Work begins to create artificial human DNA from scratch
The research has been taboo until now because of concerns it could lead to designer babies or unforeseen changes for future generations.
But now the world's largest medical charity, the Wellcome Trust, has given an initial £10m to start the project and says it has the potential to do more good than harm by accelerating treatments for many incurable diseases.
Dr Julian Sale, of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, who is part of the project, told BBC News the research was the next giant leap in biology.
"The sky is the limit. We are looking at therapies that will improve people's lives as they age, that will lead to healthier aging with less disease as they get older.
"We are looking to use this approach to generate disease-resistant cells we can use to repopulate damaged organs, for example in the liver and the heart, even the immune system," he said.
But critics fear the research opens the way for unscrupulous researchers seeking to create enhanced or modified humans.
Dr Pat Thomas, director of the campaign group Beyond GM, said: "We like to think that all scientists are there to do good, but the science can be repurposed to do harm and for warfare".
Details of the project were given to BBC News on the 25th anniversary of the completion of the Human Genome Project, which mapped the molecules in human DNA and was also largely funded by Wellcome.
Every cell in our body contains a molecule called DNA which carries the genetic information it needs. DNA is built from just four much smaller blocks referred to as A, G, C and T, which are repeated over and over again in various combinations. Amazingly it contains all the genetic information that physically makes us who we are.
The Human Genome Project enabled scientists to read all human genes like a bar code. The new work that is getting under way, called the Synthetic Human Genome Project, potentially takes this a giant leap forward – it will allow researchers not just to read a molecule of DNA, but to create parts of it – maybe one day all of it — molecule by molecule from scratch.
The scientists' first aim is to develop ways of building ever larger blocks of human DNA, up to the point when they have synthetically constructed a human chromosome. These contain the genes that govern our development, repair and maintenance.
These can then be studied and experimented on to learn more about how genes and DNA regulate our bodies.
Many diseases occur when these genes go wrong so the studies could lead to better treatments, according to Prof Matthew Hurles, director of the Wellcome Sanger Insititute which sequenced the largest proportion of the Human Genome.
"Building DNA from scratch allows us to test out how DNA really works and test out new theories, because currently we can only really do that by tweaking DNA in DNA that already exists in living systems".
The project's work will be confined to test tubes and dishes and there will be no attempt to create synthetic life. But the technology will give researchers unprecedented control over human living systems.
And although the project is hunting for medical benefits, there is nothing to stop unscrupulous scientists misusing the technology.
They could, for example, attempt to create biological weapons, enhanced humans or even creatures that have human DNA, according to Prof Bill Earnshaw, a highly respected genetic scientist at Edinburgh University who designed a method for creating artificial human chromosomes.
"The genie is out of the bottle," he told BBC News. "We could have a set of restrictions now, but if an organisation who has access to appropriate machinery decided to start synthesising anything, I don't think we could stop them"
Ms Thomas is concerned about how the technology will be commercialised by healthcare companies developing treatments emerging from the research.
"If we manage to create synthetic body parts or even synthetic people, then who owns them. And who owns the data from these creations? "
Given the potential misuse of the technology, the question for Wellcome is why they chose to fund it. The decision was not made lightly, according to Dr Tom Collins, who gave the funding go-ahead.
"We asked ourselves what was the cost of inaction," he told BBC News.
"This technology is going to be developed one day, so by doing it now we are at least trying to do it in as responsible a way as possible and to confront the ethical and moral questions in an upfront way as possible".
A dedicated social science program will run in tandem with the project's scientific development and will be led by Prof Joy Zhang, a sociologist, at the University of Kent.
