Genomic Engineering Gets the Church Treatment

George Church's lab is at it again. A new paper out in Nature from first author Harris Wang details their multiplex automated genome engineering, or MAGE, method that automates and speeds up reprogramming cells. MAGE uses electroporation to get the custom-made single stranded DNA into the cells and can be done repeatedly. In the Nature paper, Wang and his colleagues used this approach to modify 24 regions of E. coli's 1-deoxy-d-xylulose-5-phosphate biosynthesis pathway with a pool of synthetic DNA. After three days, the researchers were able to notice a fivefold increase in lycopene production. "Automated sequencing really advanced the way we can read genetic information. We hope automated genome engineering will advance the way we write genetic information," Wang says in Wired.