WEDNESDAY, Feb. 22, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers say they've developed an automated computer program that speeds the design of "artificial" genes used to study gene function and to genetically engineer cells.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore say GeneDesign guides the design of blueprints for DNA segments. These blueprints are then used by companies or researchers to create the gene.
A report on GeneDesign is currently available online and will appear in the April print issue of Genome Research.
"GeneDesign not only guides the user in designing the gene, but also automatically diagnoses flaws in the sequence of bases making up the gene," senior author Jef Boeke, director of the High Throughput Biology Center at Hopkins, said in a prepared statement.
He said that simplifying creation of artificial genes is important because slight alterations in the choice of base pairs that make up specific parts of a gene can have a major impact on how the gene works, and how easily it can be inserted into cells.
"In the past, researchers had to use many different programs to address all the requirements of the separate steps of synthetic gene design," Boeke said.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of General Medical Sciences has more about genetics.
