We are a cutting-edge community of synthetic cell researchers and institutions as well as world-leading companies. The Synthetic Cell Initiative, formed in 2017, intends to offer researchers, companies and policymakers a platform to combine efforts to build cells from their basic parts.
As a community we are committed to:
- Exploring how life works, by assembling cell parts from the bottom-up: building a functioning cell is one of the grand scientific and intellectual challenges of the 21st century.
- Enabling the technological application of synthetic cell research: if we can figure out how cells works, we can imitate what they do in order to create nature-based applications and contribute to a circular economy.
- Encouraging discussion on ethical and RRI aspects of synthetic cell research and technology.
Building a functioning cell is one of the grand scientific challenges of the 21st century. Imagine if we could find the answer to the question: “How does life work?” And imagine that from that knowledge, we could build a material that is 100% reusable, or that can heal itself when damaged.
Our community is composed of researchers that are world-leading chemists, physicists and biologists working on specific aspects and functions of the cell. The aim of this community is to bring this range of expertise together, allowing us to harness the power of biology in completely new ways.
Download our leaflet of the Synthetic Cell Initiative HERE.
Building a synthetic cell and the fundamental insights that come with it, will have impact beyond scientific discoveries, influencing a broad range of industries in the areas of health, food and biobased materials. This may lead to:
- Drugs that are able to target specific locations and tissues in the body
- Patient‐tailored treatments in personal medicine (a.o. for cancer)
- New applications in drug delivery systems
- Novel screening methods for antibiotics and drugs, biosensors and against antimicrobial resistance
- New, smart and environment‐friendlier materials for high‐tech industry
- New biofuels and biodegradable polymers
- Facilitation of sustainable production of safe and healthy food
- New materials for food biotechnology
- New methods for pathogen control
Pharmaceuticals, food, nutrition, self-healing materials, bioplastics and sustainable fuels are a few examples of applications that come from the research field of building synthetic cells. The interest of companies will grow even more as the reality of a synthetic cell comes closer.
The path towards a synthetic cell involves the development of numerous methods and tools with important spin-off possibilities in the form of test beds for synthetic biology applications, advanced drug delivery systems, drug-screening methods, and bionanodevices for multiplex detection of molecules.
Want to get involved with the Synthetic Cell initiative? Get in touch with us!
In recent years tremendous progress has been made in the quest for synthetic cells. The United States and Europe are currently major players in this field. Our knowledge on how to build synthetic cells from their basic parts is now at a tipping point: bringing all this knowledge together will lead to revolutionary new technologies.
Close collaboration of synthetic cell scientists with governments and industry is essential: in the next 5 – 20 years this scientific field has the potential to take on global challenges in health, food and sustainability.
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