REGENESIS
REGENESIS How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves
BASIC BOOKS A Member of the Perseus Books Group NEW YORK
Copyright © 2012 by George Church and Ed Regis Published by Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107. Books published by Basic Books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail
[email protected] A grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation supported the research and writing of this book. Designed by Timm Bryson Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Church, George M. (George McDonald) Regenesis : how synthetic biology will reinvent nature and ourselves / George M. Church and Ed Regis. — 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-465-03329-4 (e-book) 1. Synthetic biology. 2. Genomics—Social aspects. 3. Genetics —Social aspects. 4. Nature. 5. Bioengineering. I. Regis, Edward, 1944- II. Title. QH438.7.C486 2012 572.8'6—dc23 2012013274 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
GEORGE CHURCH dedicates this book to his family and to his colleagues who have been so very supportive of technology development and regenerative biology. ED REGIS dedicates this book to his wife, Pamela Regis.
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
FROM BIOPLASTICS TO H. SAPIENS 2.0 CHAPTER 1
-3,800 MYR, LATE HADEAN At the Inorganic/Organic Interface CHAPTER 2
-3,500 MYR, ARCHEAN Reading the Most Ancient Texts and the Future of Living Software CHAPTER 3
-500 MYR, CAMBRIAN The Mirror World and the Explosion of Diversity. How Fast Can Evolution Go and How Diverse Can It Be? CHAPTER 4
-360 MYR, CARBONIFEROUS “The Best Substitute for Petroleum Is Petroleum” CHAPTER 5
-60 MYR, PALEOCENE Emergence of Mammalian Immune System. Solving the Health Care Crisis Through Genome Engineering
CHAPTER 6
-30,000 YR, PLEISTOCENE PARK Engineering Extinct Genomes CHAPTER 7
-10,000 YR, NEOLITHIC Industrial Revolutions. The Agricultural Revolution and Synthetic Genomics. The BioFab Manifesto CHAPTER 8
-100 YR, ANTHROPOCENE The Third Industrial Revolution. iGEM CHAPTER 9
-1 YR, HOLOCENE From Personal Genomes to Immortal Human Components EPIGENETIC EPILOGUE
+ 1 YR, THE END OF THE BEGINNING, TRANSHUMANISM, AND THE PANSPERMIA ERA Societal Risks and Countermeasures Acknowledgments Selected References Illustration Sources Notes: On Encoding This Book into DNA Index
PROLOGUE
FROM BIOPLASTICS TO H. SAPIENS 2.0
In December 2009, patrons of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, experienced a mild jolt of biological future shock when their pre-performance and intermission drinks—their beers, wines, and sodas—were served to them in a new type of clear plastic cup. The cups looked exactly like any other transparent plastic cup produced from petrochemicals, except for a single telling difference: each one bore the legend, “Plastic made 100% from plants.” Plants? Indeed. The plastic, known as Mirel, was the prod