A Grand Challenge for Genome Engineering from Columbia’s Department of Systems Biology

“In June 2016, a consortium of synthetic biologists, industry leaders, ethicists, and others published a proposal in Science calling for a coordinated effort to synthesize large genomes, including a complete human genome in cell lines. The organizers of the project, called GP-write (for work in model organisms and plants) or sometimes HGP-write (for work in human cell lines), envision it as a successor to the Human Genome Project (retroactively termed HGP-read), which 25 years ago promoted rapid advances in DNA sequencing technology. As the ability to read the genome became more efficient and less expensive, it in turn enabled a revolution in how we study biology and attempt to improve human health. Now, by coordinating the development of new technologies for writing DNA on a whole-genome scale, GP-write aims to have a similarly transformative impact.”

View the full article here on Columbia Systems Biology website.


In the video below, Department of Systems Biology bioengineer Harris Wang describes the goals of the Human Genome Project – Write (HGP-write), an international initiative to develop new technologies for synthesizing very large genomes from scratch.