Yonsei-Harvard University Joint Research Team Succeeds in Producing Custom Bacteria in 4 Days, Not a Year A Korea-US joint research team developed a technology that can rapidly produce many genetic changes. Bang Duhee, Professor of Chemistry at Yonsei University, announced on April 8th that he jointly developed a “highly efficient method for genetically engineering bacteria.” This technology increases the chances of producing multiple changes in each iteration and makes it feasible for smaller laboratories lacking robotics to carry out genome-scale engineering. In order to produce bacteria for industrial purposes, there needs to be numerous alterations of the bacteria DNA. Using co-selection MAGE, the team altered the promoters of 12 genes in the same metabolic pathway in only 4 days, enhancing production of the industrially relevant dye indigo and the anti-leukemia factor indirubin. Until now, it took about a month to alter one DNA sample and another month after that, when the previous one has been completed,for the next alteration. The team used the rapid genome-scale engineering technology to accomplish a year’s worth of research in just four days. The research results were published in Nature Methods online version on April 9th.