Scientists from the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara established a synthetic biology company, the first one in Turkey, with a techno entrepreneurship assistance worth 100,000 Turkish lira provided by the Industry and Trade Ministry.

Mahinur Akkaya, a lecturer at Department of Chemistry at METU, told AA correspondent Monday that artificial gene would be used in several areas such as cancer treatment, vaccine development and energy production.

Genetic engineer Burak Yilmaz said that there was need for high security measures to prevent misuse of artificial genes.

Artificial gene synthesis is the process of synthesizing a gene in vitro without the need for initial template DNA samples. The main method is currently by oligonucleotide synthesis from digital genetic sequences and subsequent annealing of the resultant fragments. In contrast, natural DNA replication requires existing DNA templates for synthesizing new DNA.