According to Kathleen McAuliffe and Discovery Magazine, J. Craig Venter, as part of the Minimal Genome Project, synthesized a modified version of the one million base pair M. mycoides genome and implanted it into a DNA-free bacterial shell of Mycoplasma capricolum. It was shown to be self-replicating. He accomplished this daunting task by synthesizing the entire genome of the bacterium Mycoplasma mycoides, which infects goats and cattle, through the Utilization of computers and a forty million dollar budget. Venter used chemicals to fabricate the genome and tagging it with a blue indicator, transplanted it into an emptied out, closely related bacterium cell. After many attempts, over the course of a few days, the bacterium morphed into a blue bacterium with the characteristics of the implanted DNA.
This is cool because it shows how far we are being able to come and what we are able to do with genetic engineering. This seems like it could be a pretty big step, to be able to synthesize an organism. (You would just need to find a spare 40 million dollar budget, haha)
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