Here's an article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703559004575256470152341984.html
Quote:
To make the synthetic cell, a team of 25 researchers at labs in Rockville, Md., and San Diego, led by bioengineer Daniel Gibson and Mr. Venter, essentially turned computer code into a new life form. They started with a species of bacteria called Mycoplasma capricolum and, by replacing its genome with one they wrote themselves, turned it into a customized variant of a second existing species, called Mycoplasma mycoides, they reported.
So they documented the entire DNA of this Mycoplasma capricolum bacteria, turned it into a digitized computer file, send it to a DNA sequencing company, which transformed the computer code into small DNA strips, which were then assembled into a new complete genome. Then they transplanted this constructed genome into a cell emptied from it's original DNA, and the new, transplanted, man-made DNA converted the cell into a different species (Mycoplasma mycoides).
So basically they can now in a way program cells with custom-made DNA, like you can program computers with custom-made computer code.
At least this is how I understood it :-)
