Craig Venter and Jane Delgado

Scientists have developed the first cell controlled by a synthetic genome, and now hope to use this method to probe the basic machinery of life and to engineer bacteria specially designed to solve environmental or energy problems.

The study is published online by the journal Science, at the Science Express website, on Thursday, 20 May. The Science authors discussed their findings in a Thursday press conference at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

The research team, led by genetic research pioneer J. Craig Venter of the J. Craig Venter Institute, has already chemically synthesized a bacterial genome, and it has transplanted the genome of one bacterium to another. Now, the scientists have put both methods together, to create what they call a "synthetic cell," although only its genome is synthetic.

For more information on the new research, plus links to Science multimedia materials, read the full story.