Church George M - Regenesis: how synthetic biology will reinvent nature and ourselves

Praise for Regenesis

In Regenesis... George Church and Ed Regis imagine a world where micro-organisms are capable of producing clean petroleum or detecting arsenic in drinking water, where people sport genetic modifications that render their bodies impervious to the flu, or where a synthetic organism can be programmed to invade and destroy cancer cells.

Wall Street Journal

The life sciences emerge as the new high-tech in this paean to synthetic biology.... Each step in the genomes evolution serves as a springboard for expositions of how synthetic biology will revolutionize renewable energy, multivirus resistance, and more.

Nature

Bold and provocative... Church and Regis offer a behind-the-scenes look at synthetic biology, a rapidly emerging field that is reprogramming the genetic code to create organisms and functions not found in nature. Regenesis tells of recent advances that may soon yield endless supplies of renewable energy, increased longevity, and the return of long-extinct species.... Thought-provoking.

New Scientist

[A] phenomenal read.

io9

If theres one book that can turn this movement into a full-blown revolution, this is it.

OReilly Radar

[Regenesis] is a fantastic book and essential reading for anyone interested in the future of science and humanity. It is like a new Engines of Creation in the boldness of its goals but with near term objectives that already have companies and labs working towards the goals.

Next Big Future

[Church and Regis] combine science history and futurism in an exploration of how genomic modification will change the world.

Zcalo Public Square

One of the more important new science-related books you can read right now.

Greg Laden, Science Blogs

Exhilarating and scary facts suffuse this book about bioengineering by leading Harvard genetics professor and entrepreneur Church.... When Church describes current work building microbes with minimal genes, the book takes offand eventually soars.... [A] stimulating book.

Publishers Weekly

Geneticist Church and science writer Regis take a novel evolutionary approach to explaining the science of synthetic biology.... [A] highly readable book.

Choice

[An] authoritative, sometimes awe-inspiring book.... A valuable glimpse of science at the edge.

Kirkus Reviews

A thoughtful introduction to one of the great frontiers of science, one with the promise of literally saving the world.... Engaging, readable, and thoroughly fascinating.

Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and The Better Angels of Our Nature

Regenesis is the most compelling bit of prophecy since the Old Testament first came out in hardback.

Misha Angrist, Assistant Professor, Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy and author of Here is a Human Being

A delightfully opinionated, visionary and controversial romp through synthetic biology, which is one of the most important technologies of our time.

Nathan Myhrvold, Founder and CEO, Intellectual Ventures

Here you will find the bleeding, screaming, thrilling edges of what is becoming possible with genomic engineering, handsomely framed in the fine-grained fundamentals of molecular biology. It is a combination primer and forecast of what is coming in this century of biology from the perspective of a leading pioneer in the science.

Stewart Brand, author of Whole Earth Discipline

Copyright 2012 by George Church and Ed Regis

Hardcover first published in 2012 by Basic Books,

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

Paperback first published in 2014 by Basic Books

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107.

Books published by Basic Books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail .

A grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation supported the research and writing of this book.

Designed by Timm Bryson

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Church, George M. (George McDonald)

Regenesis : how synthetic biology will reinvent nature and ourselves / George M. Church and Ed Regis. 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-465-03865-7 (e-book) 1. Synthetic biology. 2. GenomicsSocial aspects. 3. GeneticsSocial aspects. 4. Nature. 5. Bioengineering. I. Regis, Edward, 1944- II. Title.

QH438.7.C486 2012

572.8'6dc23

2012013274

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

GEORGE CHURCH

dedicates this book to his family and to his colleagues who have been so very supportive of technology development and regenerative biology.

ED REGIS

dedicates this book to his wife, Pamela Regis.

CONTENTS

In December 2009, patrons of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, experienced a mild jolt of biological future shock when their pre-performance and intermission drinkstheir beers, wines, and sodaswere served to them in a new type of clear plastic cup. The cups looked exactly like any other transparent plastic cup produced from petrochemicals, except for a single telling difference: each one bore the legend, Plastic made 100% from plants.

Plants?

Indeed. The plastic, known as Mirel, was the product of a joint venture between Metabolix, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, bioengineering firm, and Archer Daniels Midland, the giant food processing company that had recently constructed a bioplastics production plant in Clinton, Iowa. The plant had been designed to churn out Mirel at the rate of 110 million pounds per year.