I demoed an early version of this about a year ago. It had an intuitive UI that any biologist without programming experience could understand even back then.<p>The two main time-drains for synthetic biologists are 1) Lab work creating (which will be phased out when cheap synthesis gets going in 1-3years) and 2) designing the sequence (which this program helps automate). So the rate of progress in the field is definitely going to accelerate...
<i>Synthetic biology aims at producing novel biological systems to carry out some desired and well-defined functions. An ultimate dream is to design these systems at a high level of abstraction using engineering-based tools and programming languages, press a button, and have the design translated to DNA sequences that can be synthesised and put to work in living cells.</i><p>Why do I have a bad feeling about this? I can't help to wonder: "Will the world necessarily be a better place when this will be possible?"
jpatte, there is absolutely no need to worry about over-population. If we abolish all diseases and discover a method that allows biological immortality, such that the world ends up with a lot more people then it has now, then we will always have war, which in the past has allowed for a wonderful restoration of lower population densities. Just think how quickly a bad situation could be improved through the use of just a few nuclear weapons.
On the creation of the first synthetic cell: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHIocNOHd7A" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHIocNOHd7A</a>
The headline made me think of this 2002 Cory Doctorow story:<p><a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/feature/2002/08/28/0wnz0red/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.salon.com/technology/feature/2002/08/28/0wnz0red/...</a>