What’s the point of the Synthetic Human Genome Project?

It’s just over 20 years since the completion of the human genome project, which determined the chemical make-up of (almost) our entire genetic code and paved the way for many medical breakthroughs as well as gene-editing technology.

Having read and edited the genetic code, scientists now want to write it. Recent progress in creating the synthetic genome of yeast and of the bacterium, Escherichia coli, have persuaded the global medical charity, Wellcome, that it’s time to take on the bigger challenge of synthesising the human genome in the lab.