US scientist heralds 'artificial life' breakthrough WASHINGTON (AFP) — Controversial celebrity US scientist Craig Venter has announced he is on the verge of creating the first ever artificial life form which he hails as a potential remedy to illness and global warming. Venter told Britain's The Guardian newspaper Saturday that he has built a synthetic chromosome using chemicals made in a laboratory, and is set to announce the discovery within weeks, possibly as early as Monday. The breakthrough, which Venter hopes could help develop new energy sources to combat the negative effects of climate change, would be "a very important philosophical step in the history of our species," he told the newspaper. However the prospect of engineering artificial life forms is highly controversial and likely to arouse heated debate over the ethics and potential ramifications of such an advance. Pat Mooney, director of the Canadian bioethics organization ETC Group, told the paper that Venter was creating "a chassis on which you could build almost anything. "It could be a contribution to humanity such as new drugs or a huge threat to humanity such as bio-weapons." The chromosome which Venter and his team has created is known as Mycoplasma laboratorium and, in the final step of the process, will be transplanted into a living cell where it should "take control," effectively becoming a new life form. The single cell organism, which ETC has coined "Synthia," is piloted by a chromosome with just 381 genes, the limit necessary to sustain the life of the bacteria so it can feed and reproduce. The new bacteria will therefore be largely artificial, though not entirely, because it is composed of building blocks from already existing organisms. The idea is to make it into a universal tool for biologists by according it the genes necessary to accomplish certain tasks. The project, which Venter has been working on for five years along with a team of researchers, has been partially financed by the US Department of Energy in the hopes that it could lead to the creation of a new environmentally friendly fuel. "We are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it. That gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated before," Venter said. A Venter spokeswoman however declined to confirm any breakthrough. "The Guardian is ahead of themselves on this," Venter spokeswoman Heather Kowalski told AFP. "We have not achieved what some have speculated we have in synthetic life," Kowalski said. "When we do so there will be a scientific publication and we are likely months away from that." Venter's laboratory, the J. Craig Venter Institute, filed in 2006 for a US patent on the organism, claiming exclusive ownership of a set of essential genes and a synthetic "free-living organism that can grow and replicate." The ETC group publicized the patent application, which would apply in the United states and 100 or so other countries, in June. "Venter and his colleagues have breached a societal boundary, and the public hasn't even had a chance to debate the far-reaching social, ethical and environmental implications of synthetic life," Mooney said in a statement at the time. The group also added that "patent experts consulted by the ETC Group indicate that, based on the language used in the application, the Venter Institute researchers had probably not achieved a fully-functioning organism at the time of the filing." Nevertheless, "many people think that Venter's company has the scientific expertise to do the job," Mooney added.
Venter in 2004. 
According to reports, American biologist  is going to announce that he has created the first ever "artificial life form" on Earth at the , a U.S.  and research center, using synthetic  made from chemicals.

The ''Guardian Unlimited'' reports that Venter may announce the discovery on Monday, but could publish the report within a few weeks.

"This is a very important philosophical step in the history of our species. We are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it. That gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated before," said Venter.

The discovery was made by 20 scientists on a team that was led by   which created the synthetic chromosome. The chromosome is filled with 580,000 'base pairs' of a genetic code, and is 381 genes in length. Using '''' , the scientists broke down the genetic coding of the bacterium and removed a fifth of it, making sure that only the essential genetic products exist to support life. They then inject the bacterium into a living bacterial cell, where the new life form takes over, creating an entirely new species of life.

At least one test has been reported to be successful when scientists used a  of a natural bacterium and implanted it into another cell. That bacterium took over that cell, creating a new form of life, and Venter says that he is "100% confident" that the scientists will be able to get the same results when using the synthetic chromosome.

Despite the reports, a spokeswoman for the offices where Venter works states that the ''Guardian Unlimited'' "jumped the gun" in reporting the event.

"The Guardian is ahead of themselves on this. We have not achieved what some have speculated we have in synthetic life. When we do so there will be a scientific publication and we are likely months away from that," said Heather Kowalski, the office's spokeswoman.