Profitable Synthetic Life

Carl Zimmer's blog has an article on recent developments at Craig Venter's (called the father of the Human Genome project) startup, Synthetic Genomics.

Venter has patented a synthetic life form created by further simplifying Mycoplasma genitalium, an organism with small and fully sequenced genetics. Mycoplasma genitalium has 470 coding regions (or genes), of which, Venter has discovered, only 382 are essential. The patent is for a fully synthetic organism with 381 genes. His patent is opposed by watchdog non-profit ETC.

Venter plans to produce a simple fully understood organism that could easily support the insertion of customized, wholly synthetic metabolic processes. In other words, he wants to make an organism that you can program like a computer to produce biological chemicals. He plans to use it to make a reproducing bacterium that eats sugar or absorbs sunlight, and excretes fuel, thereby solving the world's energy problems forever.

According to a recent interview, Venter is having good luck with funding, much of which comes from foreign investors in Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica.