Science Forum: Building a community to engineer synthetic cells and organelles from the bottom-up
- Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Germany
- University of Groningen, Netherlands
- Emory University, United States
- Cornell University, United States
- Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, Germany
- University of New Mexico, United States
- University of Minnesota, United States
- Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany
- Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
- University of New Mexico, United Kingdom
Abstract
Employing concepts from physics, chemistry and bioengineering, 'learning-by-building' approaches are becoming increasingly popular in the life sciences, especially with researchers who are attempting to engineer cellular life from scratch. The SynCell2020/21 conference brought together researchers from different disciplines to highlight progress in this field, including areas where synthetic cells are having socioeconomic and technological impact. Conference participants also identified the challenges involved in designing, manipulating and creating synthetic cells with hierarchical organization and function. A key conclusion is the need to build an international and interdisciplinary research community through enhanced communication, resource-sharing, and educational initiatives.
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Article and author information
Author details
Jacqueline A De Lora
Alisina Bazrafshan
Katarzyna P Adamala
Funding
National Science Foundation (CBET-1841170)
- Gabriel P López
Max Planck Society (Max Planck School Matter to Life)
- Joachim P Spatz
New Mexico Consortium
- Gabriel P López
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Helga Groll, eLife, United Kingdom
Publication history
- Received: September 3, 2021
- Accepted: December 17, 2021
- Accepted Manuscript published: December 20, 2021 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: December 29, 2021 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2021, Staufer et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Science Forum: Building a community to engineer synthetic cells and organelles from the bottom-up
eLife 10:e73556.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.73556
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