Is It Possible to Get a Cell to Perform a New Function?

A gene from a human insulin gene can be put into a bacteria and make insulin, even though the last common ancestor of a human in bacteria is billions of years ago. So you're piggybacking on what's already there, but you can actually get it to do new functions maybe at your, hopefully at your will. And so the same thing that makes organisms avolvable may also make them engineerable.