Overview
- The University of Minnesota team posted a manuscript on July 1 describing SpudCell, a lab‑assembled system built from nonliving chemicals that completes integrated steps of a cell cycle.
- SpudCell carries an artificial genome of about 90,000 base pairs split across several plasmids and uses purified enzymes, a lipid membrane and borrowed ribosomes to run growth and replication.
- The system typically functions for roughly five to ten generations because its ribosomes are supplied from outside and the modular plasmid genome transmits imperfectly to daughters.
- Researchers engineered a variant that produced more of a nutrient‑uptake protein and outcompeted the original strain after five generations, showing selection and short‑term heredity in a fully synthetic construct.
- The team launched Biotic to share methods and invite collaboration but the work has not passed independent peer review, and next steps include enabling ribosome biosynthesis, stabilizing genome transmission, reproducing results across labs, and addressing ethical and biosecurity oversight.