"We want to get the views of experts, social scientists and especially the public about how they relate to the technology and how it can be beneficial to them and, importantly, what questions and concerns they have," she said. — BBC
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LONDON — The bones of a British man who died in a terrible accident in Antarctica in 1959 have been discovered in a melting glacier. The remains were found in January by a Polish Antarctic expedition, alongside a wristwatch, a radio, and a pipe. He has now been formally identified as Dennis "Tink" Bell, who fell into a crevasse aged 25 when working for the organisation that became the British Antarctic Survey. "I had long given up on finding my brother. It is just remarkable, astonishing. I can't get over it," David Bell, 86, tells BBC News. "Dennis was one of the many brave personnel who contributed to the early science and exploration of Antarctica under extraordinarily harsh conditions," says Professor Dame Jane Francis, director of the British Antarctic Survey . "Even though he was lost in 1959, his memory lived on among colleagues and in the legacy of polar research," she adds. It was David who answered the door in his family home in Harrow, London, in July 1959. "The telegram boy said, 'I'm sorry to tell you, but this is bad news'," he says. He went upstairs to tell his parents. "It was a horrendous moment," he adds. Talking to me from his home in Australia and sitting next to his wife Yvonne, David smiles as stories from his childhood in 1940s England spill out. They are the memories of a younger sibling admiring a charming, adventurous big brother. "Dennis was fantastic company. He was very amusing. The life and soul of wherever he happened to be," David says. "I still can't get over this, but one evening when me, my mother and father came home from the cinema," he says. "And I have to say this in fairness to Dennis, he had put a newspaper down on the kitchen table, but on top of it, he'd taken a motorbike engine apart and it was all over the table," he says. "I can remember his style of dress, he always used to wear duffel coats. He was just an average sort of fellow who enjoyed life," he adds. Dennis Bell, nicked-named "Tink", was born in 1934. He worked with the RAF and trained as a meteorologist, before joining the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey to work in Antarctica. "He was obsessed with Scott's diaries," David says, referring to Captain Robert Scott who discovered the South Pole and died on an expedition in 1912. Dennis went to Antarctica in 1958. He was stationed for a two-year assignment at Admiralty Bay, a small UK base with about 12 men on King George Island, which is roughly 120 kilometres (75 miles) off the northern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The British Antarctica Survey keeps meticulous records and its archivist Ieuan Hopkins has dug out detailed base camp reports about Dennis's work and antics on the harsh and "ridiculously isolated" island. Reading aloud, Hopkins says: "He's cheerful and industrious, with a mischievous sense of humour and fondness for practical jokes." Dennis's job was to send up meteorological weather balloons and radio the reports to the UK every three hours, which involved firing up a generator in sub-zero conditions. Described as the best cook in the hut, he was in charge of the food store over the winter when no supplies could reach them. Antarctica felt even more cut off than it is today, with extremely limited contact with home. David recalls recording a Christmas message at BBC studios with his parents and sister Valerie to be sent to his brother. He was best known for his love of the husky dogs used to pull sledges around the island, and he raised two litters of dogs. British Antarctic Survey A black and white photograph of three men holding large husky dogs. British Antarctic Survey Dennis Bell, on the left, with dogs at the Admiralty Bay Station in 1959 He was also involved in surveying King George Island to produce some of the first mapping of the largely unexplored place. 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"That's a story I shall never get over," says David. The base camp reports about the accident are business-like. "We heard from Jeff [...] that yesterday Tink fell down a crevasse and was killed. We hope to return tomorrow, sea ice permitting," it continues. Hopkins explains that another man, called Alan Sharman, had died weeks earlier, and the morale was very low. "The sledge has got back. We heard the sad details. Jeff has badly bitten frostbitten hands. We are not taking any more risks to recover," the report reads the day after the accident. Reading the reports again, Hopkins discovered that earlier in the season, it had been Dennis who'd made the coffin for Alan Sharman. "My mother never really got over it. She couldn't handle photographs of him and couldn't talk about him," David says. He recalls that two men on Dennis's base visited the family, bringing a sheepskin as a gesture. "But there was no conclusion. There was no service; there was no anything. Just Dennis gone," David says. About 15 years ago, David was contacted by Rod Rhys Jones, chair of the British Antarctic Monument Trust. Since 1944, 29 people have died working on British Antarctic Territory on scientific missions, according to the trust. Rod was organising a voyage for relatives of some of the 29 to see the spectacular and remote place where their loved ones had lived and died. David joined the expedition, called South 2015. "The captain stopped at the locations and give four or five hoots of the siren," he says. The sea-ice was too thick for David to reach his brother's hut on King George Island. "But it was very, very moving. It lifted the pressure, a weight off my head, as it were," he says. It gave him a sense of closure. "And I thought that would be it," he says. But on 29 January this year, a team of Polish researchers working from the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station stumbled across something practically on their doorstep. Dennis had been found. 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Arab News
