Frontiers - Synthetic Biology

Richard Hollingham investigates the practical and moral questions raised by synthetic biology. He meets some of the scientists who are designing 'new life' and visits the new Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation at Imperial College, London. Richard talks to biologist and entrepreneur Craig Venter, whose research team has recently transformed one species of bacteria into another by gene transplantation. He also discusses some of the moral and ethical issues raised by the creation of synthetic life, and asks if a new regulatory framework is needed that both protects the public and provides scientists with unambiguous boundaries for their work.