“Project Recode” aims to make human cells invulnerable to infection

A genome-writing consortium announced today that it intends to revise the genome of human cells in the lab so they resist viruses.

What’s recoding? A person’s genome uses three-letter “codons” (think AGT or CAT) to direct the assembly of proteins. But it turns out there are extra codons that aren’t needed. The plan is simple: get rid of them. That’s going to take some heavy-duty gene editing—more than 400,000 changes to about 20,000 human genes.

Who’s behind it: The project is the first big announcement by GP-Write, a private organization trying to hurry us up to the point where we can easily print human genomes. So far it lacks serious funding, but a gene-editing company, Cellectis, says it will donate its technology to the cause. The effort is expected to take about a decade.