ON-DEMAND BIOLOGICS: DNA sequence data are transmitted digitally to the digital-to-biological converter together with instructions for desired output. The machine designs and manufactures appropriate oligos and synthesizes the DNA. Depending on the instructions, the DNA is then automatically transcribed into RNA, translated into protein, or assembled into larger molecules and incorporated into bacteria.K.S. BOLES ET AL., “DIGITAL-TO-BIOLOGICAL CONVERTER FOR ON-DEMAND PRODUCTION OF BIOLOGICS,” NAT BIOTECHNOL, DOI:10.1038/NBT.3859, 2017. IMAGE USED WITH PERMISSION FROM DAN GIBSON
Imagine a deadly virus emerging in a part of the world without the resources for vaccine development. Now imagine if researchers on the other side of the world could send local medics an effective vaccine by email.
Dan Gibson and Craig Venter of Synthetic Genomics in La Jolla, California, started to imagine such a scenario shortly after an avian flu outbreak in China in 2013. The company had just developed a prototype DNA synthesizer (the BioXp 3200, now commercially available) that could produce DNA molecules from just a digital sequence and some appropriate oligos—short nucleotide chains for initiating DNA synthesis. So, when Gibson received notice of the H7N9 bird flu threat in Asia, he was ready. Armed with the publicly available sequences of the H7 ...
