spiegel | George Church, 58, is a pioneer in synthetic biology, a field whose
aim is to create synthetic DNA and organisms in the laboratory. During
the 1980s, the Harvard University professor of genetics helped initiate
the Human Genome Project that created a map of the human genome. In
addition to his current work in developing accelerated procedures for
sequencing and synthesizing DNA, he has also been involved in the
establishing of around two dozen biotech firms. In his new book,
"Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves,"
which he has also encoded as strands of DNA and distributed on small DNA
chips, Church sketches out a story of a second, man-made Creation.
SPIEGEL recently sat down with Church to discuss his new tome and the
prospects for using synthetic biology to bring the Neanderthal back from
exctinction as well as the idea of making humans resistant to all
viruses.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Church, you predict that it will soon be possible to
clone Neanderthals. What do you mean by "soon"? Will you witness the
birth of a Neanderthal baby in your lifetime?
Church: I think so, but boy there are a lot of parts to that. The
reason I would consider it a possibility is that a bunch of
technologies are developing faster than ever before. In particular,
reading and writing DNA is now about a million times faster than seven
or eight years ago. Another technology that the de-extinction of a
Neanderthal would require is human cloning. We can clone all kinds of
mammals, so it's very likely that we could clone a human. Why shouldn't
we be able to do so?
SPIEGEL: Perhaps because it is banned?
Church: That may be true in Germany, but it's not banned all over the world. And laws can change, by the way.
SPIEGEL: Would cloning a Neanderthal be a desirable thing to do?
Church: Well, that's another thing. I tend to decide on what is
desirable based on societal consensus. My role is to determine what's
technologically feasible. All I can do is reduce the risk and increase
the benefits.
SPIEGEL: So let's talk about possible benefits of a Neanderthal in this world.
Church: Well, Neanderthals might think differently than we do. We
know that they had a larger cranial size. They could even be more
intelligent than us. When the time comes to deal with an epidemic or
getting off the planet or whatever, it's conceivable that their way of
thinking could be beneficial.
