All living cells that we know of on this planet are DNA software driven biological machines comprised of hundreds to thousands of protein robots coded for by the DNA software. The protein robots carry out precise biochemical functions developed by billions of years of evolutionary software changes. Science can go much further now, and there is an exciting paper out of Stanford with a team led by Markus Covert and that included John Glass from my institute using the work on the mycoplasma cell to do the first complete mathematical modeling of a cell. But this is coming out in Cell next week. Its going to be an exciting paper. We can go from the digital code to the genetic code, and now modeling the entire function of the cell in a computer, going the complete digital circle. We are going even further now, by using computer software to design new DNA software to create a new synthetic life. I hope it is becoming clear that all living cells that we know of on this planet are DNA software driven biological machines comprised of hundreds to thousands of protein robots coded for by the DNA software. The protein robots carry out precise biochemical functions developed by billions of years of evolutionary software changes. The software codes for the linear protein sequence, which in turn determines the rate of folding as well as the final 3-dimensional structure and function of the protein robot. The primary sequence determines the stability of the protein and therefore its dynamic regulation in the cell. By making a copy of the DNA software, cells have the ability to self-replicate. All these processes require energy. From all the genomes we have sequenced we have seen that there is a range of mechanisms for the generation of cellular energy molecules through a process we call metabolism. Some cells are able to transport sugars across the membrane into the cell and by some now well defined enzymatic processes capture the chemical energy in the sugar molecule and to supply it to the required cellular processes. Other cells such as the autotroph Methanococcus jannaschii use only inorganic chemicals to make every molecule in the cell while providing the cellular energy. These cells do this by a series of proteins that convert carbon dioxide into methane to generate cellular energy molecules and to provide the carbon to make proteins. These processes are all coded for in the genetic code. Schrödinger citing the second law of thermodynamics (entropy principal)-the natural tendency of things to go over into disorder, described his notion of order based on order. We have now shown using synthetic DNA genomes that when you put new DNA software into the cell the protein robots coded for are produced, changing the cellular phenotype. When you change the DNA software you change the species. This is consistent with Schrodingers Code-script and An organisms astonishing gift of concentrating a stream of order on itself … We can digitize life, and we generate life from the digital world. Just as the ribosome can convert the analogue message in mRNA into a protein robot, its becoming standard now in the world of science to convert digital code into protein viruses and cells. Scientists send digital code to each other instead of sending genes or proteins. There are several companies around the world that make their living by synthesizing genes for scientific labs. Its faster and cheaper to synthesize a gene than it is to clone it, or even get it by Federal Express. As an example BARDA in the US government sends us as a part of our synthetic genomic flu virus program with Novartis, an email with a test pandemic flu virus sequence. We convert the digital sequence into a flu virus genome in less than 12 hours. We are in the process of building a simple smaller faster converter device, a digital to biological converter, that in a fashion similar to the telephone where digital information is converted to sound; we can send digital DNA code at the close to the speed of light and convert the digital information into proteins, viruses and living cells. With a new flu pandemic we could digitally distribute a new vaccine in seconds around the world, perhaps even to each home in the future. Currently all life is derived from other cellular life including our synthetic cell. This will change in the near future with the discovery of the right cocktail of enzymes, ribosomes, and chemicals including lipids together with the synthetic genome to create new cells and life forms without a prior cellular history. Look at the tremendous progress in the 70 years since Schrodingers lecture on this campus. Try to imagine 70 years from now in the year 2082 what will be happening. With the success of private space flight, the moon and Mars will be clearly colonized. New life forms for food or energy production or for new medicines will be sent as digital information to be converted back into life forms in the 4.3 to 21 minutes that it takes for a digital wave to go from earth to Mars. I suggested in place of sending living humans to distant galaxies that we can send digital information together with the means to boot it up in tiny space vessels. More importantly and as I will speak to on Saturday evening synthetic life will enable us to understand all life on this planet and to enable new industries to produce food, energy, water and medicine as we add 1 billion new humans to earth every 12 years. Schrodingers What is Life? helped to stimulate Jim Watson and Francis Crick to help kick off this new era of DNA science. One can only hope that the newest frontier of synthetic life will have a similar impact on the future. REMARKS BY JAMES D. WATSON JAMES WATSON: In 1963, which was 10 years after the Double Helix, I began putting together a book which became the Molecular Biology of the Gene. It was before we knew the complete code, it was after what Nirenberg had shown and so I thought we knew the general principles. I thought initially the title we would use for the book was This Is Life, but I thought that will be controversial because I hadnt explained everything, so it just became
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 12:50:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015