In a move hailed as biology’s next giant leap and condemned by critics as potentially dangerous British scientists have launched a ground-breaking project to build human DNA from scratch, marking the world’s first attempt to create the building blocks of human life artificially.
Backed by an initial £10 million from the Wellcome Trust, the Synthetic Human Genome Project aims to construct human chromosomes molecule by molecule, allowing researchers to study DNA in ways never before possible — and potentially unlock treatments for many incurable diseases.
Dr Julian Sale of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge said the work could pave the way for therapies to improve health in ageing populations and generate disease-resistant cells for use in organ repair and immune treatments. “The sky is the limit”.
The research, however, raises serious ethical concerns. Critics warn it could lead to “designer babies”, synthetic humans, or biological weapons. Dr Pat Thomas of Beyond GM cautioned: “Science can be repurposed for harm, even warfare.”
The synthetic genome project follows 25 years after the landmark Human Genome Project, which enabled scientists to read DNA like a bar code. This new venture goes several steps further — not just reading genetic code but writing it, eventually aiming to assemble an entire synthetic human chromosome in the lab.
Prof Matthew Hurles of the Wellcome Sanger Institute, which led much of the original genome sequencing, said the work would help scientists test how DNA truly functions. “Currently we can only tweak DNA that already exists now we can build it.”
The project will remain confined to test tubes and petri dishes, with no attempt to create synthetic life, researchers insist. However, geneticist Prof Bill Earnshaw warned that the technology could be misused: “The genie is out of the bottle… If a lab with the right equipment decided to synthesise anything, I don’t think we could stop them.”
Concerns also extend to commercial exploitation and ownership of synthetic biological data. “If we create synthetic people or body parts who owns them?” asked Dr Thomas.
Despite the risks, Wellcome said funding the research was a calculated decision. “We asked ourselves what the cost of inaction would be,” said Dr Tom Collins. “This technology will be developed one day better we do it now and do it responsibly.”
To address public concern, a parallel social science programme led by Prof Joy Zhang at the University of Kent will examine ethical, legal and societal implications — with public engagement at its core.
