Synthetic Cells Grow and Divide Using Lab-Made DNA
SkimNews Take
Building cells from chemically synthesized DNA shifts synthetic biology from editing existing genomes to authoring them, potentially turning every base pair into a design choice rather than an inherited one.
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- Kate Adamala's team at the University of Minnesota built SpudCells from the bottom up using liposomes and synthetic DNA, claiming they are the first synthetic cells to demonstrate a full cycle of growth, genetic replication and division into a next generation.
- SpudCells rely on a nutrient-rich liquid containing ATP and fuse with "feeder" liposomes carrying the enzymes and ribosomes needed to make proteins, and they cannot build their own protein-making machinery, control their metabolism or clear their waste.
- SpudCells often pass on the wrong amount of DNA when they divide and conk out after a few generations; Adamala said they are not alive but could serve as a chassis for building life.
- Adamala's team demonstrated an evolutionary dynamic by showing that SpudCells with a genetic growth advantage spread through the population and outcompeted the originals.
- Tom Ellis at Imperial College London called the work probably the field's "biggest breakthrough in recent times," saying synthetic cells help pin down the minimum requirements for life and provide a fully understood system for testing biological models.
- John Dupré at the University of Exeter questioned whether such synthetic cells will outperform modified bacteria for making drugs, food and fuel, arguing they miss "the relational aspect of life" rooted in symbiosis.
- Adamala and co-founder Drew Endy of Stanford University are launching an institution called Biotic to build SpudCells toward what Endy calls "an operating system for life"; the study has been released as a preprint before peer review.
Why it matters: If the claim holds up under peer review, SpudCells would be the first synthetic cells to complete a full cell cycle, giving researchers a bottom-up chassis for engineering organisms to produce drugs, fuels and materials and for testing the minimum ingredients of life — though the cells still cannot make their own proteins and die after a few generations, leaving the practical payoff years away.
