Other articles by Dan Sorenson:

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Reading the genetic blueprints for living things took decades. Now it's time to write and solve the world's problems, including the oil crisis, says one of the leading scientists in the human genome sequencing effort.

In the years since the first genomes were sequenced, Craig Venter said it has gone from thousands of scientists working for years at a cost of millions of dollars to something that is far less labor intensive and dramatically cheaper.

Speaking of one of the early sequencings, that of yeast, a relatively simple organism, he said, it's something that now could be done "in a morning."

That ability has changed scientists' view of the world. Venter said they have since learned there are 10 million genes from "other species" in a human's body cavities alone. And he said these "play an important role in our physiology."

As for going from reading to writing, he said changing one species into another through chromosome transplantation has already been accomplished.

The "big question" now, Venter said, is, "Can we boot up a synthetic chromosome?"

Doing so could produce purpose-built synthetic life.

The petroleum-based energy model is the No. 1 problem "facing the planet," said Venter, speaking Wednesday in Tucson.

Venter spoke at the Symposium on Synthetic Biology sponsored by the University of Arizona Bio5 Institute and Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute at the UA.

Corn-to-ethanol production is not a solution, he said, because the process generates more carbon dioxide than it captures and requires government subsidies.

Even then, he said, the nation's 150 ethanol plants produce only 2 percent of fuel consumed in the United States, and their demand for corn helped double its price last year.

To meet the needs of the world, particularly for much-needed drugs, scientists and bioindustry need standardized, off-the-rack biological building blocks, said Jay Keasling, a University of California at Berkeley professor and director of the Berkeley Center for Synthetic Biology.

Keasling said the standardization of biologic building blocks could speed developments in synthetic biology the way interchangability for hard drives and other computer components makes it easy for that industry to develop new machines.

He explained the pitfalls in developing a synthetic version of an anti-malaria drug desperately needed in much of the world.

Inventing these components as they went along, he said, the scientific costs alone of developing the drug are $25 million.

Arteminisin, a drug derived from a plant, is used to treat malaria that is resistant to the traditional treatment, quinine.

Through a partnership with a major pharmaceutical company willing to produce the drug at cost, Keasling said he hoped to have the drug "in the hands of the children of Africa within two to three years."

The symposium is scheduled to take place in Tempe next year.