Engineering Synthetic Cells through Module Integration and Evolution

Life, the most complex and admirable machine that one could think of has evolved over billions of years to display a beautiful variety of mechanisms that keep cells adapting, self-maintaining, reproducing, and evolving. If we think about it, what is this magic? What are the mechanisms behind life’s origins and wonderful coordination? Attracted...

Exploring Giant Unilamellar Vesicle Production for Artificial Cells – Current Challenges and Future Directions

Creating an artificial cell from the bottom up is a long-standing challenge and, while significant progress has been made, the full realization of this goal remains elusive. Arguably, one of the biggest hurdles that researchers are facing now is the assembly of different modules of cell function inside a single container. Giant unilamellar...

Expression of a gene-encoded FtsZ-based minimal machinery to drive synthetic cell division

The Christophe Danelon lab is involved in the long-term effort to construct an autonomous minimal cell using a bottom-up approach. Our goal is to achieve self-maintenance, selfreproduction, and evolution of a liposome compartment containing a minimal genome and a cell-free gene expression system. Self-reproduction requires splitting of the...

Genetically encoded phospholipid production for autonomous synthetic cell proliferation

Cells, the building blocks of life, are vastly complex. This complexity confers to every living organism the ability to maintain oneself, reproduce oneself, and evolve. Creating a minimal system from nonliving components that is capable of self-maintenance, self-reproduction, and evolvability, will greatly increase our understanding of life....

Biosynthesis of protein filaments for the creation of a minimal cell

Humanity has achieved to decipher the most fundamental mechanics of cellular life. Nevertheless, despite intense efforts there are still considerable gaps in our understanding of cellular processes. Traditionally, biologists investigate life by observation of existing lifeforms. In order to assign functions to biological components, it is common...

Shape and Size Control of Artificial Cells for Bottom-Up Biology

Bottom-up biology is an expanding research field that aims to understand the mechanisms underlying biological processes via in vitro assembly of their essential components in synthetic cells. As encapsulation and controlled manipulation of these elements is a crucial step in the recreation of such cell-like objects, microfluidics is...

Membrane Tension–Mediated Growth of Liposomes

Recent years have seen a tremendous interest in the bottom-up reconstitution of minimal biomolecular systems, with the ultimate aim of creating an autonomous synthetic cell. One of the universal features of living systems is cell growth, where the cell membrane expands through the incorporation of newly synthesized lipid molecules. Here, the...

Mechanical Division of Cell-Sized Liposomes

Liposomes, self-assembled vesicles with a lipid-bilayer boundary similar to cell membranes, are extensively used in both fundamental and applied sciences. Manipulation of their physical properties, such as growth and division, may significantly expand their use as model systems in cellular and synthetic biology. Several approaches have been...

Virus-inspired dna replication coupled with gene expression in a minimal cell framework