The project’s work will be confined to test tubes and dishes and there will be no attempt to create synthetic life. But the technology will give researchers unprecedented control over human living systems.
And although the project is hunting for medical benefits, there is nothing to stop unscrupulous scientists misusing the technology.
They could, for example, attempt to create biological weapons, enhanced humans or even creatures that have human DNA, according to Prof Bill Earnshaw, a highly respected genetic scientist at Edinburgh University who designed a method for creating artificial human chromosomes.
“The genie is out of the bottle,” he told BBC News. “We could have a set of restrictions now, but if an organisation who has access to appropriate machinery decided to start synthesising anything, I don’t think we could stop them”
Ms Thomas is concerned about how the technology will be commercialised by healthcare companies developing treatments emerging from the research.
“If we manage to create synthetic body parts or even synthetic people, then who owns them. And who owns the data from these creations? ”
Given the potential misuse of the technology, the question for Wellcome is why they chose to fund it. The decision was not made lightly, according to Dr Tom Collins, who gave the funding go-ahead.
“We asked ourselves what was the cost of inaction,” he told BBC News.
“This technology is going to be developed one day, so by doing it now we are at least trying to do it in as responsible a way as possible and to confront the ethical and moral questions in an upfront way as possible”.
A dedicated social science programmewill run in tandem with the project’s scientific development and will be led by Prof Joy Zhang, a sociologist, at the University of Kent.
“We want to get the views of experts, social scientists and especially the public about how they relate to the technology and how it can be beneficial to them and importanlty what questions and concerns they have,” she said.