Scientists Made a Cell From Scratch For First Time (cnn.com)
- Reference: 0184255950
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/07/01/1912205/scientists-made-a-cell-from-scratch-for-first-time
- Source link: https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/01/science/synthetic-cell-research
> The first fully synthetic cell (" [2]SpudCell ") has been created in the Department of Genetics at the University of Minnesota. Strictly speaking, it's described as a "cell-like system constructed entirely from known chemical components that can perform a complete cell cycle." It is able to replicate, but only for approximately five generations.
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> The key advance is that the cell is "built entirely bottom-up from individually purified, non-living components," although it still contains material from E. coli bacteria. "PURE is a defined mixture of 36 purified enzymes from E. coli bacteria," including ribosomes, that provides the infrastructure for genetic replication.
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> CNN has [3]an article on the advance, including interview material with Professor Kate Adamala, who led the research. "I know the full ingredient list of the cell. I know exactly what chemicals, what molecules, at what concentrations," she said. "It is fully defined, which means we can engineer it."
"Humans did not create life," [4]notes an anonymous Slashdot reader. "Researchers call it a constructed cell, not 'life created in the lab' but a 'genuine milestone on the road toward that question.' It lacks full autonomy (needs feeding, no independent evolution)."
Special thanks to Slashdot readers [5]kemosabi and AleRunner for submitting the story and additional sources, including reports from [6]The New York Times and [7]The Guardian , as well as information from the [8]University of Minnesota Twin Cities .
[1] https://slashdot.org/~AleRunner
[2] https://biotic.org/research/spudcell/
[3] https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/01/science/synthetic-cell-research
[4] https://slashdot.org/submission/17348674/scientists-say-they-have-built-a-cell-from-scratch-for-the-first-time
[5] https://slashdot.org/~kemosabi
[6] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/07/01/science/spudcells-synthetic-cell.html
[7] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jul/01/synthetic-life-lab-made-dna-spudcells-scientists
[8] https://twin-cities.umn.edu/news-events/worlds-first-synthetic-cell-complete-life-cycle-could-revolutionize-biological
Self-healing materials (Score:2)
Research still valuable for applications on self-healing materials: for concrete, for sealing/gaskets, and so on.
Re: Self-healing materials (Score:2)
"sealing/gaskets"
Worked the other way in The Andromeda Strain.
Re: (Score:1)
The faux-cell does NOT self-heal. Among the feed-stocks required are ... lipids, to extend the plasma membrane when locally concentrated poly-amino acids break it .
Obligatory religious joke (Score:2)
After discovering how to clone humans, two scientists challenged God:
"We don't need you anymore," they said. "We can make life by ourselves now."
"Okay," God replied, "let's have a man-making contest."
"All right," said the scientists. "We'll do it like you did in the beginning." Then they reached down to grab a handful of dirt to begin to form a man.
Then they heard God's voice from heaven: "Hold it - get your own dirt!"
--
Credit: Not sure who created this joke, but I 8th-commandmented it from [1]here [christianitytoday.com].
[1] https://www.christianitytoday.com/pastors/preaching/sermon-illustrations/man-making-contest-with-god/
Re: Obligatory religious joke (Score:2)
Paywalled!!l
Re: (Score:1)
> Paywalled!!l
Sorry, didn't see the paywall, script blocker blocked it.
Search for the phrase "Then they reached down to grab a handful of dirt to begin to form a man" and you will find many sites with this joke. At least one of them should be without a paywall.
Going to mess up the apologists (Score:1)
The various religious apologists are going to have a field day with this having to explain it to their base. They always do because that's literally what they do for a living but the explanations are getting increasingly strained and ridiculous. If you're religious I think the best way to be religious is what that YouTube guy Dan McClellan does where he knows that everything in the Bible is bullshit and just believes what he believes.
"From scratch" (Score:4, Interesting)
...except for all of the 36 enzymes we borrowed from another living cell, yet still cannot do what that cell we borrowed it all from can do.
Oh great! (Score:3)
Now AI, via robotics, will eventually be able to construct its own meat puppets with AI-directed brain development. Soon there will be no further need for the messy process of giving birth and raising kids to adulthood - just grow adults in a vat, program them, and put them to work.
I'm sure that Thiel, Karp, Musk, and the like are jacking themselves off while contemplating this news.
Ribosomes are awesome (Score:2)
Starting with a ribosome seems a bit like cheating -- they're extremely complex, probably Turing-complete biocomputers.
If there's proof of a supreme being, or aliens seeding life here (is there a difference), it's the ribosome.
They just need to perfect it (Score:2)
You know, creating a perfect cell
This is the plot for "The Blob", isn't it? (Score:3)
This should go in the "Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should Dept." category of Slashdot.
Re: (Score:2)
What kind of baloney pansy shit is the phrase "Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should" ?? There are many useful things that can be done with it .. everything from studying how cells work to a platform for protein production. Just because you lack the IQ to see the value in something doesn't mean it has no value. We need science to advance. We need the attitude: "every experiment you can do is worth doing" (unless you know it will fuck shit up) .. forget the "just because you can doesn't mean you shou
Re: (Score:2)
I didn't get the feeling that the GP post was claiming it was valueless. I got the feeling that the concern was it would get out of the control of its creators, manage to mutate or evolve past a death in five generations, and become a threat to everything we know and love.