首例"人造细胞"在美国问世

An American biologist has stepped into the shoes of Baron Frankenstein by breathing life into a bacterium using genes assembled in the laboratory.

一名美国生物学家用在实验室里装配的基因让一个细菌起死回生，这不禁让人想起了弗兰肯斯坦（英国女作家Mary W.Shelly所著同名小说中的主角，人形的怪物）。

The creation of the "synthetic cell", described as a "landmark" by one British expert, is a 15-year dream come true for maverick genetics entrepreneur Dr Craig Venter.

一向标新立异的克莱格博士是遗传学上的领跑者，近来，他15年的梦想终于变成了现实-合成了人造细胞。在一名英国专家看来，人造细胞的合成具有里程碑意义。

It has major implications for genomics, including the manufacture of artificial organisms designed for specific tasks such as making vaccines or cleaning up pollution.

这对基因组学（包括专门为达成某种目的而制造人造生物，用于做疫苗，清理污染物等。）来说，有着巨大的启示作用。

But experts recognise that as Mary Shelley demonstrated in her famous novel, there are potential dangers too. Synthetic life could, for instance, pave the way to terrifying biological weapons.

但也有专家认为，就像玛丽雪莱在她著名的小说《科学怪人》中所写的那样，这也存在潜在的危险。比如，合成生物技术可能会给恐怖的生化武器的出现铺平道路。

Dr Venter's researchers explain in the journal Science how they effectively "re-booted" a simple microbe by transplanting into it a set of genetic code sequences that were built from scratch.

研究者们在《科学》杂志中描述他们是如何通过移植一段完全人工合成的基因编码来重新激活一个单细胞微生物的。

British expert Professor Paul Freemont, co-director of the EPSEC Centre for Synthetic Biology at Imperial College London, said: "The paper... is a landmark study that represents a major advance in synthetic biology.

英国专家保罗教授是伦敦帝国学院合成生物学EPSEC中心的主任。他说，“这则报告......是一个里程碑式的研究成果，代表了合成生物学的重大进步。”

"The applications of this enabling technology are enormous and one might argue this is a key step in the industrialisation of synthetic biology leading to a new era of biotechnology."

“这项技术可应用的范围是巨大的。我们可以认为，这是合成生物学走向工业化生产所迈出的关键一步，引领了生物技术的新纪元。”