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Engineering Life: Chemists Have Created the Functional Synthetic Cells That Act Like Real Ones (scitechdaily.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The engineering of artificial cells requires a reconfigurable cytoskeleton that can organize at distinct locations and dynamically modulate its structural and mechanical properties. This study combines peptide self-assembly with DNA programmability to realize a synthetic cytoskeleton in droplets showing that programmable peptide–DNA nanotechnology approach is a powerful platform towards the construction of functional, fully artificial cells.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-024-01509-w (open access)

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I know no microscopic biology but I imagine other natural cells encountering such a cell and recoiling from it the same way dogs who sniff a robot dog and sense nothing are legit highly freaked out 😂

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Uncanny valley but for cells.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Didn't Venter's lab do something like this already 10 ish years ago?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Not quite. I think you may be referring to their genome transplant. They used a natural cell and completely replaced the original genome with synthesized DNA. Whereas this project did not rely on existing cellular machinery.