Synthetic biology offers hope with incurables

Researchers believe the breakthrough in synthetic biology could support the possibility of extra-terrestrial life on other planets. Photo / Thinkstock

A new way of treating incurable illnesses such as cancer and Ebola could be possible after a scientific breakthrough that also sheds light on the origin of life.

Researchers believe the breakthrough in synthetic biology - a science which marries disciplines such as biotechnology, molecular biology and evolutionary biology - could support the possibility of extra-terrestrial life on other planets.

For the first time scientists have made synthetic enzymes - the vital ingredients needed for life - from artificial genetic material that does not exist outside the laboratory. The milestone could soon lead to new ways of developing drugs and medical treatments.

The findings are the latest in the field of synthetic biology. The technology could be developed to make drugs that can block cancer-causing genes or bind to the RNA of viruses such as Ebola or HIV.

"Synthetic biology is delivering some truly amazing advances that promise to change the way we understand and treat disease," said Professor Peter Maxwell, chairman of the cellular medicine board of the Medical Research Council (MRC), which funded the study.

The discovery, by scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, widens the scope for finding extra-terrestrial life forms on other planets based on completely different biochemistry to that on Earth.

"It expands the chemical range that one can envisage life living in," said head researcher Dr Philipp Holliger.

The synthetic enzymes were able to cut-and-paste pieces of artificial genetic material known as "XNA", which does not exist in nature. XNA is able to store and replicate genetic information, just like its two natural equivalents DNA and RNA, and was synthesised in Holliger's lab three years ago. The extra enzymatic property of the artificial genetic material mimics natural RNA enzymes.

"It was thought DNA and RNA were the only molecules that could store genetic information and, together with proteins, the only biomolecules able to form enzymes," Dr Holliger said. "Our work suggests, in principle, there are a number of possible alternatives to nature's molecules that will support the catalytic processes required for life.

"It may be possible to design therapeutic XNA molecules that can cleave to an oncogene [cancer gene] or to viral RNA, and because XNA does not exist in nature it will not be broken down quite so fast as DNA or RNA which means it will work longer."