A Chemically Defined Synthetic Cell Capable Of Growth And Replication

Authors

Gaut, N. J., Deich, C., Cash, B., Hoog, T., Engelhart, A. E., Adamala, K. P.

Abstract

Cells are the fundamental unit of life. Yet there is no natural cell for which all its life-essential functions are understood. Here we demonstrate a complete cell cycle for a synthetic cell undergoing selection, with genome replication, growth, resource acquisition via feeding, and genetically encoded division. The cell is encoded via a 90kb genome that includes functions needed for resource uptake, transcription, translation, growth, genome replication, and division. The resulting synthetic cell is sufficiently encouraging to support routinization of synthetic cell engineering workflows, and will ultimately underlie diverse applications across all of biotechnology.

Preprint server: bioRxiv
The authors list and abstract were imported from bioRxiv on 10 Jul 2026.

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