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Scientists have taken another important step toward creating different types of synthetic life in the laboratory.
An international research consortium reports Thursday that it has figured out an efficient method for synthesizing a substantial part of the genetic code of yeast.
"We are absolutely thrilled," says Jef Boeke, a geneticist at New York University School of Medicine, who is leading the project. "This is a significant step toward our goal."
The milestone is the latest development in the intensifying quest to create living, complex organisms from scratch in the lab. This group previously reported it had completely synthesized one of yeast's 16 chromosomes, which are the molecular structures that carry all of an organism's genes.
Now, in a series of seven papers published in the journal Science, the group reports it has completed five more, and is on track to having a fully synthetic yeast genome finished by the end of the year.
"We're chugging along toward that goal," Boeke says.
The advance is being praised by many biologists, geneticists and others as an important advance...