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Healthy babies born in Britain after scientists used DNA from three people to avoid genetic disease
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Saudi Gazette
26-06-2025
- Saudi Gazette
Work begins to create artificial human DNA from scratch
LONDON — Work has begun on a controversial project to create the building blocks of human life from scratch, in what is believed to be a world first. The research has been taboo until now because of concerns it could lead to designer babies or unforeseen changes for future generations. But now the world's largest medical charity, the Wellcome Trust, has given an initial £10m to start the project and says it has the potential to do more good than harm by accelerating treatments for many incurable diseases. Dr Julian Sale, of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, who is part of the project, told BBC News the research was the next giant leap in biology. "The sky is the limit. We are looking at therapies that will improve people's lives as they age, that will lead to healthier aging with less disease as they get older. "We are looking to use this approach to generate disease-resistant cells we can use to repopulate damaged organs, for example in the liver and the heart, even the immune system," he said. But critics fear the research opens the way for unscrupulous researchers seeking to create enhanced or modified humans. Dr Pat Thomas, director of the campaign group Beyond GM, said: "We like to think that all scientists are there to do good, but the science can be repurposed to do harm and for warfare". Details of the project were given to BBC News on the 25th anniversary of the completion of the Human Genome Project, which mapped the molecules in human DNA and was also largely funded by Wellcome. Every cell in our body contains a molecule called DNA which carries the genetic information it needs. DNA is built from just four much smaller blocks referred to as A, G, C and T, which are repeated over and over again in various combinations. Amazingly it contains all the genetic information that physically makes us who we are. The Human Genome Project enabled scientists to read all human genes like a bar code. The new work that is getting under way, called the Synthetic Human Genome Project, potentially takes this a giant leap forward – it will allow researchers not just to read a molecule of DNA, but to create parts of it – maybe one day all of it — molecule by molecule from scratch. The scientists' first aim is to develop ways of building ever larger blocks of human DNA, up to the point when they have synthetically constructed a human chromosome. These contain the genes that govern our development, repair and maintenance. These can then be studied and experimented on to learn more about how genes and DNA regulate our bodies. Many diseases occur when these genes go wrong so the studies could lead to better treatments, according to Prof Matthew Hurles, director of the Wellcome Sanger Insititute which sequenced the largest proportion of the Human Genome. "Building DNA from scratch allows us to test out how DNA really works and test out new theories, because currently we can only really do that by tweaking DNA in DNA that already exists in living systems". The project's work will be confined to test tubes and dishes and there will be no attempt to create synthetic life. But the technology will give researchers unprecedented control over human living systems. And although the project is hunting for medical benefits, there is nothing to stop unscrupulous scientists misusing the technology. They could, for example, attempt to create biological weapons, enhanced humans or even creatures that have human DNA, according to Prof Bill Earnshaw, a highly respected genetic scientist at Edinburgh University who designed a method for creating artificial human chromosomes. "The genie is out of the bottle," he told BBC News. "We could have a set of restrictions now, but if an organisation who has access to appropriate machinery decided to start synthesising anything, I don't think we could stop them" Ms Thomas is concerned about how the technology will be commercialised by healthcare companies developing treatments emerging from the research. "If we manage to create synthetic body parts or even synthetic people, then who owns them. And who owns the data from these creations? " Given the potential misuse of the technology, the question for Wellcome is why they chose to fund it. The decision was not made lightly, according to Dr Tom Collins, who gave the funding go-ahead. "We asked ourselves what was the cost of inaction," he told BBC News. "This technology is going to be developed one day, so by doing it now we are at least trying to do it in as responsible a way as possible and to confront the ethical and moral questions in an upfront way as possible". A dedicated social science program will run in tandem with the project's scientific development and will be led by Prof Joy Zhang, a sociologist, at the University of Kent. "We want to get the views of experts, social scientists and especially the public about how they relate to the technology and how it can be beneficial to them and, importantly, what questions and concerns they have," she said. — BBC
