Craig Venter, Clyde Hutchison and Daniel Gibson produced a minimal genome in a relatively short period of time and even transplanted it. This was a "bottom up"

Craig Venter, Clyde Hutchison and Daniel Gibson produced a minimal genome in a relatively short period of time and even transplanted it. This was a "bottom up" approach in which all of the DNA was synthetic. This is a trivial thing for this team now. As you mentioned, when synthesis costs drop dramatically, things will get interesting!