Human DNA has much in common with the DNA of the humble yeast cell. <\/p>\n
STORY HIGHLIGHTS <\/p>\n
(CNN) -- Look miles into the future and imagine a day, when geneticists can design a flawless set of human genes in a laboratory. <\/p>\n
That future vision may never arrive, but it has taken a step closer. <\/p>\n
Scientists have built a designer chromosome and inserted it into a cell, geneticist Jef Boeke from New York University announced this week. <\/p>\n
The chromosome was a heavily altered version, a departure from its natural counterpart. A team of scientists from around the world made 500 changes to its genetic base. <\/p>\n
\"When you change the genome, you're gambling,\" said Boeke, who led the project. \"One wrong change can kill the cell.\" <\/p>\n
But the cell survived and made use of its new chromosome. It also reproduced, and subsequent cells carried the new chromosome forward. <\/p>\n
Actually, make this breakthrough a second step closer to that way-out-there future. <\/p>\n
Researchers were already able to duplicate a chromosome on a computer four years ago, build it in the lab, insert it into a cell and watch it work. <\/p>\n
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Read more here: <\/p>\n
Designer genes take a leap forward<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Human DNA has much in common with the DNA of the humble yeast cell. STORY HIGHLIGHTS (CNN) -- Look miles into the future and imagine a day, when geneticists can design a flawless set of human genes in a laboratory. Continue reading