> Researchers today may alter, copy, and paste DNA with increasing ease, but they still struggle when it comes to actually composing DNA that does anything useful.

Leo Laporte did a TWiT Special on this recently: http://twit.tv/show/twit-live-specials/126

The discussion centered around taking existing genomes and splicing in functionality. The example given was setting up a Kickstarter project for trees that glow in the dark. The government is aggressively pursuing this tech.

[Edit] Direct links:

dna editor: http://www.genomecompiler.com/

dna printer: http://angel.co/cambrian-genomics