Fast and Cheap: Chip Cranks Out DNA

Bioengineers have designed a 1-by-3 inch chip that can produce custom-made segments of DNA in two days. Current methods take two weeks and require large equipment and significant human labor.

Creating and copying novel pieces of DNA quickly and inexpensively could have broad implications in the production and screening of new drugs, as well as replacing current technologies for genetic cloning, the researchers say.

DNA is the genetic material—or software—in all living things that acts as a blueprint for the production of proteins, the building blocks of life. An improved ability to create and test these protein-producing molecules could be a boon to the new field of synthetic biology, where scientists design new genes to produce novel proteins, which can be used in such fields as medicine and environmental monitoring.