Like when they use DNA from fish to prevent sugar cane from being susceptible to frost or introducing human DNA to mice to find cures for humans.
In: Biology
In some sense of the word, yes, they are making a creature with unique DNA patterns that have likely never been present together before. It’s still the same organism, but has now been genetically modified. There could probably be some healthy philosophical discourse on whether this makes the organism a new being or not, but biologically speaking, it is pretty much the same creature as it was.
However, this is not to say that they are creating a new “species” unless the mutated organism meets two conditions. First, that modified organism must no longer be able to breed and produce fertile offspring with other members of its original population (it can’t have kids that can have kids). Second, it needs to now only be able to produce fertile offspring with a different population that is genetically different than its original one. If it sounds complicated and pedantic, that’s because it is, and it’s important to remember that speciation itself isn’t the end-all-be-all for what sets life apart.
What is a “new creature”? The only things that exist in nature are individuals and populations. Any attempt we make to classify them is just book keeping.
A new creature as in: a new species? That’s possible if the genetic modification results in at least two individuals that cannot reproduce with anyone other than each other.
By the way we’ve already got a lot of genes that came from viruses. Our DNA consists of 9% (retro)viruses. These genes can lead to things like developing new organs. That’s what happened with lizards when their eggs got infected with a virus: the resulting lizard-offspring can now grow placenta’s.
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