Our studies of synthetic retrotransposons led us to consider redesigning and synthesizing entire eukaryotic chromosomes from scratch. We have led an ambitious, collaborative project to build a modified Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome known as Sc2.0. As a proof of concept, the project was initially fueled by an army of undergraduates at Johns Hopkins University in the "Build A Genome" course, where students synthesized the "Building Blocks" for the project while learning molecular biology and bioinformatics. The success of this class led us to expand the project into an international consortium, spanning five countries and 11 institutions, working in parallel to build the first in silico designed fully synthetic eukaryotic genome. A new Build A Genome class has recently been launched at New York University in the Department of Biology.

Following the successful completion and validation of all 16 individual synthetic chromosomes, the project has transitioned into its final phase. We are currently consolidating these individual chromosomes into a single organism to generate the final functional strains containing the full set of synthetic chromosomes. This global project demonstrates how shared vision and transparent collaboration can pioneer a new way of approaching cutting-edge scientific advancement.