Maryland - Scientists are months away from creating artificial life, says Dr Craig Venter, one of the world's most famous and controversial biologists.

Venter says his US researchers have over-come one of the last big hurdles to making a synthetic organism.

The first artificial life form is likely to be a simple bacterium, to prove the technology works. It will be followed by more complex bacteria that turn coal into natural gas, or algae that soak up carbon dioxide and convert it into fuels.

A team at the J Craig Venter Institute in Maryland successfully transferred the DNA of one type of bacteria into a yeast cell, modified it, and then transferred it into another bacterial cell - which went on to divide normally, producing a healthy new strain of the modified bacteria.

Venter said: "We should have the first synthetic species by the end of the year." - Daily Mail

By Staff reporter and agencies