On 6 October 2007, Craig Venter announced that a team of scientists led by Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith at the J. Craig Venter Institute had successfully constructed a synthetic DNA using which they planned to make the first synthetic genome.
En outubro de 2007, Craig Venter anounciou que un equipo de científicos liderados polo Premio Nobel Hamilton Smith no J. Craig Venter Institute construíran con éxito un ADN sintético que planeaban utilizar para preparar o que sería o primeiro xenoma sintético.