Cheap Synthetic DNA to Colonise the Dreams of Scientists
A bio-tech startup, Codon Devices, is making made-to-order DNA strands. Technology Review is enthusiastically reporting about the startup:
“In the next few years, we’ll probably see people engineering cells to do drug delivery or creating cellular sensors,” says George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard and one of Codon’s founders. “Maybe even cells that make inorganic objects of interest, like nanostructures.”
“As large companies begin to adopt this technology, the volumes of DNA synthesis will explode,” says John Danner, president and chief executive officer of Codon. “When that happens, thousands of scientists will think about this when they go to sleep at night, and that will change how biotech is done.”
Codon develops vast populations of DNA with subtle variations in order to select for those most fit for their tasks. The company is building a fabrication plant scheduled to open this summer and scaled to anticipate a boom.
[From Technology Review]
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