Complex synthetic cells bring scientists closer to artificial cellular life
Nature Podcast
podcast@nature.com
4.5 • 893 Ratings
🗓️ 14 September 2022
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
00:46 Synthetic cells made from bacterial bits
For years researchers have been interested in creating artificial cells, as they could be useful for manufacturing compounds and understanding how life works. Now a new method shows how this can be accomplished using polymer droplets that integrate components of burst bacteria. The synthesised cells are able to perform translation and transcription and have several features that resemble real cells, like a proto-nucleus and a cytoskeleton.
Research article: Xu et al.
News and Views: Life brought to artificial cells
09:33 Research Highlights
A mysterious ancient creature identified from its vomit, and the combination of immunity, diet and bacteria that could protect from metabolic disorders.
Research Highlight: The Jurassic vomit that stood the test of time
Research Highlight: A sugary diet wrecks gut microbes — and their anti-obesity efforts
11:42 Briefing Chat
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, research on the safety of three-person embryos, and the gene that gave our ancestors an edge over neanderthals.
Nature News: Embryos with DNA from three people develop normally in first safety study
Nature News: Did this gene give modern human brains their edge?
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Transcript
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| 0:36.3 | In an experiment. |
| 0:38.3 | We don't know yet. Why is Blight so far? |
| 0:40.3 | Like, it sounds so simple. |
| 0:41.3 | They had no idea. |
| 0:43.3 | But now the data's... |
| 0:44.3 | I find this not only refreshing, but at some level, astounding. |
| 0:52.3 | Nature. |
| 0:53.3 | Welcome back to the nature podcast. |
| 0:58.7 | This time, how researchers are making cells from synthetic bubbles. |
| 1:03.7 | And the latest from the nature briefing. |
| 1:06.3 | I'm Charmini Bandel. |
| 1:07.5 | And I'm Nick Petichal. |
| 1:26.2 | Welcome. Mani Bundell. And I'm Nick Perchichal. Can you make a cell, the building block of life from scratch? This is a question that researchers have been pondering for years now, not least because |
| 1:29.7 | artificial cells could offer some interesting opportunities. Firstly, to understand how life works |
| 1:37.5 | full stop, but also because these handcrafted cells could be used to perform all kinds of useful tasks, from detecting toxins |
| 1:46.9 | to producing drug molecules. But engineered cells already do that, I hear you cry, and to an |
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