Human Genome Project: Scientists Reveal Plans To Develop Synthetic Genome In Lab

A team of scientists on Thursday revealed how they plan to develop synthetic human genome in the laboratory.

The so-called 'Human Genome Project-Write' is the result of two closed-door meetings, one held in New York City last year, and the other on May 10 at Harvard University, according to the Washington Post.

The human genome project is aimed at decreasing the expenses incurred in engineering and testing large genomes in the lab. The ambitious proposal could make it possible to grow human organs for transplant, said the project supporters, led by geneticist Jef Boeke of the New York University Langone Medical Center, in a paper published in the journal Science, reported Phys.org.

The new project "will include whole-genome engineering of human cell lines and other organisms of agricultural and public health significance, or those needed to interpret human biological functions," noted the scientist team.

They added that the project will also help in engineering cancer resistance into new therapeutic cell lines and accelerating high-productivity, cost-efficient vaccine and pharmaceutical development using human cells and organoids.

The project will be administered by a non-profit organization called the Center of Excellence for Engineering Biology, the news release said, reported Tech Times.

The group includes experts from Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the U.S. government's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Yale University, the University of Edinburgh, Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Washington, Autodesk Bio/Nano Research Group, Bioeconomy Capital and other institutions.

The paper's 25 authors hope to launch the human genome project this year with financial support from multi sectoral sources amounting to about $100 million. The team is expecting that the overall cost of the project will be than the $3 billion used for the original Human Genome Project that completely mapped human DNA for the first time.

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