Theytook the blueprintof a knownbacterialgenome and rebuiltthe entiresequence, stitching togethergeneschemicallymanufacturedbyan automatedDNA synthesizer.
It consisted of three men and three women in their twenties, who were eating sandwiches and grapes in the kitchenette of a cramped office, above a lab that was packed with a DNAsynthesizer, a flow cytometer, and other equipment.