"We're heading into an era where people will be writing DNA programs like the early days of computer programming..." Drew Endy, MIT.
"I see a cell as a chassis and power supply for the artificial systems we are putting together..." Tom Knight, MIT.
Great introductory article on synthetic biology (synbio) by Rick Weiss in the
Washington Post:
At the core of synthetic biology's new ascendance are high-speed DNA synthesizers that can produce very long strands of genetic material from basic chemical building blocks: sugars, nitrogen-based compounds and phosphates. Today a scientist can write a long genetic program on a computer just as a maestro might compose a musical score, then use a synthesizer to convert that digital code into actual DNA. Experiments with "natural" DNA indicate that when a faux chromosome gets plopped into a cell, it will be able to direct the destruction of the cell's old DNA and become its new "brain" -- telling the cell to start making a valuable chemical, for example, or a medicine or a toxin, or a bio-based gasoline substitute.
A nod towards platform development (smart):
If biology is to morph into an engineering discipline, it is going to need similarly standardized parts, Knight said. So he and colleagues have started a collection of hundreds of interchangeable genetic components they call BioBricks, which students and others are already popping into cells like Lego pieces.
Essentially, the tinkering networks we see in the software industry will be mirrored in
synbio. Further, the skill sets associated with synthetic biology will be as widely dispersed as software programming is today and the tools will be just as inexpensive/ubiquitous. The implications of this for open source warfare are world altering.