Building a community to engineer synthetic cells and organelles from the bottom-up

Abstract

Employing concepts from physics, chemistry and bioengineering, 'learning-by-building' approaches are becoming increasingly popular in the life sciences, especially with researchers who are attempting to engineer cellular life from scratch. The SynCell2020/21 conference brought together researchers from different disciplines to highlight progress in this field, including areas where synthetic cells are having socioeconomic and technological impact. Conference participants also identified the challenges involved in designing, manipulating and creating synthetic cells with hierarchical organization and function. A key conclusion is the need to build an international and interdisciplinary research community through enhanced communication, resource-sharing, and educational initiatives.

Keywords: SynCell; community building; molecular biophysics; none; structural biology; synthetic biology.

Figure 1.. Research on engineering synthetic cells and organelles, as represented at SynCell2020/21, covers a wide range of experimental systems including engineered cells created using standard transformation techniques, minimal cells, membrane-encapsulated synthetic cells, and all of the above with the possible inclusion of engineered membraneless organelles that produce hierarchical structures.

The common objective of the field is to engineer synthetic structures with defined complexity to mimic biological systems on multiple length scales. The creation and characterization of these experimental systems draws on a wide variety of interdisciplinary inputs, including biological cells, biochemical components (such as cell-free TXTL extracts), and control programs that encode desired behavior in a variety of formats. In addition, a broad range of computational and experimental tools are required.

Figure 1—figure supplement 1.. The International Conference on Engineering Synthetic Cells and Organelles was originally scheduled to take place in 2020 in Santa Fé in the United States with 150 participants.

The global pandemic necessitated the presentation of the program over the next year in a free, virtual format (SynCell2020/21), which greatly enhanced global participation. The world map depicts the origin and diversity of the participants, as well as the major research and educational initiatives in the field of engineering synthetic cells and organelles. Logos indicate organizations that made the conferences possible.