DARPA and Craig Venter Fire Up Bio-Factories For Quick, Streamlined Genetic Engineering
Not content to let scientists figure out how to engineer animals and plants depending on the situation, DARPA wants to generalize the process, creating a manufacturing framework for all living things. The "Living Foundries" program sets up an assembly line paradigm for life and its constituent parts, and the DOD's crazy-science arm just handed out its first research grants. Among the recipients are Caltech, MIT and the J. Craig Venter Institute, a fitting result given the latter group's prior success in creating the first-ever synthetic organism. The full suite of awards was announced May 22, comprising $15.5 million spread among six companies and institutions. Related ArticlesDARPA Wants Bio-Factories Producing Synthetic Living Parts Venter Institute's Synthetic Cell Genome Contains Hidden MessagesResearchers Create the World's First Fully Synthetic, Self-Replicating Living CellTagsScience, Rebecca Boyle, assembly line, bio-pharming, darpa, factories, Genetic Engineering, j. craig venter, proteins, synthetic biologyDARPA announced Living Foundries last summer, with a goal...