Genes 2 Brains 2 Mind 2 Me

New York Times reporter Andrew Pollack covers recent evolutions in the DNA synthesis business in his September 12 article, “How Do You Like Your Genes? Biofabs Take Orders.” Apparently, the traditional high-school-science-lab-methods for cutting and pasting stretches of DNA have been replaced by “biofabs” – correction – a “biofab industry” complete with consultants and marketing research firms. The DNA2.0 website even has an ominous “biosecurity compliance” message (just the kind of goofy touch a consultant would come up with) noting that all orders are screened against the CDC list of “select agents.” Am I missing something ? The chemical mis-incorporation error in DNA synthesis is seriously problematic and, as noted in the article, the error rates for long synthetic sequences is undesirable to put it mildly. Seems to me you’d have to sequence and re-sequence a multitude of these commercially purchased clones to be sure they contained the correct sequence. I imagine many a grad student, using traditional cloning and mutagenesis methods, would have easily finished the cutting and pasting long before then.