LOS ANGELES: Synthetic amino acids may one day allow scientists to create “genetic firewalls” that prevent GMO crops or animals from escaping into the wild and causing environmental damage, according to Harvard and Yale researchers.
The new technique essentially inserts a built-in self-destruct mechanism into bacteria. The cells carry an alternative genetic code that makes them dependent on a chemical building block that is not found in nature.
Harvard Medical School genetics professor George Church, who oversaw one of the studies published Wednesday in the journal Nature, compared the new technique to putting a GMO “on a leash.” If scientists stop supplying an essential synthetic building block, called an amino acid, the bacteria die.
The ability to tweak organisms’ DNA to give them new capabilities has long been tantalizing to biologists who are already turning microbes into factories that generate drugs and biofuels. But the wider use of engineered organisms — for example, creating bacteria that can clean up a hazardous waste spill or are more useful for industrial processes because they are resistant to viruses requires an effective leash to make sure they don’t escape scientists’ control.
