Synthetic biology promised to rewrite life – with the death of its pioneer, J. Craig Venter, how close are scientists?

Advances in genetic engineering have enabled researchers to seek ways to program new life. But has synthetic biology actually changed medicine and the environment, nearly two decades on?

By: André O. Hudson, Rochester Institute of Technology, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: April 30, 2026

Words: 1,182

Last Updated: 2 months, 4 weeks ago

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By André O. Hudson, Rochester Institute of Technology

When scientist J. Craig Venter and his team announced in 2010 that they had created the first cell controlled by a fully synthetic genome, it marked a turning point in how scientists think about life.

For the first time, DNA – the molecule that carries the instructions for life – had been written on a computer, assembled in a laboratory and used to control …

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