Creating synthetic life is a powerful, dangerous tool

Jim Thomas has a kit in his Montreal office he can use to make cells glow with synthetic DNA.

"I can do it in the kitchen," says Thomas. Cooking up artificial genes is fast becoming child's play.

College students now flock to an annual synthetic biology competition called iGEM -- International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition -- where they dice and splice DNA into some pretty interesting creations. Last year's winner was a U.S. team that built E. Chromi-- an E. coli bacteria programmed to turn different colours in response to the toxins it detects.

Now the world's highest profile "synbio" player -- U.S. geneticist Craig Venter -- has upped the game, with the announcement this week that his Maryland company has created the first synthetic cells from a DNA recipe stored in a computer.

"This is the first self-replicating species that we've had on the planet whose parent is a computer," Venter told reporters Thursday as he unveiled his creation in the journal Science.

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