Researchers announced in 2011 that they had reprogrammed the genome of the bacteria E. coli so that one of DNA’s methods of encoding information went unused. While a technological breakthrough, the scientists didn’t do anything with the new bit of genetic code. Now only a few years later, two different groups have taken this technological tour-de-force, and are using it in the same way: creating genetically modified organisms that may never be able to escape into the wild.
Continue reading… “Creating a bacterial kill switch using genome engineering”
