For over a decade, scientists have made extraordinary progress on the long-held dream of fabricating an entire cell from nonliving molecules and materials.
Such synthetic (or "engineered") cells would behave similarly to the ones in our bodies, though they would also have built-in safeguards that ensure safety and ethics. By studying them, we could transform our understanding of the rules of life. They could also be used to manipulate living organisms and achieve astounding breakthroughs in medicine and science.
In 2010, the J. Craig Venter Institute announced it had created the first "self-replicating, synthetic bacterial cell" containing a genome synthesized outside the cell and then transplanted into it. It was then able to divide and reproduce according to instructions from its new DNA code.
Since then, researchers have only grown more ambitious, seeking to synthesize other cellular components and build a whole cell from scratch.
"We're closer than we've ever been before," said National Institute of Standards and Technology physicist Elizabeth A. Strychalski. The quest to create a synthetic cell from scratch "is a capability that is, if not on our doorstep, maybe, you know, at our mailbox."
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