scientist create organism from scratch

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>At Jef Boeke's lab, you can whiff an odor that seems out of place, as if they were baking >bread here.
But he and his colleagues are cooking up >something else altogether: yeast that works with chunks of man-made DNA.

>Scientists have long been able to make specific changes in the DNA code. Now, they're >taking the more radical step of starting over, and building redesigned life forms from scratch. >Boeke, a researcher at New York University, directs an international team of 11 labs on four >continents working to "rewrite" the yeast genome, following a detailed plan they >published in March.

>Their work is part of a bold and controversial pursuit aimed at creating custom-made DNA >codes to be inserted into living cells to change how they function, or even provide a treatment >for diseases. It could also someday help give scientists the profound and unsettling ability to >create entirely new organisms.

>The genome is the entire genetic code of a living thing. Learning how to make one from >scratch, Boeke said, means "you really can construct something that's completely new."

>The research may reveal basic, hidden rules that govern the structure and functioning of >genomes. But it also opens the door to life with new and useful characteristics, like >microbes or mammal cells that are better than current ones at pumping out medications in >pharmaceutical factories, or new vaccines. The right modifications might make yeast >efficiently produce new biofuels, Boeke says.

link:
>https://m.phys.org/news/2017-07-scientists-dna-life-blueprint.html