US: Scientists in the US have created artificial "life" in the laboratory, a development that will frighten many who fear the runaway use of the genetic technologies.
The hand-built virus was able to infect and kill bacteria, proof that it had the capabilities of the original virus.
The work was led by Dr Craig Venter, the private enterprise scientist who battled against publicly funded researchers in the race to be first to record the entire human genetic blueprint.
Four years ago he famously announced to the world his intention to create a unique, self-replicating cellular life form.
The creation of a virus was the first step in achieving this goal, Dr Venter stated in a research paper published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the US.
"The broader implications of the creation of life in the laboratory can now be considered as a realistic possibility," Dr Venter wrote in his research paper.
Working from scratch, the team built a small virus by copying out its 5,386-element genetic sequence step by step using a new technique.
The group worked from a pre-existing genetic blueprint for the virus, bacteriophage PhiX174, which in effect gave them a "recipe" for its production. This organism attacks bacteria but has no effect on humans, plants or animals.
Proof of their success was shown by the subsequent infection of E.coli bacteria by the virus. The infection rate of the constructed virus was lower than that of the natural virus, but it was still able to kill, the researchers pointed out.
While it stands as an undoubted technological achievement, the work will also disturb an already sceptical public who feel that this technology is galloping too far ahead of legislative and ethical controls.
The work raised important safety issues, according to Prof Martin Clynes, director of the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology at Dublin City University.
There was nothing particularly dramatic about the technology itself, he said, given that researchers had been building genes in this way for years.
"A virus is self-replicating. There would need to be some sort of risk assessment and how it is to be contained," he added.
"The only worry I would have about it is because \ has patented this, and he is talking about it as a new life form. You shouldn't patent life forms," said Dr Siobhán O'Sullivan, scientific director of the Irish Council for Bioethics.
"It doesn't sound novel to me. It sounds more like a gimmick," said Prof Greg Atkins, head of virus research group at the Moyle Institute in Trinity College Dublin.