Corral, a former post-doctoral researcher in his lab who now leads a research group in systems and synthetic biology at CRG.