---
title: "Synthetic Biology: It’s Alive, but Is It Life?"
description: "Synthetic biology can now be used to build organs and could lead to the future creation of cyborgs. More than 120,000 people in the U.S. need a life-saving organ transplant, but is synthetic biology the answer?"
date: "2016-09-29"
modified: "2016-09-29"
authors:
  - name: "Dom Galeon"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/domgaleon"
url: "https://futurism.com/synthetic-biology-its-alive-but-is-it-life"
categories:
  - "Biology"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "biotechnology"
  - "life"
  - "synthetic biology"
---

# Synthetic Biology: It’s Alive, but Is It Life?

![biotechnology synthetic biology life](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/dna-synthetic-biology.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Shutterstock\</em\>*

"What is life?"

Perhaps this is one of the most perennial questions of, well, life. It's a question further compounded by discoveries that have allowed us to understand what living things are made of and that it's the exact same material non-living things are made of: molecules.

Then we discovered that what makes living things different from other matter is a special combination of proteins called DNA. This contained everything there was and is (and, to a certain extent, will be) to know about a particular organism. Then, scientists learned how to read the entire DNA sequence (or genome) of organisms 20 years ago, and the possibilities for life took a step forward with the advent of synthetic biology.

Synthetic biology has become the backbone of [biotechnology](<https://futurism.com/?s=biotechnology>). With advances in the field moving rapidly, we have become capable of more than just reading and editing life. Now, we can, in a manner of speaking, modify or make life into something new. We can build organs that could save the lives of thousands of people in need of [organ transplants](<http://www.americantransplantfoundation.org/about-transplant/facts-and-myths/>), and in the future, we could even potentially [create cyborgs](<https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence-cyborgs-will-humanity-look-like-century-now>) using the tech.

And with this ability comes so many questions. How far can we go? How far *should* we go?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU_pfCtSWF4

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-john-galeon-9b086925/>)  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/domgaleon>)