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

First came the Human Genome Project, then came the field of synthetic biology. Alena Butusava/iStock via Getty Images Plus

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 a living cell. The achievement suggested something profound: Life might not only be understood but designed.