As science advances with each passing day and humans are getting more and more ambitious about it, scientists have unveiled game-changing plan to build the first human artificial DNA, opening doors to new possibilities in medicine, technology, and beyond.
Humans have already developed the ability to read DNA and now a report by The i Paper reveals that Britain has made a huge investment in a project trying to write human DNA completely from scratch.
This comes after previously it was revealed that Silicon Valley in the US is funding projects trying to make superbabies.
The World’s largest medical charity, The Wellcome Trust, has given 10 million British pounds to an ambitious new project Synthetic Human Genome (SynHG).
One of the most prominent benefits from the success of the project would be that the synthesized human genome can help fight cancer, says one of the lead scientists at SynHG, Tom Ellis.
Gene Editing is already possible and it has helped in fighting against very specific diseases and according to Ellis, “Gene Building will be able to tackle a much wider array of illnesses.”
Artificial Intelligence has provided scientists with hypotheses and building DNA will be able to help verify those hypotheses, thus helping in creating a healthy, disease free world.
However, the ambition isn’t without potential risks which include possible commercialisation on synthesised DNA.
There’s also the risk that the ability to synthesize DNA could give humans the power to create super humans (super soldiers) who might be used as biological weapons.
Despite all the fears and risks, the deputy director of genomic charity Progress Educational Trust Sandy Starr remains hopeful as she said, “The risks of doing nothing were far greater than the risks of funding a transparent, collaborative research project.”