Sometimes I am really awestruck when I realise how one of nature’s own creations is beginning to develop the same powers over life as her. I am talking about ourselves, of course.

Living beings like you and me and the plants and the animals, although made up of the same atoms and molecules as the non-living things, are somehow ‘alive’. We are able to move, eat, reproduce and as humans, even think consciously.

All that happens because of the blueprint of life and it is called DNA. Basically, DNA, or rather the arrangements of molecules in the DNA determine if you are a human or a tree or a rat and also determines your uniqueness among your own species as well.

Till now, nature had been the lone master at engineering life but in the recent time, we humans have developed the same abilities and are now at a stage where we are capable of engineering life in a lab.

Synthetic Biology - Taking Life Into Our Own Hands

The term ‘synthetic biology’ may sound a little nonsensical because ’synthetic’ means artificial, or fake and biology is the ‘real deal’. But this field is what is making us capable to print genetic code and engineer life.

Don’t get this confused with the genetic modification we have been doing already for decades. Earlier, we were able to take out one trait from one species of a plant or animal and transfer it to another plant or animal for our own benefits in many of these cases. For example, genetically modifying corn plant to resist diseases and increase produce.

We have now become so good at sequencing the genome of different species of plants and animals, that we have now databases of several of these. But now you can do a really cool thing.

You can literally type a DNA sequence in a computer or you can copy it from the existing database and just print that DNA! You may ask what the “ink” used here is and it may surprise you to find out that it is sugar!

The DNA sequence that is printed is of course taken from existing species or species that have existed (more on this later), but the printed DNA itself is synthetic. What is even cooler is that while you’re preparing your DNA code in the computer, you can take several traits from several different species and combine those traits in a single DNA.

Right now, these are more pet projects in nature where these synthetic DNA are introduced in single celled organism like the E. Coli bacteria found in the gut, but this is quickly leading the way where we can do a lot more genetic engineering to create life forms not found in nature and hence, for the first time, creating a disassociation from nature’s work.

A Future Where We Are Gods?

Right now synthetic biology is at a cusp of a major revolution and the coming decades are going to be really interesting. It opens up a lot of doors to a lot of sci-fi like possibilities giving us more control over the manipulation of life.

We already have seen many innovation thanks to synthetic biology like lab-grown meat, designer microbes that see and destroy tumours in the body, microbes that eat plastic, advancements in medicine and biochemicals, and so much more.

In the future, imagination will literally be the limitation to what can be achieved with this. One day, we may even be able to synthetically recreate human beings! How cool would that be? Wouldn’t that be almost like being a god?

Who knows we might one day stumble upon the answer to how life originated on the planet as we start playing more and more with the code of life. All this is really exciting and if we are able to solve the ethical question, I think this will create an entirely new human species, where we set the rules and mother nature is no longer in control. Is that a good thing? Who knows! Only time will tell.