Craig Venter Quotes

We are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it. That gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated before.

By being able to write a genome and plug it into an organism, the software, if you will, changes the hardware.

We're moving from reading the genetic code to writing it.

Genome design is going to be a key part of the future. That's why we need fast, cheap, accurate DNA synthesis, so you can make a lot of iterations of something and test them.

Mother Nature has been the best bioengineer in history. Why not harness the evolutionary process to design proteins?

It once seemed that the most profound feats stemming from DNA-based science would spring from our ability to read and detect genes, which we call the science of genomics. But the real opportunities lie in our ability to write DNA, to synthesize new gene sequences and insert them into organisms, resulting in brand-new biological functions.

If you can write DNA, you're no longer limited to 'what is' but to what you could make.

In the future, I can imagine that we will genetically modify ourselves using the genes that have doubled our life span since we were chimpanzees.

We have created life.

Printing novel DNA might open the way to achievements once only conceivable in science fiction: designer bacteria that can produce new chemicals, such as more efficient fuels, or synthetic versions of our cells that make us resistant to the effects of radiation.

The potential for synthetic biology and biotechnology is vast; we all have an opportunity to create the future together.

I'm interested in using evolution to move forward into the future, to get biology to do a lot of new chemistry for us.

Engineering the biological world was even more interesting than engineering the mechanical world.

The goal of reanimation research is not to make perfect living copies of extinct organisms, nor is it meant to be a one-off stunt in a laboratory or zoo. Reanimation is about leveraging the best of ancient and synthetic DNA.

My feeling is that we can genetically encode almost any kind of chemistry. We just have to learn how to do that.

In the test tube, I can make any DNA I want, recombining it from monkeys, worms, anywhere. So I can explore new rules of breeding with molecules.

What we're talking about is creating new forms of life on the basis of new values.

Biological engineering is not necessarily understanding systems but rather, I want to be able to design and build biological systems to perform particular applications.

I see, in the future, bioengineered almost everything you can imagine that we use.

As we all saw in grade school, once you learn how to read a book, somebody is going to want to write one - that's how authors are made. Once we know how to read our own genetic code, someone is going to want to rewrite that 'text,' tinker with traits - play God, some would say.

People have freaked out when I tell them that my dragons are scientifically based... what else can you call a genetically engineered life form?

The genomics revolution, proteomics, metabolomics, all of these 'omics' that sound so terrific on grants and on business plans. What we're doing is we are seizing control of our evolutionary future. I mean we're essentially using technology to just jam evolution into fast-forward.

Now that we can read and write the genetic code, put it in digital form and translate it back into synthesized life, it will be possible to speed up biological evolution to the pace of social evolution.

As the Industrial Age is drawing to a close, I think that we're witnessing the dawn of the era of biological design.

Cloning will enable mankind to reach eternal life.