The man who helped to first sequence the human genome ten years ago, is looking to use biology to tackle the energy problem.

The Wall Street Journal's Alan Murray recently interviewed Dr. J. Craig Venter about how his company, Synthetic Genomics, is using modified microorganisms to produce clean fuels and biochemicals. In July of last year, ExxonMobil announced a $600 million dollar collaboration with Synthetic Genomics to engineer algae to produce a biofuel that could go directly into current Exxon refineries and create fuel that is indistinguishable from what is used today. In the interview, Dr. Venter details the Exxon project, also talks about producing cells from an entirely synthetic DNA genome, and discusses another collaboration with BP p.l.c. whose goal is to study the biology of organisms deep underground - focussing how they could use biology to get more natural gas out of coal.

"We're at the early stages of seeing what biology can do in ways that people hadn't imagined. I think biology has the chance to be the true definition of a destructive technology. Because of the exponential growth of biological systems, producing huge amounts of substances from them is theoretically very possible." - Dr. J. Craig Venter

The entire interview is available online at wsj: http://online.wsj.com/video/economics-craig-venter-on-making-synthetic-f...