Frankenstein has become a reality, to some extent, in that researchers claim, in the latest edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, to have created the first creature ever to have a genetic code that is partly man-made.
Like the infamous fictional doctor, this new technique heralds the possibility of biologists gaining atom-by-atom control over living organism molecules, having begun with work, by a Cambridge team, on nematode worms, species Caenorhabditis elegans , just 1mm long, with bodies a mere 1000 cells strong.
These creatures have been given an extended genetic code, unknown in nature, creating biological molecules the natural world has never produced. As everyone knows by now, these genes form the building blocks of organisms.
Proteins needed to sustain life are composed of amino acids, a mere 20 of which combine in endless varieties, yet the two scientists, Sebastian Greiss and Jason Chin, re-engineered the gene-reading machinery of the worm, so that a 21st amino acid, unknown in nature was produced.
This exciting development is, in truth, building on techniques developed first in La Jolla, USA, at the Scripps Research Institute, about codons, the individual amino acid blocks built into a growing protein, which the research showed could be altered to be read, by cells, as instruction to create an amino acid not normally found in living organisms.
Dr Mario de Bono, of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, predicts that the method could be applied to a wide range of animals, the artificial protein produced in every cell containing a, under UV light, fluorescent cherry red, which in nature is simply unknown
Dr Chin believes that the possibilities for any artificial amino acid being produced with specific new properties are endless, and this could herald a whole new direction for medical and biological research, comparable to the Nobel prize winning green fluorescent protein, now standard kit in biology labs engaged in research globally. Yet another amazing scientific breakthrough.