#Genetics

The intersection of datascience and epidemiology offers amazing opportunities to enhance quality of life for vast swathes of at-risk people. A new superpower conferred by the advent of cheap, rapid genetic sequencing. It might even help us avert the increasingly likely risk of the next global pandemic.

Another great example of the power of off-book, part-time projects, NextStrain was hatched after the two researchers responsible met at a conference and talked about the idea. The reseachers who developed it, Richard Neher of the University of Basel and Trevor Bedford of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle both recently won the Open Science Prize for their contributions.

The first organism created from a totally artificial and constructed genome - the first creature since the beginning of creatures with no ancestor to put it in perspective, was unceremoniously announced in the pages of Science on the 20th of May.

Sure, analogies to Frankenstein’s creation will abound (particularly since they had to use the “dead” body of another organism to get the DNA to do its stuff), but the fact is this is probably one of the quietest, most monumental breakthroughs in the history of science. Humanity has paved the way for the creation of designer life.