In 2010, a cell controlled entirely by DNA built from scratch started dividing

Craig Venter's team chemically synthesized a bacterium's entire genome, watermarked it with encoded messages, and inserted it into an emptied host cell, which then began dividing under the synthetic DNA's control. It was the first self-replicating organism whose genome was designed by humans rather than evolved.

— Daniel G. Gibson et al., J. Craig Venter Institute, Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome — Science, 2010