Engineering Synthetic Life With Craig Venter (#385)

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It may sound like science fiction, but it's true. Biologists are already creating synthetic life from scratch. Of course, this raises many questions: what is life? What are the possible applications? And are we on to something here, or are we just playing God?

Here today, to answer all of these questions and more is one of the most influential biologists in the world, Craig Venter!

Craig Venter is a world-renowned biotechnologist known for his groundbreaking contributions to genomics. He had a pivotal role in leading the first draft sequence of the human genome and assembling the pioneering team that achieved the transfection of a cell with a synthetic chromosome. Later in his life, he and his research team created the world’s first synthetic organism from scratch, demonstrating the potential of synthetic biology to engineer life at the molecular level.

In our lively interview, we dive deep into the world of synthetic biology, biological warfare, and engineering synthetic life. Tune in!

Key Takeaways:

00:00:00 Intro

00:01:36 What is life?

00:08:03 Mapping the human genome

00:21:03 DNA durability and extraterrestrial life

00:26:49 The dangers of synthetic biology

00:34:27 The next frontier for synthetic biology

00:46:47 The race to sequence the human genome

01:06:15 The Voyage of Sorcerer II

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Additional resources:

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➡️ Check out Craig’s institute: https://www.jcvi.org/

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Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.

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