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A new spin on making minimal cells
30 / 06 / 2021
The ability of a cell to separate its own matter from its surroundings is a basic requirement for life. A team of researchers at AMOLF and Delft University of Technology have managed to create a synthetic container, or lipid vesicle, that is able to hold a range of different ...
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Christophe Danelon on constructing minimal cells that can evolve
16 / 06 / 2021evolutiongenome organisationvideo
Christophe Danelon on constructing minimal cells that can evolve How does cellular life emerge from genetic information? Christophe Danelon and his team at Delft University of Technology construct the basic modules of a cell starting from genes inside lipid vesicles. By studying how these synthetic vesicles evolve in the lab, ...
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One chemist’s solution for re-using industrial polymers: the cell-like microgel
02 / 06 / 2021cell metabolismhigh-tech cell productsmicrofluidics
Polymer chemist Julian Thiele of the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden extracts the protein-making skills from living cells and places them inside polymer microgels. His ambition: to teach the cell’s enzymes to accept synthetic substrates that can make new compounds, for example from inert industrial chemicals. “We are ...
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Researchers discover how a cell’s armour can be both flexible and strong
06 / 05 / 2021cytoskeletonmembranesseptin
Medieval knights either had thick, cumbersome armour, or they could wear less protective armour and be flexible in combat – they couldn’t have both. Cells, on the other hand, do have it all. Researchers from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Leeds University, Institut Fresnel in Marseille, and Institut ...
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Charting the blueprints for future disease treatments through cell self-organisation
06 / 05 / 2021cytoskeletonmicrotubulesself-organization
Prize-winning ERC grantees Anna Akhmanova and Marileen Dogterom combined cutting-edge research in the fields of biophysics and biology to achieve a better understanding of how cells self-organise. Their findings could have far-reaching implications for our ability to manipulate cells and treat diseases such as cancer. In recent years, researchers have ...
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Designing minimal cells with 3D bioprinting
10 / 02 / 20213D bioprintingbiophysics
PhD student Hiromune Eto, Prof. Dr. Petra Schwille and co-workers at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry managed to make cell structures change shape by 3D-printing proteins on the microscale. Hiromune Eto: “3D bioprinting gives us clues as to why cells or organelles are shaped the way they are.” The ...
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Jean-Christophe Baret on making cells that produce new materials
10 / 12 / 2020cell metabolismcircular cell-productsmicrofluidicsvideo
Jean-Christophe Baret on making cells that produce new materials What if we could get cells to produce materials for us? Microfluidics is the technology of controlling soft and biological matter at a small scale. Prof. Dr. Jean-Christophe Baret and his team at the CRPP institute in Bordeaux create chips to ...
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Tobias Erb on turning CO2 into valuable products
09 / 12 / 2020artificial photosynthesismetabolismvideo
Tobias Erb on turning CO2 into valuable products What if we could transform the harmful CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere into useful products? Plants can filter CO2 from the atmosphere very efficiently, but also very slowly. Using synthetic biology methods, Prof. Dr. Tobias Erb and his team at the Max ...
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The promise of synthetic cells
14 / 09 / 2020video
The promise of synthetic cells Charlotte Koster from the Dutch consortium BaSyC explains how building a synthetic cell from scratch can lead to biological solutions that will make industry more sustainable:
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Charting the way to minimal cells
16 / 07 / 2020origins of lifeworkshop
During the three-day virtual workshop “Reconstituting biology – charting the way to minimal cells”, researchers agreed the complexity of building cells is what makes them so interesting. A group of 35 synthetic cell researchers from three different continents got together virtually at the Lorentz workshop from 29th June till 1st ...
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