If we’re to believe gene maverick Craig Venter, the answer to all the world’s problems lies in microbiology: microbes are the miniature chemical factories of the future. And not just any microbes but microbes he and his team at Synthetic Genomics have designed, patented and commercialised. It’s life, Jim; but not as we know it.

Craig Venter is the Bill Gates of biotech. In the race to sequence the human genome, two teams, one public and one private, battled it out, seeking to find commercial applications in the code. Venter led the private team, sequencing his own genome and setting up Celera Genomics which sold human genome data off to pharmaceutical companies faster than the opposition could decode it. Venter’s team at the J. Craig Venter Institute went on to create the first synthetic virus from scratch, and to engineer the genomes of simple microbes so that they contain as few genes as possible.

In 2006, Venter set up Synthetic Genomics, a company aiming to develop new bacteria with lucrative commercial applications. The ‘minimal genome’ microbe mycoplasma laboratorium, dubbed ‘Synthia’ by genetics campaigners, acts like computer hardware. Into this simple genome short strings of genes are inserted which make the microbe act like a mini factory converting substances into useful products by engineering the microbe’s metabolism. Venter predicts that this could be the first billion or trillion dollar organism.

The first application that the company hopes to put it’s new lifeform to work on is the creation of ‘second generation’ biofuels. The race is on in the biotech community to find and patent a biological process that will cheaply and efficiently convert cellulose from plant matter into ethanol to feed our cars. The holy grail is to produce biofuels not from conventional crops such as sugar cane, corn, rapeseed or palm, but from grasses, agricultural waste products and plants which grow on marginal land such as jatropha. The company which finds the most effective way of doing this is set to be very rich indeed.

Synthetic Genomics also hope that microbes will in future perform other functions including creating hydrogen, sequestering CO2 and producing drugs. In essence microbes will be able to create just about any compound chemical science could wish for if the company can work out the right gene combinations. This work is supported by the large grants that Venter’s non-profit operations have received from the US Department for Energy’s ‘Genomes to Life’ programme. The former head of this government programme, Aristides Patrinos, is now president of Synthetic Genomics.

With all the government subsides and venture capital sloshing around for this ‘cleantech’ and talk about the possibilities synthetic biology (synbio) holds for climate mitigation and curing disease, some big issues are being left out. Synthetic biology has been called ‘genetic engineering on steroids’ and any concern people may have over GM applies equally to synbio. And just as biotech companies tried to sell to the public the idea of GM on the basis that it would feed the world, synbio is also being sold on the issue of the day – climate change. With governments so desperate for climate solutions that won’t impact on levels of consumption that they are reconsidering nuclear power, the time is ripe for this controversial technology to advance with little regulatory oversight.

Is Venter’s concern to solve climate chaos, or is it to create a new monopoly? Venter has said that he sees no greater cause than dedicating his time to finding solutions to climate change, yet Synthetic Genomics has recently gone into partnership with BP to study microbiology in oil fields and develop methods of enhanced oil recovery. Venter is hoping to get the patents on technologies that he believes will, in the future be key to economic growth. The whole approach is deeply cynical and highly unlikely to lead to socially just solutions to climate change.

Concerns have been raised that synbio will lead to the proliferation of cheap bio-weapons and accidental releases of dangerous pathogens and artificial lifeforms which pose a serious threat to human health and the environment. To pre-empt these concerns, synbio’s proponents have published proposals on how this new technology should be regulated. Unsurprisingly, given the vested interests of those involved, the report is partial, partisan and essentially an attempt to stave off state regulation by advocating voluntary measures. But their report fails to answer the key questions of who owns, controls and makes the decisions about this new technology. Perhaps that’s because their answer is the same as it has been for other new technologies, such as GM and nanotechnology, the key decisions are made by capital alone.

For more information see ‘Extreme Genetic Engineering’ by the ETC Group: www.etcgroup.org