Maerkl Sebastian J
Institute of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland.
Interface Focus. 2023 Aug 11;13(5):20230014. doi: 10.1098/rsfs.2023.0014. eCollection 2023 Oct 6.
Is it possible to build life? More specifically, is it possible to create a living synthetic cell from inanimate building blocks? This question precipitated into one of the most significant grand challenges in biochemistry and synthetic biology, with several large research consortia forming around this endeavour in Europe (European Synthetic Cell Initiative), the USA (Build-a-Cell Initiative) and Japan (Japanese Society for Cell Synthesis Research). The mature field of biochemistry, the advent of synthetic biology in the early 2000s, and the burgeoning field of cell-free synthetic biology made it feasible to tackle this grand challenge.
有可能创造生命吗?更具体地说,有没有可能从无生命的构建模块中创造出一个有生命的合成细胞?这个问题引发了生物化学和合成生物学中最重大的重大挑战之一,欧洲(欧洲合成细胞计划)、美国(构建细胞计划)和日本(日本细胞合成研究协会)围绕这一努力形成了几个大型研究联盟。生物化学的成熟领域、21世纪初合成生物学的出现以及新兴的无细胞合成生物学领域使得应对这一重大挑战成为可能。